Subframe adjustment advice/who's done it?

nuttinnew

nuttinnew

A2OC Donor
It's all about caster adjustment; looking at the geo sheet from last year and thinking of what I want to solve, the lh -ve caster & rh +ve caster must be causing the wander to the left. It's also got equal toe out ('within tolerance' which curiously allows more toe out than in) but that's easy to alter and would only be accentuating the problem. Looking on ELSA at camber adjustment it states 'DO NOT move the subframe front to back, only side to side', from that I am assuming the subframe can be moved front/rear on either side independently. This is the only way I can think of tweaking the caster although ELSA doesn't mention it at all.
Has anyone had any such adjustments made? If I had a ramp and geo gear I'd have a tinker myself and the couple of places I know of nearby won't be that interested in adjusting stuff if it's 'within tolerance'; I don't want it within tolerance, I want it right :)
 
There are no adjustments for caster and as you read,camber can only be equalised side to side by moving the subframe. You can't adjust the left and right side camber independently.

Cheers Spike
 
Yup, the subframe moves as a whole. My thinking, based on VW's 'do not move forward or backward' is that it can do and doing so will move the wishbones and thus alter the caster. Failing that it'll be looking at a new hub carrier and that thought doesn't appeal!
 
My missus kerbed the car quite badly a week ago and ever since the car has been pulling quite a lot to the left.

Been to check the 4-wheel alignment today and the front left (the impact wheel at the event) has negative camber outside of tolerance. The right is ok at -0.5 degree but the left is at -1deg 12'.

I haven't had a look under to see if anything is obviously bent, but two garage have had it on the ramps for tyre changing and wheel alignment and none reported anything undue (probably never looked I guess).

The front right wheel needs straightening as hit a heavy pot hole but that was there before the pulling to the left.

So has anybody done the subchasis affair? Is it a dealer job?
 
There is a dealer tool for doing it but it's nowt special, I think it's a case of loosening the subframe bolts and tweaking it side to side, should be pretty easy on a 4wheel aligner :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top