Camber - '98 Astra 1.7TD estate

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Mon 4 Apr 2005 11:17
Camber - '98 Astra 1.7TD estate - Cornish Lass
Hi,

Just had my MOT and as an advisory note, my front tyres are wearing unevenly - Outside edge 7mm, inside down to 3.5mm! Spoke to garage who do my other work, and they advised looks like a camber problem and needs specialist gear they don't have. Suggested I could swap front and rear wheels for short term solution.

Any suggestion on how much the camber adjustment should cost please? Am I looking at Main dealer prices?!? What would have caused it to be out by so much - car has signs of previous new front panels, so could accident damage have caused?

Thanks, Lesley
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Mon 4 Apr 2005 11:38
Camber - '98 Astra 1.7TD estate - Dynamic Dave
Any tyre garage *should* be able to adjust the camber, providing it's only the horizontal axis that needs adjusting. To put it more commonly, having the tracking adjusted to stop the front wheels from toeing out. As for price, a tyre garage will be a lot cheaper than a main dealer. Total guess of somewhere between £20 to £30 (at most).

Yes, you could just swap the front & rears, but all that will do is wear out those tyres as well, meaning that you'll have to eventually fork out for 4 new tyres instead of just 2.



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Mon 4 Apr 2005 13:35
Camber - '98 Astra 1.7TD estate - John S
Camber, as oposed to to-in, isn't usually adjustable. It's fixed by the suspension components and shouldn't change. Accident damage or ball joint wear can upset camber, but we can presumably rule out ball joints as it's just passed the MOT. As both tyres are wearing in the same way I doubt it's accident damage and suspect they've used the wrong term and mean it needs the toe-in checked, which is eaily done by a garage or tyre dealer with the correct equipment. Swapping tyres isn't a 'solution'. The new ones will wear just like the old.

JS
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Mon 4 Apr 2005 17:05
Camber - '98 Astra 1.7TD estate - Cornish Lass
Hi,

Thanks for replies.

It was the local idependent tyre garage that did the other MOT work, and having had a look, they advised camber was the problem, but don't have the gear to set it up.

As I have my re-test on Wednesday, with HI-Q Tyreservices, I'll ask them what they think.

Thanks again for replying, L
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