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[GLarsen]

Hi all, new to the board and I have a question

I have a 99 Omega Wagon DTi that is eating up the inner edges of the tyres like they're free or something.

I had the car at a garage about 18 months ago for a wheel alignment after we changed the shocks and wishbones, nothing wrong with the wishbones but it was easier to replace them as a unit than to replace bushings and ball joints.

I can't remember the exact camber numbers off the top of head but they were fairly close left to right and closer to the maximum camber allowed than the minimum but were told it couldn't be adjusted and since they were within the tolerances there wasn't much they could do about it

Now from doing a bit of reading and searching on this forum I understand that this isn't necessarily so, am I to understand that the procedure described here

"Replicating original camber settings" in the "Maintenance Guides" section
(As a new member I'm not yet allowed to post a link, sorry)

is what I should be telling my local garage to do ?

And no there are no WIM shops local to me here in Norway that I am aware of  8-), so I'll need to dig out the tech info on my own

If the actual camber adjustment procedure itself is described better elsewhere I'd appreciate a pointer, if not I'll read up on that article, study the suspension on my car and then tell the garage how to do it

Right now my 17" wheels are in storage because of this and I've resorted to driving on "cheap to replace" tyres that will fit on the original steel wheels as it seems the wear is less pronounced on narrower wheels

Thx in advance

[feeutfo]

Over view here. http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/YaBB.pl?num=1283124735

Camber setting is 1.10 for stock set up. Nearer 1.20 for sports suspension. The problem you have is, the car needs full geometric setup, wheel alignment is just pissing in the wind.

Seek out full geo only, includes trail( subfrane position) camber(adjusted via the two bolts on the bottom of the shock body) and toe(tracking, via tarck rods) on the front.

Rear toe and camber are set via rear track rod compromise.

Fault find any steering or suspension faults, rectify, set up full geo, fit new tyres

[Martin_1962]

Hi all, new to the board and I have a question

I have a 99 Omega Wagon DTi that is eating up the inner edges of the tyres like they're free or something.

I had the car at a garage about 18 months ago for a wheel alignment after we changed the shocks and wishbones, nothing wrong with the wishbones but it was easier to replace them as a unit than to replace bushings and ball joints.

I can't remember the exact camber numbers off the top of head but they were fairly close left to right and closer to the maximum camber allowed than the minimum but were told it couldn't be adjusted and since they were within the tolerances there wasn't much they could do about it

Now from doing a bit of reading and searching on this forum I understand that this isn't necessarily so, am I to understand that the procedure described here

"Replicating original camber settings" in the "Maintenance Guides" section
(As a new member I'm not yet allowed to post a link, sorry)

is what I should be telling my local garage to do ?

And no there are no WIM shops local to me here in Norway that I am aware of  8-), so I'll need to dig out the tech info on my own

If the actual camber adjustment procedure itself is described better elsewhere I'd appreciate a pointer, if not I'll read up on that article, study the suspension on my car and then tell the garage how to do it

Right now my 17" wheels are in storage because of this and I've resorted to driving on "cheap to replace" tyres that will fit on the original steel wheels as it seems the wear is less pronounced on narrower wheels

Thx in advance

People have had their cars shipped from the middle east for allignment by Tony.

[Osprey]

I would agree that there is no substitute for a full geometry adjustment such as WIM does – there must be a place somewhere near you. 

However, as a temporary DIY job, you can get surprisingly close to the correct camber using one of these:
http://www.axminster.co.uk/gemred-digital-bevel-box-prod564900/

This measures relative angles to 0.1 degrees and I have found I can use one to get within 0.2 degrees of the correct camber as subsequently measured by WIM. 

This is the technique I used:

• Cut a straight piece of wood to the correct length to span the wheel rim to rim without touching the tyre – a little over 17 inches for me. 
• Park the car on the flattest place you can find with the steering straight ahead. 
• Set the bevel box to zero on the horizontal – on the piece of wood set on the ground between the front wheels. 

Place the wood vertically against each front wheel and use the bevel box against the wood to measure the current camber angle. 

• Jack the car up, adjust the camber a little in the correct direction (guesswork!) and lower the car again.
• Roll the car back and forth to settle the suspension.
• Re-check the camber and repeat the adjustment as required. 

Adjusting the camber is as described in the maintenance guide – jack up and slacken the relevant bolts just enough to allow the top of the wheel to be tapped in or out, then nip them up again while you lower and re-check.  Then torque up when you are finished. 

WIM seems to use -1°10' +/-0°45' but, particularly with a comfortably bedded in car such as ours, I get the impression they don’t like to go too far into the upper half of the range i.e. not leaning in too far. 

Adjusting the camber will throw out your toe-in so that will have to be done afterwards.

As you can see, all this is quite a faff around so I would still recommend finding a place that can do the geometry setup properly.  The only reason I bothered was that my tyres were wearing at an alarming rate and I had a lot of miles to do before I could get to WIM. 

HTH

[mrgreen]

i had mine done today i found a place in salzburg which is a chain with all the correct machinery but they were not interested a bit in what i had to tell them about set up and set it to the book so i will have to have a look at the readout and see what they set it to and keep an eye on my tyres but atleast it drives straight now!

[GLarsen]

I would agree that there is no substitute for a full geometry adjustment such as WIM does [ch8211] there must be a place somewhere near you. 

Oh there are places around here that can do a full geometry setup, it's just that they insist that my car is well within factory specs and that there's no camber adjustment on the Omega .... I can sort of see their position as they don't want the hassle of a job that is not done according to their manual. I'm just figuring if I arm myself with as much info as possible I'll be able to persuade one of them to the job according to the specs I provide using the technique described here

Thx to everyone who've pitched in and thx for that link, I may actually just buy one of those Bevel Boxes no matter what as I also have an old Manta project car that I want to set up according to my own specs

[feeutfo]

Find somewhere else IMO. Factory spec is useless, far too wide an error. Camber can be "in the green" and still destroy tyres.

[Chris_H]

Are you happy with the toe-in?  That can cause symmetrical edge wear on the two fronts.

Also, just dropping the front wheels onto the ground is not a good way to set camber.  They need to be rotated forwards with the full weight on the car IMHO.  And that's where incorrect toe-in can affect the reading.  Too much toe-in and the camber will read too positive after running forwards, or too negative after running backwards.

Frankly, I guessed the camber when I did the wishbones on mine (although I made attempts to see the error by laying long planks of wood against the wheels)  and when I finally got to a place where they had alignment kit, it read spot-on.  Not ideal I know, especially if you don't like calculating geometry for fun.

[GLarsen]

Are you happy with the toe-in?  That can cause symmetrical edge wear on the two fronts.

Again, it's been 18 months and we've tinkered about a bit since then but it tracks straight and there's no noticeable tramlining so one would assume that it's "thereabouts" at least

Maybe a combination of a little too much camber and not quite enough toe -in, neither a big problem on it's own but together they're playing havoc with my nice 17's ?

I guess I'm gonna find out before too long  8-)

Forgot to mention, ordered one of those Bevel Boxes last night, thx again for that tip

[Marc Taylor]

Out of curiousity what would happen if set to 0 on both sides as mine is at the mo?

[feeutfo]

 an unresponsive turn in leading to "50 pencing", understeer in corners and tyre wear.

Thing is to get the set up correct first time on new tyres as much as possible to avoid any handling oddness.

[GLarsen]

Today I finally had the time to put the Bevel Box I ordered to good use. I'm fortunate enough to have a workshop with a lift available and through a bit of trial and error both sides are now at .9 degrees neg camber

Yes I know it should have a bit more neg camber but my tires are already a bit worn on the inside so I decided to go a little too far in the other direction

LF was set to -2.5 and RF was at -1.6, how on earth this car was tracking straight is beyond me. I'm guessing the guys who installed my Koni shocks about a year ago also believed the camber on the Omega was permanently fixed and didn't bother to check at all afterwards

I did a mistake in assuming that both wheels would travel in a similar arc from fully unloaded to normally loaded suspension and set both sides to the same camber setting while it was on the lift and so I had to redo the LF three times to get it identical to the RF but at least I'm there !

Thx again for the info about the correct settings, I will do some fine tuning to get the camber closer to what was suggested here once I get some miles on the tires and see what the wear looks like now, as well as the suggestion about the digital bevel box, that thing will come in handy

[feeutfo]

I'm not sure what equipment you have there, but I reckon there's a good chance it's not accurate enough to negate the need for full geometric set up.

The guides here are merely designed to get it as close as possible where possible until full set up is complete. It's possible to get it close sure enough. But, like setting the cam belt timing without a locking kit, it is NOT possible to get it correct throughout.

There's more to it than just front camber and toe.

You have it set better than before, but no matter, if camber is altered toe WILL be wrong. That too can be adjusted by eye and improved upon, but not spot on! Rear... No idea where to start with that, but that needs setting too via rear track rods pr the car may well still be wayward.

In short, save yourself the agro and get it set correctly on a hawk eye or similar. Preferably before new tyres are fitted or they'll wear oddly and affect handling for the rest if their life.

[GLarsen]

I'm not sure what equipment you have there, but I reckon there's a good chance it's not accurate enough to negate the need for full geometric set up.

Oh I will have a full setup done before fitting new tires, however cash is a bit sparse at the moment and since my tires are worn uneven already .... at least I'm in the ball park now thx to you guys

[feeutfo]

I'm not sure what equipment you have there, but I reckon there's a good chance it's not accurate enough to negate the need for full geometric set up.

Oh I will have a full setup done before fitting new tires, however cash is a bit sparse at the moment and since my tires are worn uneven already .... at least I'm in the ball park now thx to you guys