Price has gone up since i got my punto done punto was around £30, croma was £113

car seems better now though seems to go where i want it to go, not tried it wet yet. lowering a croma really messes up rear camber,


Before


After


front caster couldn't be adjusted apparently.

£113 - well over the odds dave IMHO and experience. I've had my Croma of full 4 wheel alignment at least 3 times and still paid less.

Anyway......

Your figures, especially rear negative camber are very interesting. It is VERY rare for any Croma to get anywhere near -1.5deg negative camber in my experience.
With only -1.5deg you should get at least 30K miles from you rear tyres.

As I have said before in other posts Fiat/GM have some very strange repeatability, tolerance variations. Seems to me that every Croma has/gets different rear suspension setting tolerances/ranges.

this place is an hours drive and have a very good rep, there are places cheaper and nearer to me but i wont even trust them to take a wheel off.

If i had left the front camber as it was bill would have been £90 but i thought why i was there may as well try and get them a bit more closer to matching figures

http://www.elitedirect.com/WheelAlignment/Wheel-Alignment.php
waiting area is all posh with leather sofas giant tv, there is even a cafe inside

Did it only take him 24min to charge £130? 3:56 to 4:20

Got any diagrams of the croma rear suspension? EDIT: found it on forum ePer

£113 not £130 you have to add the time to put bits on the wheels and take them off after

For what it's worth I had 2 tyres done at North Eastern Tyres and Exhausts in Knaresborough and while I was there I had all 4 wheels re-aligned and they charged £50 for the re-alignment.

They even had free coffee, big telly and an internet cafe!

Dave, there is no camber adjustment on the Croma front, just looked at your figures and they are the same before and after.
What did you pay the extra for?

before -1 28 -1 09
after -1 14 0-1 11

there is no adjustment like on a coil over strut but there is fractions movement if you undo all the nuts. the after is closer to matching than before, before was well with in limits but is better

there are cheaper places but all they will do is adjust till it all goes green and not try their hardest to get it the best they can.

cromachris said:

For what it's worth I had 2 tyres done at North Eastern Tyres and Exhausts in Knaresborough and while I was there I had all 4 wheels re-aligned and they charged £50 for the re-alignment.

They even had free coffee, big telly and an internet cafe!

Click to expand...

can you post up your print out so we can compare please?

The real question is would they charge 113 quid for a Vec C job???? If not but less, its bull!

Dave, your before and after both show 2.41 and 2.53, identical. Or have I got it wrong, poor old pensioner?

keithglos said:

Dave, your before and after both show 2.41 and 2.53, identical. Or have I got it wrong, poor old pensioner?

Click to expand...

that is the caster

dave said:

can you post up your print out so we can compare please?

Click to expand...

I would if I could find the blummin' thing - it was a few months ago now!

On the front the ONLY by design adjustable measurment is TOE. Caster and camber are fixed. However caster and camber can be adjusted by subframe alignment. In terms of tyre wear due to camber v's caster effects then camber has more of an effect. So for the front end it is possible to balance camber by jiggling the subframe position. Then toe n/s & o/s values can be adjusted to ensure a level steering wheel and meet the overall toe requirements.

Rear has no caster. However with a multilink setup the camber and toe are VERY interlinked. (see my posts elsewhere).

Wheel alignment specialist seems to charge either a flat fee or a "per angle" charge. Some, like mine has, charged on results. One the rear they adjusted 4 angles but could not get the camber to specification. So I was only changed for two angles although they spent a long long time on a losing battle.

s130 said:

One the rear they adjusted 4 angles but could not get the camber to specification. So I was only changed for two angles although they spent a long long time on a losing battle.

Click to expand...

Same as mine - I think they got both just on the border between the Green and Orange zones. I was with him doing it, and saw how one threw the other out. I got the best compromise in the end. I did get charged for each adjustment though.

This was about 2 years ago now, and the proof in the pudding is that my rear tyres seem to be lasting for ever now.

I just used a bog-standard tyre place (an independent though, not a chain).