4 wheel alignment for Golf

gooner99

My car, golf mk5 1.4 is eating tyres on the inside front and rear. So I need to get 4 wheel alignment sorted. Is it best to ensure they do laser alignment?

Also I'm in the Donegal area and have read though this thread. Can anyone recommend somewhere that does a good 4 wheel alignment at the minute?

Nissan doctor

gooner99 wrote: »

My car, golf mk5 1.4 is eating tyres on the inside front and rear. So I need to get 4 wheel alignment sorted. Is it best to ensure they do laser alignment?

Also I'm in the Donegal area and have read though this thread. Can anyone recommend somewhere that does a good 4 wheel alignment at the minute?

Laser alignment does not equal 4 wheel alignment. Many people seem to be of the opinion that 'laser' machines are the best for wheel alignment. Even the most basic of tracking gauges can use lasers.

Laser machines/gauges are also old technology. Infared camera alignment rigs are the latest technology that most modern garages would use.

bbsrs

gooner99 wrote: »

My car, golf mk5 1.4 is eating tyres on the inside front and rear. So I need to get 4 wheel alignment sorted. Is it best to ensure they do laser alignment?

Also I'm in the Donegal area and have read though this thread. Can anyone recommend somewhere that does a good 4 wheel alignment at the minute?

Have you standard wheels on the golf?
If they're bigger than standard they'll be more inclined to wear on the insides.
Also is the rear wheel alignment adjustable on mk5 golfs? I know on mk4's it wasn't and wear on the inside of rear tyres usually meant badly worn bushings. just a few things to check before you get the alignment done .

gooner99

bbsrs wrote: »

Have you standard wheels on the golf?
If they're bigger than standard they'll be more inclined to wear on the insides.
Also is the rear wheel alignment adjustable on mk5 golfs? I know on mk4's it wasn't and wear on the inside of rear tyres usually meant badly worn bushings. just a few things to check before you get the alignment done .

Thanks for the reply

Wheels are standard 15" steels that came as new.

Not sure whether 4 wheel alignment is possible or not on a mk5 Golf, anyone know?

Take our point on the bushings. I took the rims off with summers on them last winter and put new rims (same size and spec/number,came off an octavia) with winters on. I marked the tyres as to where they came from and asked the garage to put them on the same positions after the winter when it came time to switch back as they were pretty new tyres. TBH it's a few months since this was done and I can't remember if I checked to ensure they did as I asked. But from memory none of the tyres at that time had bad inner wear and what I saw Yesterday was terrible inner wear on the front and pretty bad on the back. So it is a possibility that they did move from the front. I've just put on the other rims with brand new goodyear winters and want to avoid the same wear pattern.

Nissan doctor

The MK5 has adjustment for both front and rear wheels.

gooner99

Nissan doctor wrote: »

The MK5 has adjustment for both front and rear wheels.

Thanks for that Nissan Doctor. From your experience is the culprit likely to be the alignment or something else like bushings or another cause?

gooner99

On a recommendation from a friend I went to Advanced Pitstop in Letterkenny.He told me he had a few cars aligned there and his friend brings his high performance car there too. He told me they had 4 wheel computerised alignment and more importantly they knew how to use it. So I brought it in and the guy in charge checked her out and aligned all 4 wheels and all were out.he aligned them, but couldn't do a full job on the back right, as the bushing was worn. He told once I got it replaced to bring it back and he would check it again. So will probably replace both rear bushings. All on all a good experience,very good to deal with.

Mar4ix

gooner99 wrote: »

On a recommendation from a friend I went to Advanced Pitstop in Letterkenny.He told me he had a few cars aligned there and his friend brings his high performance car there too. He told me they had 4 wheel computerised alignment and more importantly they knew how to use it. So I brought it in and the guy in charge checked her out and aligned all 4 wheels and all were out.he aligned them, but couldn't do a full job on the back right, as the bushing was worn. He told once I got it replaced to bring it back and he would check it again. So will probably replace both rear bushings. All on all a good experience,very good to deal with.

also, if tires are worn one side, i would suggest change tires also. , even if youll get align wheels, them wont be properly aligned, because your tires are worn on one side. when youll get that bushing fixed, change all tires, and then go to do alignment.

gooner99

Mar4ix wrote: »

also, if tires are worn one side, i would suggest change tires also. , even if youll get align wheels, them wont be properly aligned, because your tires are worn on one side. when youll get that bushing fixed, change all tires, and then go to do alignment.

We noticed the problem when changing the summer tyres and rims to winter tyres and rims. There are now brand new winters on the car. So hopefully after the bushings are replaced and it's rechecked,then it should be in good shape. Another thing I've noticed is that my abs and esp light was staying on sometimes lately. Was pretty sure it was the battery as it was a wee bit hard to start and it was the original battery which was 8 years old. So changed it, but the abs was still coming on at times. So had plans to get it checked out, but since the new tyres have gone on and the wheels aligned, it's gone. maybe the tyres worn on the inside and the alignment off was the cause.could that be?

Mar4ix

has to be conected to diagnostic system then. Could be faulty abs sensor.

gooner99

Mar4ix wrote: »

has to be conected to diagnostic system then. Could be faulty abs sensor.

yes need to get it checked anyway.i've read quite a bit on the net and it's a common problem on mk5 golfs.in fact vw in the uk are covering some/all of the costs following a consumer program on the bbc if the problem is found to be serious.don't believe there is such a measure here.but from reading loads of posts, the cause could be anything from a weak battery to faulty sensors, to the abs unit.but another cause is dirty sensors. so in my case the battery
didn't solve it, but changing the tyres and sorting the alignment did.so was the alignment the problem or maybe the sensor got cleaned by chance when changing the wheels!