National Tyres Wheel Allignment

[Fox-]

Chaps,

About to buy a couple of tyres through tyre-shopper.co.uk. This appears to be National tyres under a cheaper brand name. You buy and pay online, and drive to your local National where somebody fits them.

I note that for £29.99 at the time of ordering, you can choose wheel alignment. They'll check it and make any adjustments for this price.

Now, if this is proper wheel alignment with full adjustment, this is a rather good deal. I usually pay closer to £100 for this. I called the local branch who seemed pretty sure it was proper 4 wheel laser alignment but.. has anyone ever had them do this work? Would you trust them with it and will it be a decent job or am I better paying the 100 quid to the place that usually does it with the Hunter?

Mind you the usual place normally requires me to go back 3 times after for them to get the steering wheel straight..

[Nedzilla]

I took my dads car to national tyres last week for two tyres and tracking done as they were wearing badly on the outer edges.I know the manager pretty well which is why I went with the the car and the price was the same £29.99 though he did it me for £20.

All they do is the toe in/out angle of the front wheels.Its not a full wheel alignment that you might expect for £100 where you get castor/camber angle etc set providing this can be adjusted on your car.

Edit: Even when you do get the tracking/wheel alighnment done right its very rare the steering wheel is spot on straight,even if the road wheels track straight.

Edited by Nedzilla on Sunday 22 January 11:39

[Fox-]

Ah, that'll be the catch then. Presumably not worth the bother as I doubt toe correction is particularly expensive on its own anyway.

[Nedzilla]

Fox- said:

Ah, that'll be the catch then. Presumably not worth the bother as I doubt toe correction is particularly expensive on its own anyway.

It only took them about 10 mins to do my dads renault laguna and that included getting the oxy/acetylene out to free off some seized bolts.

[EDLT]

The technicians there get paid around minimum wage and a bonus based on how much extra work they bring in, so expect them to tell you you need the other two tyres doing, the pads, discs etc.

[shovelheadrob]

And exactly how many of todays run of the mill cars have the provision to adjust castor & camber on the front, let alone on the rear of the car?

[maniac0796]

shovelheadrob said:

And exactly how many of todays run of the mill cars have the provision to adjust castor & camber on the front, let alone on the rear of the car?

Ford Focus has concentric bolts on the rear arms to adjuust the alignment.

Most VW's did have the ability to adjust the camber a small amount on the front, not too sure on really new ones.

As for this offer, all it will be is a 4 wheel laser alignment, which essentially gets the steering straight and aligns the toe in/out.

Edited by maniac0796 on Sunday 22 January 12:02

[Fox-]

EDLT said:

The technicians there get paid around minimum wage and a bonus based on how much extra work they bring in, so expect them to tell you you need the other two tyres doing, the pads, discs etc.

Yea, they wont have much luck though - it does need new rear pads but its booked into BMW for 2 weeks time so they'll be wasting their time