Rear axle toe in

[tchalikias]

I had my 200 in for a 4-wheel alignment a few days ago. It felt as if the car was pulling slightly to the left.

Turns out that the front right wheel had a little too much toe-out. This was quickly sorted and the car now drives perfectly straight.

The problem is, the alignment shop gave me a printout of the front and rear axle angles.

On the rear angle, while the total toe in is within limits (+ 0 degrees, 16 minutes), the left and right wheel have almost 20 minutes of a degree difference!

Now I know that technically this is within the manufacturer's tolerances, but isn't this a little odd? Shouldn't the car pull with this much toe difference in the rear?

Funny thing is that my previous car, a Megane, was also right on the limit as far as rear toe in was concerned... But even the lowered Megane didn't have that big a difference between left and right wheel.

 

[skny]

that should go back to renault and be sorted by renault warranty, it is not possible to adjust the rear axle toe in iirc,

 

[Ed...]

Cars are designed to pull to the left mate. As skny said rear isnt adjustable

 

[tchalikias]

Indeed the rear isn't adjustable by itsself. There are however ways to adjust, either using shims or by pressing the rear axle.

Renault apparently only concern themselves with total toe-in (I've seen the documents), meaning that if total toe-in on the rear axle is within specs, even if one wheel points straight and the other has toe-in, you 're out of luck as far as warranty is concerned. Its 'normal'.

Thankfully the car does not pull, it goes completely straight on a straight road. I'm just worried about tyre wear and, well, I'm kind of a nutter about wanting everything on the car's geo to be perfect (which thankfully is, except rear toe-in).

I saw a post in here with a Renaultsport parts list that included rear toe & camber shims. However the part number doesn't come up when searching Renault's part database. Anyone know how to get them?

 

[Foxspeed]

with rear axle toe it wont or shouldnt pull to one side....if too much it will scrub off the edge of the tyre....unless the tyre edges are feathering i would leave it alone:thumbsup:

 

[tchalikias]

I'll leave it alone for now, however I will order a couple of 10' shims and will monitor tyre wear, if there's a problem I'll have them installed by my local suspension shop...

My left rear wheel currently is at 0 degrees 4 to 6 minutes toe in and my right wheel at 0 degrees 18 to 19 minutes toe in (I visited the alignment shop twice and got slightly different readings which can be attributed to equipment tolerances etc.)

 

[jas1]

Were only talking 1 or 2 1/10th of a degree, that should cause any issues at all, my old integrale ran at least 4 degree toe in on the rear with no wear issue, I wudnt be too concerned

 

[skny]

I have heard from my local alignment garage that on some cars you can try unbolting the rear axle and bolting it back, I dont know if it would be any help in your case though

 

[chris87]

i use shims to adjust the toe on the clio cup race cars - a bit of rear toe won't harm anything - we use toe in to gain extra turn in, and to 'loosen' the back end.

 

[tchalikias]

So I got a couple of Renaultsport shims.

I'm going to be installing them next week, however I can't find the proper torque for the 4 bolts securing the wheel & brake assembly to the rear axle stub.

Does anyone know of the proper torque for the bolts pointed at in the diagram below:



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The blue part in the diagram is the toe shim.

I have to say, this diagram makes the installation look easy..

 

[tchalikias]

I've searched through the various Dialogys .pdfs to no avail.. The diagram describing the proper torque numbers for the rear axle is a little convoluted.

Any ideas anyone?

Also, Merry Christmas!

 

[tchalikias]

I fitted the shims today, I have to say I'm quite pleased with the result:



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The rear axle is now nearly spot on.

Installation was simple, but the shock absorber gets in the way of using a torque wrench. You have to either remove the absorber or use an extension and possibly a u-joint for the torque wrench. Thus loctite plus a little over tightening is best...