Alfa 156 tracking adjustment

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Sat 31 Jan 2004 20:48
Alfa 156 tracking adjustment - No Do$h
As I live on an unmade lane I am conscious of the risk of the tracking running out of true on my Alfa.

Sure enough, last week I was giving the car it's usual checks when I noticed that the inside edge on the tyres is starting to show greater wear, a classic sign on the JTD 156 that the tracking is out.

I popped along to Protyre but they were just closing so nipped down to another chain of reputable spanner monkeys to be told that it was a main dealer only job; the car has to be weighted down for the adjustments to be made.

Any truth in this or did he simply not want to do the job? Certainly Micheldever were happy to do the job about 17k miles back.
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Sat 31 Jan 2004 22:41
Alfa 156 tracking adjustment - DL
Given the car, I would say it was a specialist job - although any decent workshop with up-to-date alignment kit should be able to set the car up accurately for you.

If possible, watch them do it.......quite interesting to watch.
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Sun 1 Feb 2004 10:41
Alfa 156 tracking adjustment - No Do$h
Thanks DL.

I've just wandered over to alfaowner.com and found that, as you suggest, it is a job for a proper 4-wheel laser alignment bay and not a slick-fitter with a set of hang-over type lasers and a couple of mirrors.

Protyre or Micheldever it is then.
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Sun 1 Feb 2004 11:14
Alfa 156 tracking adjustment - PR {P}
NoDosh, has yours got the Sportpack with the sport suspension? If so, I would bet that the tracking etc. is fine. My last one did the same, had everything checked and it was sport on. Apparantly because of the -ve toe in (toe out?) the tyres wear more on the inside. This is deliberate and helps no end with grip whilst cornering!
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Sun 1 Feb 2004 16:29
Alfa 156 tracking adjustment - No Do$h
Yup, sportpack. Combine this with the rather heavy inline 5cyl JTD and you don't exactly get enormous tyre life. Mind you, 17k on the front ones before noticable scrubbing isn't bad.

The standard set-up is with slight toe-out. Micheldever set it to the minimum within the tolerances but it seems to have settle out again. Hardly surprising really, I meant to get the tracking checked every 6,000 as I live on a short unmade lane.

I shall nip over to Protyre nice and early next Saturday and let them loose on it. If they don't think it's worth redoing the tracking because of the existing wear I may leave them as is for the trip to the Alps (730 miles each way and 95% on motorway) and then slap some new Michelin Pilot sports on and get the tracking sorted when I get back.
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