Wheel alignment -Exact science??

[ashtons99]

I took my 200 to Kwik Fit today for the tracking checked, mainly because the little yellow band on the steering wheel was 15mm to the right when I was going in a straight line and it got on my nerves!

The lad who did the alignment on a laser alignment system said according to his 200 data the settings were 0 deg toe as it was when he put it on the system it was running 5 deg (not sure whether that was pos or neg but I had noticed the outer edge of the n/s tyre was seeming to wear a bit)

Ive just been looking through the stuff on here and the consensus seems to be the cup should be set at -0 degrees 12 minutes, +/- 12 minutes.

My question is with 1 minute being 1/60th of a degree and then with a tolerance of +/- 12 minutes it seems that neutral or 0 deg toe is acceptable.

12/60ths of 1 deg seems so small as to be negligable.

So is this toe thing an exact science, does a minute or 12 really make a noticeable difference AND

Is the guy at Kwik Fit right in setting my car at 0 deg dead, toe setting

 

[Foxspeed]

i have or set mine to parallel ie 0 toe both wheels at a standstill dead straight

there is a tolerance as you say and some cars seem to need slightly different settings to make them run straight and have even tyre wear etc

with the 197 being a run of the mill standard production run car the suspension settings do have a lot of "tolerance"

what is important is that the steering rack end ball joints are on the rack the same length as this gives correct toe-out / in on turns and stops tyre scrub... and also correct rack alignment etc

if you want to be really anal about the steering set up you should have at least 1/2 tank of fuel and weight in the drivers seat to simulate a driver on board and then adjust the tracking

front wheel drive cars have a tendancy to cause the front wheels to toe-in when driving and rear wheel drive can cause the front to toe-out so the tracking is set up to counter this - you probably already know this :coffee:

 

[ken182]

Are 200 settings the same as 197 settings? I've got the 197 workshop manual so have settings for cup and non cup but not sure if they ch bed when the 200 came out.

 

[Foxspeed]

Are 200 settings the same as 197 settings? I've got the 197 workshop manual so have settings for cup and non cup but not sure if they ch bed when the 200 came out.

not sure to be honest...i do know the 200 cup suspension tyre pressures are different to 197 cup tyre pressures - so the tracking "could" be different

 

[ashtons99]

According to the sticky article on them there is no difference between the 197 and 200 but there is between the cup/none cup suspension.

I think the 0deg parallel setting will probably be fine, I think the additional toe out makes it probably turn in a little quicker but a bit more flighty in a straight line.

I've been back to kwik fit again to explain to him the 0deg +\- 12' bit but their machine is only calibrated in mm. I'm going to run it for a while, keep a close eye for tyre wear and check the handling

 

[930Tech]

According to the sticky article on them there is no difference between the 197 and 200 but there is between the cup/none cup suspension.

That makes sense as the cups are lower.