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Going to take the beast for wheel alignment over the next couple of weeks as I'm getting lots of tyre wear (especially on the front) on the outer shoulders. Just replaced the fronts as they really weren't too clever.

Firstly, does anyoone have any recommendations in the North West? The only place that's been suggested so far is this:

http://www.rd-automotive.com/home.html

Secondly (this may be related to the first issue) is regarding the steering rack on the RS2. One thing I (and a mate of mine who test drove it) have noticed is that the steering feels very light on cornering at high speed. Isn't the variable steering rack supposed to automatically make the steering heavier at high speed?

Ta

for the steering rack, if the car has servotronic, yes. If it has just power steering, then no. So in order to see if you actually have servotronic installed, there should be an ECU installed behind the dials, which you can visually access if you remove the dials or the lower driver's shelf.

You may need parts for the alignment esp. if they havent been changed recently because they seize.Tie rod ends and possibly tie rods themselves.

In my experience, a light steering wheel feel at speed when cornering is a symptom of the need for new front shocks and top mounts. This also tallies with front tyre shoulder wear. When you replace the front shocks you have to set the tracking up in any case.

scillyisles wrote:In my experience, a light steering wheel feel at speed when cornering is a symptom of the need for new front shocks and top mounts. This also tallies with front tyre shoulder wear. When you replace the front shocks you have to set the tracking up in any case.

Vas/Scilly

Thanks for the advice, I'll check the shocks tonight, I did check them 5k miles ago and they were fine but perhaps they've deteriorated over that time.

Going to sort my dodgy alternator next week and the guy is going to make sure the track rods aren't frozen in place too so when the alignment is done they can crack on with that without any complications.

Looking forward to testing the beast out when it is done, I've always had the feeling the tracking was contributing to the handling not being 100% right and think the tyrewear proves it. With so little wear on the inside of the tyre it seems the tracking could be out quite a lot.

Ta

Well, it turns out the wheels were badly out of alignment which was definitely the cause of the irregular tyre wear on the fronts. I have a printout that contains all sorts of data that make no sense to me at all!

However what I can tell immediately is the feel of the car has been transformed. No steering wheel vibrations, no wobbling sensation when driving at high speed on straights and altogether a massively more solid feel to the handling. I'll drop another note on when I've had chance to test it on the twisty stuff but so far so good. An expensive couple of weeks but well worth it.