4 Wheel Alignment - Wow, what a difference!
Posted: Tue Jul 05, 2016 12:55 am
A bit of a story first... I needed a 4 wheel aligment a few weeks ago for my RS4 after having had the adjustable arms fitted. I noticed that a kwik fit not too far away had the Hunter set-up so thought I'd give them a try. After mentioning that they thought they'd be unable to do it due to the ride height they eventually managed it.
So last week I thought I'd take the 6 in for a go as I don't think they come out of the factory very well aligned and it has been lowered too. After messing around for quite a while the manager came to see me and top me and told me they have been directed by headquarters to not align any cars wtih adaptive cruise etc as the 'lasers' mess with the Hunter lasers apparently and after aligning a BMW it all went wrong so now they are not allowed to touch any cars with 'lasers' (by which I assume he meant radar). So be warned, don't bother going to kwik fit if you have adaptive!
So I ended up going back to the normal place I use that is a bit further away. No such issues with adaptive and were happy to have a go at it (I've used them loads of times in the past for the RS4 and have always had a good experience).
Wow, what a difference it has made to the handling on the 6. I'm not sure if it just needed an aligment, or if it is a combination of the lowering and alignment, but something has changed. It feels so much lighter through the bends now (still a big heavy car but feels much less so), it is much less effort to turn at speed. It feels like it is turning in as is should. In fact, by the time I got to the 2nd roundabout on the way home I found myself in a 4 wheel slide in the dry! I'd of never had enough speed through the roundabout to achieve that before. I'm pretty sure it is not a placebo effect, the car justs feels much more fund to drive off the straight.
So last week I thought I'd take the 6 in for a go as I don't think they come out of the factory very well aligned and it has been lowered too. After messing around for quite a while the manager came to see me and top me and told me they have been directed by headquarters to not align any cars wtih adaptive cruise etc as the 'lasers' mess with the Hunter lasers apparently and after aligning a BMW it all went wrong so now they are not allowed to touch any cars with 'lasers' (by which I assume he meant radar). So be warned, don't bother going to kwik fit if you have adaptive!
So I ended up going back to the normal place I use that is a bit further away. No such issues with adaptive and were happy to have a go at it (I've used them loads of times in the past for the RS4 and have always had a good experience).
Wow, what a difference it has made to the handling on the 6. I'm not sure if it just needed an aligment, or if it is a combination of the lowering and alignment, but something has changed. It feels so much lighter through the bends now (still a big heavy car but feels much less so), it is much less effort to turn at speed. It feels like it is turning in as is should. In fact, by the time I got to the 2nd roundabout on the way home I found myself in a 4 wheel slide in the dry! I'd of never had enough speed through the roundabout to achieve that before. I'm pretty sure it is not a placebo effect, the car justs feels much more fund to drive off the straight.