Allignment problems.

[mat]

I just recently bought my s4 back in December, and my wheels appear to be out of allignment, and I'm getting some abnormal wear on the inner tread of my rear tires. Does anyone know if these cars have a tendency to come out of allignment?

I have certified-warranty, so maybe I should just take it to the dealer and have them look at it, and maybe have them do it?

Thanks for the help.

[Jacob]

Yup, alignment is something that needs to checked often on these cars. In the past year I've had three ball joints let go on my front suspension.

[KRS-S4]

Originally posted by mat
I just recently bought my s4 back in December, and my wheels appear to be out of allignment, and I'm getting some abnormal wear on the inner tread of my rear tires. Does anyone know if these cars have a tendency to come out of allignment?

I have certified-warranty, so maybe I should just take it to the dealer and have them look at it, and maybe have them do it?

Thanks for the help.

My car has always pulled a little bit to the right which is common with S4's...unless you get some CPP links or something similar you can not adjust the camber and do a proper alignment

[mat]

Originally posted by KRS-S4
My car has always pulled a little bit to the right which is common with S4's...unless you get some CPP links or something similar you can not adjust the camber and do a proper alignment

took it into a place called NTB. paid 89.99 for 3 allignments over 12 months or something. they adjusted a few things including the camber, and it seems to be fine now.

I figured this would be alright, because I was 2 seconds away from installing suspension before i saw the problem.. I didn't want to put the suspension on and then find out it was more then just an allignment problem, then have Audi tell me its my fault.

So now my plan is to drive it for 30 days or so and see if it happens again.. If it does, I'm guessing theres a problem that Audi needs to take a look at. If it doesn't, I'm going to go ahead and install the suspension, and take it back in for the 2nd allignment I already paid for. Sound like a good plan?

[boxerchip]

they sell stuff to fix this problem... why not invest in some suspension / allignment stuff from awe.

[ItsJ]

So now my plan is to drive it for 30 days or so and see if it happens again.. If it does, I'm guessing theres a problem that Audi needs to take a look at.

I don't know if you installed your suspension already but if you did in about 30 days or maybe 2 months you would need another allignment anyway after the suspension settled in, thats if your doing shocks and springs. In general you need usually an allignment after any suspension work.

[mat]

Originally posted by o1S4
I don't know if you installed your suspension already but if you did in about 30 days or maybe 2 months you would need another allignment anyway after the suspension settled in, thats if your doing shocks and springs. In general you need usually an allignment after any suspension work.

haven't put it on yet, going to drive it for 30 days or so and see it it comes back out of allignment. if it doesn't, then I'm putting it on, then having them do another allignment.

and yea, its H&R springs and bilstein shocks.

Can they still adjust the camber and all that like normal, once the new stuff is on?

[ItsJ]

i'm geussing they will not be able to adjust the camber to stock specs because i don't think the s4 comes with camber adjusments that allow it to compensate for a car being lowered, i remember however when i had my eclipse and lowered my car i adjusted as close to stock as possible with some negative camber. i was informed that some negative camber in the front is not that bad and can be beneficial for handling. tire wear will be probably worse however but not too bad, just rotate your tires every so often

[mat]

Originally posted by o1S4
i'm geussing they will not be able to adjust the camber to stock specs because i don't think the s4 comes with camber adjusments that allow it to compensate for a car being lowered, i remember however when i had my eclipse and lowered my car i adjusted as close to stock as possible with some negative camber. i was informed that some negative camber in the front is not that bad and can be beneficial for handling. tire wear will be probably worse however but not too bad, just rotate your tires every so often

so you think once the suspension is on, I may have to run some negative camber to clear the fenders?

[Volquinum]

I had some original alignment issues. The car always pulled to the right. I had the dealer work on it but it was still pulling mildly to the right. I finally had a good alignment shop work on it and it turned out to be the rear setup. The guy had to work on it a while because everything was frozen up. He said that it was definitely out and it hadn’t been adjusted as far as he could tell. That fixed the problem.

I recently added the Stasis Engineering street sport set up (Koni) and adjusted it to the recommended height. I really like this suspension setup. I took it to a specialist (Val’s Alignment in Salt Lake City). He brought the backs dead center into spec. The fronts he brought right to the edge of spec for camber (-1.3) with caster at 3.6 degrees, that was all he could get without modifications. The car tracks dead straight and center. Almost scary it’s so nice.

[biturbo hero]

ummmmmmm.
there are def some walls as far as alignment specs. its good to hear what volquinum has to say. however, camber is non adjustable, and you can only adjust toe with an eccentric nut so far.
volq; you should figgure out what your alignment guy did.

[Volquinum]

No EZ cams according to Val's, although he did have to work on it for a while. He did spend some time with the bump steer adjustment. I have looked at some of the parts available from AWE to address adjustability, but the alignment guy said it probably wasn’t necessary with my current setup. I haven’t run long enough on these tires to see any abnormal wear, but the last set of tires went out fairly uniform. Michelin PS2s. Good tires.

As far as fitment issues: None. I haven't tried complete compression of one corner of the suspension under a tight turn, but in the normal run of events, there has been plenty of clearance. I am still running stock tires and wheels.

[S-fear]

I don't know what you guys are talking about here.

You can not adjust camber and caster in a stock S4. Just toe, and side to side camber.

Ingolstadt did not give us much room to play with on these cars.

[Volquinum]

You are correct, the camber and caster are not adjustable with the stock suspension. However, it will stay within the expected range as long as the ride height is not changed, or the angles are not changed. The stasis setup does not drop the car as far as some of the other kits. My drop in the front was about 1” and ¾” in the rear. Even so, when all was said and done, it moved the front camber to –1.3 for each side and the caster to 3.6 degrees. –1.3 is the edge of the spec listed for the S4. I didn’t see a spec for caster.