Alignment - subframe

[Panthera]

I had my 4 wheel alignment done last month at a specialist VAG tuner who uses Hunter wheel aligner and although they got the rear alignment bang on, the front right they could not especially the camber and caster. Which they said to amend this the sub frame would have to be moved. I left it at that and I Paid my bill and left.

Now since driving it with varying people in the car, the car still pulls to the left and to drive in a straight line I have to turn the wheel to the right which is annoying and it never did this with previous alignments.

Both of these 4wa have been done at the same place, so some consistency and the car is a 2007 GTi with Bilstein B12 and Powerflex bushes.

Done in 2016

Previous wheel alignment by Darren Hughes, on Flickr

Done in Oct 2017

Current wheel alignment by Darren Hughes, on Flickr

Has anyone had their subframe moved or have you had fitted adjustable camber bolts, bushes to get the alignment bang on like it was when the car was new?

[Kai96]

I had an alignment done today and he did get undr the car and move the subframe as it was seized with rust (the bolts wouldnt move at all had to get a blowtorch on it) front and back he had to loosen it up and move it back to the correct position.

So let him do it the car feels loads better now. 10x  better it's made a huge difference.

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[pudding]

It's pretty common for the front right to be out, even on new cars.  Probably a good time to fit a subframe locking bolt set (TyrolSport's is the best by miles) and adjustable ball joints to get it all spot on.   There isn't always enough movement in the subframe to get it spot on, and even if there was, it would move off spec again due to the stupidly over sized bolt holes in the frame.  It will always move.  Honda boys have the same problem.

[Panthera]

Thank you for that extra info.  I was kind of thinking that - 'is there enough space to move the sub frame to make the alignment spot on'.  I did not really want to go down the route of adjustable ball joints or the power flex camber wishbone bushes. 

It's pretty common for the front right to be out, even on new cars.  Probably a good time to fit a subframe locking bolt set (TyrolSport's is the best by miles) and adjustable ball joints to get it all spot on.   There isn't always enough movement in the subframe to get it spot on, and even if there was, it would move off spec again due to the stupidly over sized bolt holes in the frame.  It will always move.  Honda boys have the same problem.

[pudding]

Agree with you on the Powerflex.   Adding camber via a flexible mounting doesn't seem like a good idea to me.   The SuperPro ball joints are sound though, and a much better way to do it.   The only other way is with adjustable top mounts, but good ones are wallet breaking!

I would suggest the Tyrolsport kit in the first instance and see if that evens out your camber.  It certainly won't do any harm locking the subframe in place anyway!