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New Tires Came Yesterday - A few questions regarding Alignment
For some reasons, my Pirelli P Zero All Season only lasted 24k miles, although they still have some meat, but very little. Ordered new tires from Tire Rack and they came very quickly - Since I don't drive crazily I decided to get Sumitomo all season for $101 each + shipping. They look good. Anyhow, it's been a while since I had any alignment.
1- I'm going to change the axle boot (torn) from the last time I did the air suspension - Should I do it before the alignment or it doesn't affect the alignment at all?
2- Does the A8L can have 4 wheels alignment or just front? And any tire stores can do it or I have to go to the Audi Specialty Shops.
Theoretically it should not effect the alignment but I would do the boot and then align her if it was me. It is a 4 wheel alignment and can be done by any competent tech.
IIRC you did your front control arms, correct? Did you align it after that? Reason being, if not aligned after the work but it was aligned sometime before the control arms or bushings were done, then when those parts are replaced a prior alignment that had essentially built in the wear can actually throw it back off again. As a practical check, look at the front inner tire wear. If it is heavily scrubbed off there, suspect either the control arms again, or that alignment wasn't corrected after prior work. If so, head to shop.
No, simple axle removal type work for CV boot change won't affect alignment. Be very careful with wheel bearing though assuming you pull axle to do the boot. If you move the car at all with the axle out and weight on it, bearing can be toast in short order. Thus, you have to think through removing the center axle bolt before you have wheel and suspension in the air for disassembly. Unless you have shop type equipment like torque multipliers and such, you are literally talking 6 and 8 foot lever arms with full body weight on the end. BTDT. I loosen bolt somewhat (but still with some torque) and then jack up without moving car at all.
Yes, any decent shop can do alignment. You often see the full rack and laser jig stuff when you walk up or drive by. A shop that has done Audis (or a variety of others) should also know that for some aspects of front alignment, only thing you can do is move the subframe. Yes, you also can (and should) do 4 wheel. On all of C5 A6, D3 A8 and Q5, at times the rear has needed some tweaking too. Especially when the wife drives it, who likes to park by Braille as I call it--with the rim scrapes to rat her out. For me, it has been the like $90 4 wheel alignment at Mike's Tire in SJ. Did it twice on the D3 over the years, and contrary to the Audi dealer lore and scare stories, didn't affect adaptive cruise alignment/reliability either. You probably don't have adaptive on your 4.2, so yet less concern there.
Technically any shop with the right equipment and skill can do an alignment. However, I've had unsatisfactory experience outside the dealership. My wife's VW after a minor accident was sent to Big-O-Tires for an alignment after the body shop was done. The car drove like crap afterwards. It pulled to the right and just felt funky. Sent it back and Big-O-Tires just swapped the LF/RF tires and said it's all good now. Got the car back and it still drove like crap. Took it to my Audi indy shop and they did a fresh alignment. The front toe was out of spec. However, the same indy shop struggles to align my RS5. They tried several times and I eventually had to take it to the dealership to get it properly aligned and only take it to the dealership now for an alignment. Just had one done last week and all is good. Part of the problem seems that in modern cars after the mechanical alignment, the steering system has to be reset properly, so that the steering angle sensor reads correctly. Hunter sells an add-on (CodeLink) to their alignment rack that handles the resetting of the steering system. My indy doesn't have that add-on, so they hook up their laptop with vagcom and reset the steering, but I suspect that isn't doing it right. I also have the optional dynamic steering which may have a different reset procedure. The RS5 may be particularly sensitive to having the steering system calibrated correctly, because so much depends on the steering angle sensor. The torque vectoring and the sport differential heavily depend on correct data from the steering angle sensor. My indy also never quite gets the steering wheel centered. They do it by eye. The dealership has some kind of a bar that locks the steering wheel in place, so it stays centered while they are making the adjustments. YMMV.
MP4, you hit right on the head, the inside wears out on both sides since I've never had the alignment after the CA replacement over a year ago. So I could haven gone another 5k miles or so on my old tires.
1. I looked at the front wheels, I don't see any linkages that can be adjusted, so how do they do alignment with little adjustment? Please enlighten me on this. How do we know if they really did the work? How can we checked if the work had been done? Can Wheel Works or Big O do the job? Pep Boys?
2. I'll try to replace the outer boot without removing the outer shaft - John posted a guy doing that a few months back. I think it's doable by removing the inner side, remove the bearing, slide the outer boot from the inside shaft out... If it can't be done then I'll remove the whole shaft. Like you said, if I have to be careful with the bearing, I rather not to touch it.
MP4, you hit right on the head, the inside wears out on both sides since I've never had the alignment after the CA replacement over a year ago. So I could haven gone another 5k miles or so on my old tires.
1. I looked at the front wheels, I don't see any linkages that can be adjusted, so how do they do alignment with little adjustment? Please enlighten me on this. How do we know if they really did the work? How can we checked if the work had been done? Can Wheel Works or Big O do the job? Pep Boys?
2. I'll try to replace the outer boot without removing the outer shaft - John posted a guy doing that a few months back. I think it's doable by removing the inner side, remove the bearing, slide the outer boot from the inside shaft out... If it can't be done then I'll remove the whole shaft. Like you said, if I have to be careful with the bearing, I rather not to touch it.
Cheers,
Louis
Given what you say about prior upper arm replacement, I would get it aligned. Audi TSB's say no alignment is needed, but I think that is poorly thought out by them and only really deals with newish Audis under warranty that have never been aligned before. One it is aligned with some wear and miles, that is inherently getting folded in to the alignment, which gets undone when parts are renewed back to an as new spec. Consider reinspecting those arms and bushings to be sure it all looks in order and tight, since you are confirming the kind of tire wear I have seen myself with worn bushings. From my own experience, I really found over time the only real way to check them thoroughly is to unbolt them at the pinch bolt to the steering knuckle and then move them around. If it has been only 1-2 years, should still be fine with typical annual miles as long as they were dealer, Lemforder or maybe a few other respected brands.
1a. Basic toe adjusts of course at the tie rods. After that it is moving the engine subframe AFAIK (since lower arms bolt to that, and the front strut to lower front arm). The upper strut mounts don't move and there are no eccentrics in suspension. The rear does have eccentrics for at least some of the adjustments; I encountered them when I had to unbolt some stuff for my old S8 sway bar swap.
1b. I always get a print out that the rack set up and computer provides. It shows before and after measurements relative to the spec, typically color coded red and green for in or out of spec. Spec is also a little different IIRC for sport vs. non sport, so be sure they are clear on that. The equipment may pull that spec nuance by inputting the VIN. The old trust me or pen and paper type stuff seems superseded for a lot of years now. Thus the modern laser racks tied to a computer guided set up the mechanic uses that I have seen as commonplace for years. To be clear, as I understand it the rack basically lifts the car so they have good access underneath. The sensor based equipment I have seen hangs off the wheels and thus is readily adapted to most any vehicle. I'm putting aside the more dealer specialized stuff that pops up for adaptive cruise alignment, forward camera's ,etc. as well as electric steering racks perhaps. Our D3's are pretty average tried and true longitudinal Audi for an experienced alignment guy.
1c. I don't use the chains so honestly don't know. You can just ask if they do AWD Audis generally, since the core set up for the modern aluminum suspension (air ride aside) is basically the same for A4, A6, A8 etc. quattro. If they either know (or don't) about moving the subframe and likewise either do or don't realize it is commonly a four wheel alignment, both are validators for experience or lack thereof. The racks don't care what vehicle goes on them in general, and I know my A8 was in the database when they did it at my little SJ local shop on their rack.
2. Yes, I remember the post about being able to do it by unbolting inside. Not sure if that would fly on a W12, but I don't doubt it on a 4.2 if someone went through it. To me the hardest part (besides the axle bolt) is getting the internal circlip that holds the axle to the CV joint to let go--and then re attach when reassembling. I pretty much have to use a vise to get it to let go or re-engage, so seems like it would be hard in the car when the joints are flopping around but you need sudden sharp pressure in line with the axle centerline. I don't recall though for the in the car method if the disassembly was from the inside joint. I always pull the axle at the outside one, especially since like 98% of the time it is that outside boot that is toast.
MP4, you hit right on the head, the inside wears out on both sides since I've never had the alignment after the CA replacement over a year ago. So I could haven gone another 5k miles or so on my old tires.
1. I looked at the front wheels, I don't see any linkages that can be adjusted, so how do they do alignment with little adjustment? Please enlighten me on this. How do we know if they really did the work? How can we checked if the work had been done? Can Wheel Works or Big O do the job? Pep Boys?
2. I'll try to replace the outer boot without removing the outer shaft - John posted a guy doing that a few months back. I think it's doable by removing the inner side, remove the bearing, slide the outer boot from the inside shaft out... If it can't be done then I'll remove the whole shaft. Like you said, if I have to be careful with the bearing, I rather not to touch it.
Cheers,
Louis
Hello Louis,
See post number 42 for the CVJ boot job.
Thanks John, I read the post last time. I wished he posted more pictures. MP4 really scares me about removing the cir clip and the inner bearing.
Anyhow, I'll have a nice video when i do it.
About the alignment, i may call the dealer and take it there, unless I talk to the guy who does the job and interview him thoroughly. LOL.
Cheers,
Louis
Thanks John, I read the post last time. I wished he posted more pictures. MP4 really scares me about removing the cir clip and the inner bearing.
Anyhow, I'll have a nice video when i do it.
About the alignment, i may call the dealer and take it there, unless I talk to the guy who does the job and interview him thoroughly. LOL.
Cheers,
Louis
Firestone can do your 4 wheel alignment. If your keeping the car long term, you can sign up for lifetime alignments for $199 and they'll do your car every 6 months 6K miles. They will printout your before and after results. I've never had any issues using them for my 2008 S8. A8/S8 are notorious for the tie rod assembly freezing up. I had my local mechanic cut off the driver's side tie rod and replace with a Beck Arrnley recently, then went in for another free alignment at Firestone.
Firestone can do your 4 wheel alignment. If your keeping the car long term, you can sign up for lifetime alignments for $199 and they'll do your car every 6 months 6K miles. They will printout your before and after results. I've never had any issues using them for my 2008 S8. A8/S8 are notorious for the tie rod assembly freezing up. I had my local mechanic cut off the driver's side tie rod and replace with a Beck Arrnley recently, then went in for another free alignment at Firestone.
11-15-2017, 10:48 AM
New Tires Came Yesterday - A few questions regarding Alignment
