I appreciate your thoughts. Not sure if I want to give them another go though.

I thought a Hunter alignment would be as good as the previous one I'd had at Wheels in Motion - sadly not!

I have to say I agree with Dunc and say its not the quickest forum I've used, however it does seem very Italian in the way it works....

People do seem to get easily offended by throw away comments too

Hi Dunc,

Had the cambelt done today, and fluids changed and cooling system flushed £185 plus vat.

Hope that helps for guide proces

dunc69 said:

I thought a Hunter alignment would be as good as the previous one I'd had at Wheels in Motion - sadly not!

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Ah! That explains a lot!
Tony Bones at Wheels in Motion is a geometry god.
I do a 150mile round trip to get my MX5's done by him
(Admittedly WIM sponsor my track car as well!)

Just had my belt, tensioner and pump done at Crown, Leekbrook (can recommend if you're in need of a good independent) for £281.02.

Cost a little more as David (the mechanic) had trouble sourcing the proper water pump - he gave the correct registration, VIN, engine code etc to his usual suppliers but they all had a version with a much shallower impeller and no gasket - the right one from FIAT (new and the one off the engine) has a much deeper impeller, and comes with a small tube of an rtv sealant - hence the extra cost from sourcing a third party part.

Something to watch out for if you're having someone else change the pump for you

Well done with your cheap deals boys!

Have had the tracking sorted by the guys who did the pump, belt and service. My small buddy now drives perfectly straight and true!

They also fitted a new RNS bump stop as the old one had worked loose and was sitting horizontally within the spring.

All finally sorted!

You know how it is guys - once all is fixed, you fall in love with the car all over again!

Can anyone recommend a trusted service specialist in the Midlands?

I take my Alfa to Simply Alfas in Stourbridge, and they are excellent, but I'd heard good things abour Motor-Mech in central Birmingham.....but their website looks like they've closed....

Dev100 said:

However to correct the steering wheel issue you need to remove the airbag very carefully and then remove the steering wheel and refit in the right position.

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Bad advice, no need to remove the steering wheel if it was correct before.

Grampian said:

Bad advice, no need to remove the steering wheel if it was correct before.

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If geometry was out but steering was straight to begin with then that would suggest wheel was not on in line with wheels.

Dev100 said:

If geometry was out but steering was straight to begin with then that would suggest wheel was not on in line with wheels.

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Not entirely sure what that is supposed to mean, but unless the steering wheel has been off before or the rack has been replaced then it will almost certainly be on in the correct position. In most cases the alignment just needs doing again but with the steering wheel positioned centrally. Correcting the problem by removing the steering wheel is usually a bit of a bodge.

Grampian said:

Not entirely sure what that is supposed to mean, but unless the steering wheel has been off before or the rack has been replaced then it will almost certainly be on in the correct position. In most cases the alignment just needs doing again but with the steering wheel positioned centrally. Correcting the problem by removing the steering wheel is usually a bit of a bodge.

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It means if it wasn't done properly to begin with, then this fixes it.

If the wheels are straight now that suggests that they were not when the steering wheel was put on straight. Therefore to get the steering wheel straight you would make the geometry out. So put geometry right and take wheel off to straighten it. I would suspect this is what has been done here.

Dev100 said:

If the wheels are straight now that suggests that they were not when the steering wheel was put on straight.

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Or, vastly more likely, it suggests the alignment has been done in a shoddy fashion.

Not exactly.

Dev100 said:

Not exactly.

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For me it is the choice between Fiat building the car badly, or a tyre fitter making a bit of a mess of things, I'd put money on it being the latter.

Should you be inclined to do a bit of web research you'll find plenty of others pointing out that removing the steering wheel is the wrong way to resolve the issue.

Here's a good guide.

Grampian said:

For me it is the choice between Fiat building the car badly, or a tyre fitter making a bit of a mess of things, I'd put money on it being the latter.

Should you be inclined to do a bit of web research you'll find plenty of others pointing out that removing the steering wheel is the wrong way to resolve the issue.

Here's a good guide.

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I'd put it on the former as much as the latter. This was an extremely common fault on the classic mini and the common way to fix it.

But thanks for the input, said it before and I will say it again everything on the Internet is true.

Dev100 said:

However to correct the steering wheel issue you need to remove the airbag very carefully and then remove the steering wheel and refit in the right position.

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I take it you've not removed a Panda wheel before?

You cannot move the wheel from the position its placed on the column, as there is a guide so it only fits in one place.

No I haven't, but on a mini it is splined so its a case of aligning the splines.

You'll need to click it and enlarge it, but you can just about see at the top of the column splines why you cannot do what you've suggested.