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trackrod end fully wound on traking still out


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hi i was wondering if anyone can help me.. i had a little accedent afew weeks back where i hit a puddle and it pulled me towards the kurb and my car mounted the kurb.. the care drove exactly the same afterwards but id been meaning to do it for a while before so thaught i would get the traking doen.. when i got it done they said it wouldnt be 100% accurate because my car was lowered (about 40-60mm on springs) but i already knew this due to having previous lowered cars... when they traked it the ns track rod end wound all the way on but still didnt line up! so they blamed it on the lowered car... i was planning on coilies anyway so i bought my coilies and i changed the rideheight all tthe way up and when tracked i still had the same problem... i then lowered the car down because it didnt pull that much... and put my new wheels on where it drove alright pulled a little but jus what you would expect from a lowered car... 1000 miles later my brand new tyres are now bald on the inside and outside edges and about 3mm over the rest of the tyre... i had a look to see if i cold see anything bent or anything and icouldnt... i found a bolt that attaches subframe to chasis that wobbles around but you cant loosen it or tighten it or even pull it out! but there seems to be no play in this so i dont know if this is causing it! i was just wondering if anyone had any ideas as i dont just want to go randomly guessing and throwing lodsa money into the car..cheers...

this is the bolt in question aswell

2012-10-28125137.jpg

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Bald on both edges would generally mean under inflation. Toe in give wear on outside edge, toe out will give it on inside edge.

There is no reason why with lowering springs or coilovers you can't get 100% tracking. When you hit a pot hole the only reason your tracking goes out is if something is bent. I would check you stut and wish bone as these are designed to bend first, mainly wishbone.

As long as the camber geo is set up correctly to spec you can adjust the toe yourself. If you're having to adjust the track end all the way it sounds like you will be causing toe in, something (wishbone, tre, strut, knuckle) is bent or the tracking equipment is not correctly calibrated.

The subframe bolt should be tight. I would take pressure off the subframe with a jack to see if you can tighten it. Other things will always bend before the SF though.

You can check your tracking yourself using a method similar to this which shows you very visually which way the wheels are pointing and which adjustments you need to make. http://www.elantragt....com/id554.html This also enables you to make adjustment for bent components. Also make sure you have the correct front camber using a camber guage if you have access to one.

Gray

Edited by grazo22
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hi i was wondering if anyone can help me.. i had a little accedent afew weeks back where i hit a puddle and it pulled me towards the kurb and my car mounted the kurb.. the care drove exactly the same afterwards but id been meaning to do it for a while before so thaught i would get the traking doen.. when i got it done they said it wouldnt be 100% accurate because my car was lowered (about 40-60mm on springs) but i already knew this due to having previous lowered cars... when they traked it the ns track rod end wound all the way on but still didnt line up! so they blamed it on the lowered car... i was planning on coilies anyway so i bought my coilies and i changed the rideheight all tthe way up and when tracked i still had the same problem... i then lowered the car down because it didnt pull that much... and put my new wheels on where it drove alright pulled a little but jus what you would expect from a lowered car... 1000 miles later my brand new tyres are now bald on the inside and outside edges and about 3mm over the rest of the tyre... i had a look to see if i cold see anything bent or anything and icouldnt... i found a bolt that attaches subframe to chasis that wobbles around but you cant loosen it or tighten it or even pull it out! but there seems to be no play in this so i dont know if this is causing it! i was just wondering if anyone had any ideas as i dont just want to go randomly guessing and throwing lodsa money into the car..cheers...

this is the bolt in question aswell

As above, you're not following so you might not have seen my reply otherwise

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Cheers grazo... well struts fine cos ive got coilies now so thats not it but ill have a look trying to tighten the subframe and see if i can see anything abnormal with wishbones... the tre and the rack end both seem.fine aswell

Problem with suspension components bending is that you normally can't see by eye. A difference of 2 mm adjustment will throw it out completely and ruin your tyres. I would take to to your local accident repair and get them to do a geo. That'll tell you exactly what's screwed if you can't do the stringing method.

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Geometry check.

All good advice, above. I'll add my 2 pence;

I fitted new ball joints to my GTI after i'd changed the clutch. They were a non-genuine part form GSF.

After i'd built up the hubs, the tracking was now MILES out, so i tried to track it up using pieces of string.

I ran out of adjustment and the wheels were both pointing in. Turned out that the GTI runs a different ball joint to the non-gti, which in turn gave me a load of toe-in.

Could it be maybe that you've fitted an incorrect suspension component somewhere, such as ball joint or track rod end, or maybe it's been like this since you had it, and the crash has just made you more conscious of it?

Don't listen to what the garage are telling you about lowered cars. Just cus you've lowered it doesn't mean the wheels can't both point forward and in the same direction! My guess is that you took it to Kwik-fit or somewhere like that, where they'll fob you off with any old story. They might just not have been able to get the track rod arm loose, so condemned it and told you it was a fault with the car...

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Take it to a decent independent garage, or one that specialises in modded cars. I got fobbed off as they new automatic laser systems couldnt get between my tyre and arch. So i took it somewhere which used the old system that clips onto the wheel, perfect now!

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