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[petec]

Having looked through all posts I can find on issue I just want to "sanity check" my thoughts before taking any action.

2003 facelift 2.6 estate, origonal wheels suspension, tyre sizes etc. ride height 68.5mm rear, 68mm front. 107k miles, shocks not leaking and functional.

I had front tyres replaced just before Christmas, fairly even wear, nothing out of the ordinary. car passed Mot shortly after so presumably joints and bushes within pass spec and car only been about 3000 miles since.
I had front wheels off last weekend to replace pads and realised the (quite new) tyres are quite badly worn toward the outer edge (outer third, both tyres the same) although there is no feathering of the rubber.

My thought is that the tyre wear on the outer edge is generally caused by too much toe-in (and here is where anyones expertise may correct me) and the immediate solution is to get 2 wheel basic tracking adjusted.

I know there are a number of adjustments to geometry on Omega and full 4 wheel geometry check by WIM would be ideal ( will probably do that after changing springs and checking all bushes bit later on) but just need to stop further uneven tyre wear at present without lot of travel and expense.

my assumptions, rightly or wrongly are:
1 wear in track rod ends etc is likely to result in dynamic toe -out rather than toe-in so is unlikely to be cause of problem
2 wishbone bush wear is probably likely to cause geometry probs, shimmy under braking, rapid but even tyre wear, noise etc......unlikely to cause this problem though.
3 too much negative camber will cause wear in the tyre inside edge rather than outside edge  so this is not likely to be problem.
4 wrong rear alignment is likely to cause uneven rear tyre wear rather than front so not the problem either.
5 wear in steering box, idlers etc will show up as vague steering, not specific tyre wear.
6 any damage (bending) of track rods, linkages etc would effectively shorten them and cause toe-out...not this problem.

Has anyone had tyre outer edge wear problems caused by suspension or steering part wear that I have not thought of and does it make sense to just get tracking (toe-in) checked
thanks

[05omegav6]

From bitter experience 1,2,3and 4 are all wrong assumptions

Full geo set up should help pin point the problem both wishbone bushes are the first place to look, followed by track rod ends

Rear set up needs to be spot on else the car won't track true which only adds to the confusion at the front...

Ps wishbone bushes last from one week/1000miles upto 130k depending on make. Poly bush the fronts and use genuine for thr rears, only £20 each

[petec]

thanx for feedback, not had this problem before with omega so assumptions based on experience with other vehicles. Think I will get it up in the air this weekend and thoroughly check over all the bushes, linkages and track rod ends. I didn't just want to book car in for geometry check as nearest place is a fair distance away and it would be a shame if it was abortive due to bushes etc being worn and I am debating whether to replace the front struts which would mean getting all done again..they work and don't leak but front feels a touch more bouncy than it used to (hard to get an objective measurement of damping without something to compare to

[05omegav6]

My shocks lasted 120k rears and 150k fronts

Two set ups are cheaper than doing a set of tyres every week 

If you re bush current arms the geometry should stay the same

[feeutfo]

You'll find most of the answers in the FAQ and maintanance sections.

Although I'd suspect a toe setting issue. But follow the guides and faq's before set up and new tyres and you should get the desired result, via full geo at wheels in motion

[TheBoy]

Worth checking for play and worn components, then get a full geo setup done - eg, WIM, or Marks_DTM recommends a place in Loughborough IIRC??

[VXL V6]

Worth checking for play and worn components, then get a full geo setup done - eg, WIM, or Marks_DTM recommends a place in Loughborough IIRC??

Yes, I find Fleet Fit in Loughborough are well versed in the Omega's requirements as per Marks recommendation, however, unless everything in the suspension and steering chain is in good order there is little point in any Geo.

[feeutfo]

Re geometric set up.

There are numerous company's that have the rig and kit to set up an omega.

The problem is the vauxhaull settings for this car. The tolerances are way too wide, meaning if they "just" follow factory spec, tyre wear and poor handling can still occur.

Through experience we have found a few company's that use tight enough settings to make it worth while.
Wheels in motion in Chesham (although they also franchises around the uk)
Fleet fit loghborough
Nigel Laings Bolton
.....iirc.
But....faults must be rectified first.

Of 13 cars at Wheels in motion open day, only two cars had suspension and steering components good enough to set up the car with. Mostly wishbone bushes failed. ALL had a valid MOT. So never assume an mot is a good basic standard. Failed bushes are hard to spot visually, even to the experienced eye.
 Most cars of this age will have failed bushes by now though. But having said all that, steering idler fault might be more related to your issue.
 Stick with it though, most owners find a marked improvement in handling having gone through the process.

[petec]

hi all thanks for the advice so far and thanks for the info about Fleet Fit, its only 10 miles away and it seems that with omega geometry recommendation is everything.

I gave the front setup a good once over last weekend and found the front offside wishbone bush was quite soft, putting a pry bar between arm and chassis you could flex the bush 5mm and looking closely there are clearly some splits starting in the rubber, all the other bushes seem ok but I have ordered a new pair of Lemforder arms from allgermanparts. I was debating whether to cut out old front bushes and fit poly replacments as it seems they can be fitted without fly press but decided as rear bushes, although ok, have done 107k I might as well replace the lot.

Another question which I touched on in my first post is front shocks, they dont leak and they do work but front damping seems a little less effective than it used to be (unless my memory is failing or the beer around here is getting stronger).

pressing hard on front wing, either side, and releasing, the front comes up, rebounds once a little then comes back up (comes up, down a bit then back up). From memory I don't recall there being any occilation after pressing down on suspension when i got it, it just returned to normal ride height. If anyone could try this and let me know I would be greatful. This brings me on to last thing, if struts are a bit tired (feedback please) then may as well change them now before getting geometry done. then has anyone used the Sachs replacments offered by allgermanparts (£66.01 each) or is there a better alternative?  Ta.

[Andy H]

I fitted new Lemforder wishbones last year. Initially there was a marked improvement & a reduction in tramlining (but not as much as I had hoped).

I've done about 20,000 miles since and the bushes are shagged. Show the car a lorry rut or a raised white line & it tugs like a badly trained dog on a lead.

Going to fit poly (front) and genuine (rear) bushes to my old wishbones this time and see if they last any longer.

[petec]

Andy H  doesn't sound too good although the lemforder parts have a 2 year warranty so I would have thought you could get them replaced foc. Is the wear likely to be down to enthusiastic driving or faulty materials do you think, if its the former then poly bushes are likely to withstand the stresses better. Not wishing to tell grannies how to suck eggs etc but were the front bushes torqued up with wheels on the ground and front seats occupied to minimise twisting of the bushes?.. ..just a thought cus mine has done 107k miles on the original standard bushes and one of them is only just starting to fail, although I know it has had a very easy life

[Andy H]

The car passed its MOT a few weeks ago (with an advisory about the inner edges of the front tyres showing wear ) so the bushes are not that bad. The problem is that I have owned Omegas for long enough now to know that they can be much better.

My last Omega had 205R16 tyres and I don't think they put as much load on the suspension as the 235/45R17 tyres on my present car

I was warned (on this forum) that the Lemforder bushes might be a little soft and I would have liked to have fitted polybushes at the time but I couldn't justify pressing the bushes out of the new Lemforder wishbones without getting some use out of them first..........

I am not too disappointed. I kept the old wishbones so I can fit new bushes to them first & the car will only be off the road for a morning 

[petec]

Well, finally got my suspension and steering sorted. New Lemforder control arms, new uprated rear springs (one was broken and we will be towing caravan), new Sachs struts and shocks. took front and rear track rods off and applied liberal amounts of heat and copperslip to free them   and just been to Fleet Fit in Loughborough to get geometry set up. Must say they are very helpful and went to quite a lot of trouble to get settings right. They used -1degree 10' for front camber which should stop the standard inner edge tyre wear.

For anyone with an iphone there is a useful app which could help set rough camber prior to proper job. From the service records I don't think the front struts had ever been disturbed so initially I used a variation on the socket method to preserve the original settings. I found a bolt, the head of which which would not quite pass between the strut and the edge of the wheel rim, then filed one flat so it would just pass, to make a go,no-go guage. I then used this to replicate the settings on the new struts. In addition...this is the iphone bit!, I measured the camber angle with the car on the ground so I could confirm it was about the same once the new struts were on.
 
I used an app called ihandy carpenter which mimics a plumb bob and gives a digital readout to 0.1 of a degree. I cut down a strip of extruded alloy to the diameter of a wheel, held it vertically against a front wheel with the car on level ground then hold the side of the phone to it. the readings I got were -1.9 deg both sides.  The initial readings at Fleetfit showed N/S -1deg 59' and O/S -2 deg 2'  The iphone had indicated -1.9 deg (which equates to  -1 deg 54' as 0.1deg =6') so although not perfect and not able to resolve the angle to nearest minute, it was within 8' of the actual angle. not a bad tool to get the settings approx correct prior to proper geometry check.

Off on Hols next week so I'll see how it behaves trundling round the Scottish Highlands.......do we need passports to go over the border yet