Toe in or out on lowered mk5???

[neil86]

Basically i have been getting weird noises front end since fitting suspension and wider wheels geometry was set up, i posted a pic of results on here, pritty much every one said looks ok.

Now it didnt get rid of the noise so i have been to another garage a guy off another forum who has looked at it to see if i was missing something, the only  thing he noticed was that my front wheels were toeing in!!!

He said on fwd cars usually the norm is toe out, he went on autodata and said the specs were 0 to -30clicks if i remember ritley so parallel to negative toe.

i understand why you have -ve toe as front raises under power but on lowered vehicles is this still the case.

He has put some -ve toe on it feels different heavier steering to be honest pritty good maybe bit too heavy but before with positive toe it felt lighter.

Any thoughts???

oh he isnt charging me so i am presuming he is being honest to the best of his knowledge.

[RedRobin]

.
Go to a professional workshop which is experienced with suspension setups and also get your car regularly laser aligned. The toe in or out specs answer you were given I think applies to standard car setups. Sorry but I forget which mine is without getting out my paperwork. Someone else here will know and post.

I went to VWR: One setup and it has worked well ever since.



^ On a Hunter laser rig.



^ At VWR

[neil86]

Yep it was standard figures. But that's what the hunter machine set it too with toe in, was done at a Porsche garage in Warrington.

Last night the guy changed it to toe out slightly we marked the original setting so possible to put back exactly.

Just abit confused really, some people say toe in others say toe out

[neil86]

No one?

[alackofspeed]

I've generally run FWD cars front wheels between parallel and 5 minutes toe in when static. The only reason being that a touch of toe keeps the steering joints tensioned slightly, and also seems to help wear the tyres slightly squarer (avoiding some of the classic inner edge wear) than mild toe-out or parallel.

I've had a slight play with the GTI to see how the feel is affected with a hint of toe out, but reverted to static toe-in as there wasn't much difference to the feel / noise, but I could feel a slight feathering on the inside edges occuring.

[neil86]

I actually like the feel of toe out which has surprised me it feels better in the corners. The reason I asked this is I was unsure what the correct o setting was whether toe in or out. I was led to believe all fwd wants se toe out rwd toe in.

Also I didn't want to damage anything as the steering has defiantly got heavier.

[tony_danza]

Toe out is better, although it makes for a lively car at high speed (read: silly speed)

Most Alfas come with loads of toe out as standard, which is why everyone raves about their handling. It's also why they ruin tyres and wishbone bushes.

Everything has its ups and downs 

[neil86]

Thanks for that it felt better with the toe out just heavier so didn't wana damage components.

Anybody know what factory set up is

[vRSAlex]

Toe out is better for handling, but you will wear the inner edges of the tyres out very fast.

The correct spec for the front toe is 0.05 mins toe in either side.

[neil86]

Thanks for that I actually rang up a garage and to my suprise they gave me the specs required drury lane garage in Manchester. That's the 1st garage willing to give me loads of info over the phone the rest wanted me to go down and pay for alignment.

[neil86]

Oh and they gave the same figures as above.

[stevw1]

Thanks for that I actually rang up a garage and to my suprise they gave me the specs required drury lane garage in Manchester. That's the 1st garage willing to give me loads of info over the phone the rest wanted me to go down and pay for alignment.

AHEMMM !!!

Did i not tell you about these guys at Drury Lane Neil ?? 

They are top guys and wont bull$hIzz you. 

[neil86]

My alignments all within the limits where I went I just wanted to see what other garages were using, as some toe out has been tried to see if it got rid of my tyre noise from front.

I will be going back to original tomorrow.

Have to say toe out felt good on the bends though.