tracking

I bought one, it was useless, I threw it away. Two straight edges, string, tape measure and similar things can give very accurate results, but for the average person a check at somewhere with laser aligning gear is the best bet.

They are crap.

Most reputable tyre centres will at least check the tracking for free if you buy a pair of tyres.

Chris

As long as it's checked on an absolutely flat surface, they work fine. I've set the tracking on 8-10 cars, they've all been perfect afterwards.

All IMHO of course :)

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Mrcheerful" saying something like:

I use a pair of straight battens, one bungeed onto each wheel and measure the distance between the front extended portions. Piece of piss and dead accurate too.

I can't see the point myself. Once you get out of the habit of smashing your car into kerbs, you only need to do it once every 12 months or so.

I have a tracking-related question...

My 1980s Mitsubishi is eating front tyres. It went through the last two in about 1500 miles. The way they go is that the outside third wears a lot, and the middle and inside is fine. It's evenly worn on both wheels (I think).

Previous set of cheapo tyres went on in October. I had the tracking adjusted in December (was about 2mm out) and checked at Christmas (was fine, about 150 miles after the adjustment). But the tyres still went bad - but I couldn't tell if this was wear since before the tracking was adjusted. I put a new set of tyres on a few weeks ago, and I've noticed the initial ribbing you get on new tyres has started to wear more on the outside than the inside (after maybe 500 miles). So the problem obviously isn't fixed. I do about 4K a year - nothing major.

Last MOT it needed a track rod end ball joint, and I've also had a suspension arm with ball joint done in the last year or two (think these were both driver's side, BICBW).

So, any thoughts what might be causing it to go out of track? Ball joints on the other side? Or do I just need to keep getting the tracking adjusted regularly?

Cheers, Theo

It sounds like you need to get it adjusted by a different garage, or you've got majorly shagged bushes.

has the tracking been correctly set AFTER getting the suspension work done? Unless you hit something like a kerb fairly hard or often then the tracking will not go out of adjustment. Severe wear in ball joints or suspension parts can give the same tyre wear symptoms as the tracking being wrong (which it is, but not because of mis adjustment, but because of wear, and resetting the tracking will not compensate for worn bits, it may even make the tyre wear much worse) So get the suspension checked for worn bits and malalignment and fixed as needed, then get the tracking set.

Yes... had the ball joint done and a week or two after had the tracking done (ball joint at my normal garage, tracking at a National Tyres place that on that visit had cause to make me want to put them in bargepole territory)

Righto... that sounds sensible.

Thanks Theo