I thought it would be useful for those used to bunging £20 to Kwik Fit for an utterly useless laser tracking on their front wheels to see what a full four wheel alignment is.

I had Bluebelle done today at SVG on a Hunter machine because she has been feeling skittish and tramlining (though of course that may be because it seems Cooper Tadworth set the tyre pressures at 40psi!!!)

Hunter are the best alignmment machines in the biz, giving a pinpoint-accurate full geometry (all three angles - camber, castor and toe) with before and after easy-to-understand printouts and real-time on screen visualisation of adjustments.

I was really pleased to hear that SVG have one, as I have had to go as far as Reading before with my MX-5 to get alignment done properly. Every car with a sporty chassis and good suspension needs an annual alignment check as correct alignment affects tramlining, ride, mpg and tyre wear. You will also absolutely require an alignment adjustment if you lower your car as this throws the geometry right out of whack and can even make it dangerous.

Here is the contraption in action on Bluebelle -

All prepped and road-tested:


Onto the Hunter:


Dave f. Airbox fitted:


Heavy weights added to represent driver/passengers:


Adding the laser-reflector thingummyjigs to each wheel:


These are 'read' by the lasers on the main front frame of the Hunter:


Computer shows the initial settings then shows the changes as the mechanic adjusts the suspension to bring the settings as close as possible to vehicle spec:


My initial settings - red does not mean panic, the tolerances are minute and green means perfect, red means not quite within tolerances, not DANGER!!! lol:


The car is at height so the mechanic can quickly access all teh suspension bolts and adjusters:


You can see the lasers as black squares in the top right and left of red Hunter frame:


Wheel gap!! lol:


My final readings after adjustment - as you can see, one setting could not be brought back within recommended tolerances as the bolt was adjusted as far as it would go. You can see the recommended tolerances on the left and right sides of each colour box, and the 'actual' figure in the centre. A shame, but since it is only 10 minutes off, this relates to a tiny degree of error, and with everything else now in line, the car is much more planted:

Cool cheers Paul thats really interesting

Its good to know! I have had a four wheel alignment done at Pro Tyre in Slough when I had Jack (I think I had 2 done there) as MINIs always go out of alignment with the state of our roads. It made such a difference! But I think I will go to SVG now!

Thanks Pauk, the read out is slightly easier to interpret than the KDS one, and it sound very similar to how that is done, but SO much cheaper!