4 wheel alignment report advice

[ffvrs]

Hi there,

My car dealer has emailed me this report saying 4 wheel alignment has been done on a car I'm going to buy from them. I have not idea what its telling me and I want a second opinion before speaking to them.

Is anything out of spec and has it been adjusted according to this?

Edited by ffvrs on Tuesday 14th September 20:50

[TEKNOPUG]

Target data on the right will be the manufacturer spec with degrees of tolerance either side. The measures data will be what the settings currently are. It all looks in spec but it's a bit slack though because ideally you'd want each setting left and right to be the same value.

[SlimJim16v]

TEKNOPUG said:

It all looks in spec but it's a bit slack though because ideally you'd want each setting left and right to be the same value.

[ffvrs]

Ah well... fingers crossed it drives alright when i pick it up!

[TEKNOPUG]

ffvrs said:

Ah well... fingers crossed it drives alright when i pick it up!

It's not hugely out but I'd suggest swapping the tyres left to right every few thousand miles to avoid uneven wear.

[Scrump]

I may be reading the sheet incorrectly but I see the rear camber and front castor as out of spec.

Rear Camber should be -1degree 25 minutes +/- 45 minutes.
Right rear camber is actually 65 minutes away from ideal spec. (20 minutes outside tolerance)

Front Castor should be +4 degrees 40 minutes +/- 40 minutes.
Right front castor is almost a degree away from ideal spec (18 minutes outside tolerance)
Left front castor is 1 degree 17 minutes away from ideal spec.(37 minutes outside tolerance).

Am I misunderstanding the printout?

[Dave.]

Scrump said:

I may be reading the sheet incorrectly but I see the rear camber and front castor as out of spec.

Rear Camber should be -1degree 25 minutes +/- 45 minutes.
Right rear camber is actually 65 minutes away from ideal spec. (20 minutes outside tolerance)

Front Castor should be +4 degrees 40 minutes +/- 40 minutes.
Right front castor is almost a degree away from ideal spec (18 minutes outside tolerance)
Left front castor is 1 degree 17 minutes away from ideal spec.(37 minutes outside tolerance).

Am I misunderstanding the printout?

This is how I read it too. Although at first glance I read it the other way.

[Smint]

Front castor stands out as being a little out, which strikes one as odd bearing in mind everything else appears pretty close to tolerance.

Could that be something as simple as someone's missread or entered the wrong tyre sizes or model designation, i'm not an expert far from it but would there possibly be different castor specs between a normal high profile 16" wheel/tyre set up and one supposed to be sitting on 18" low profiles with maybe a sportier spring/damper set up, indeed if the carhad been fitted with different wheels and tyres since would that have a similar result?

Just asking the experts opinion here if such a thing could happen.

[ffvrs]

I’m glad it’s not just me confused then. I can’t even tell if this report is supposed to be telling me a conclusion before adjustment or after. The bit in bold in between target data threw me as expected that to say the new adjusted value.

[TEKNOPUG]

Scrump said:

I may be reading the sheet incorrectly but I see the rear camber and front castor as out of spec.

Rear Camber should be -1degree 25 minutes +/- 45 minutes.
Right rear camber is actually 65 minutes away from ideal spec. (20 minutes outside tolerance)

Front Castor should be +4 degrees 40 minutes +/- 40 minutes.
Right front castor is almost a degree away from ideal spec (18 minutes outside tolerance)
Left front castor is 1 degree 17 minutes away from ideal spec.(37 minutes outside tolerance).

Am I misunderstanding the printout?

yes you're right now that I am looking on my desktop - didn't display properly on my phone.

It's worth noting that on a lot of cars, the only things you can adjust are front camber and front & rear toe.