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If it's well out it'll destroy your tyres in under 500 miles not to mention throw your steering

Well at least tracking doesn't cost a bomb, I might be able to squeeze it in this week.

All this trouble caused just by changing the front tyres!!

Are there any places I should OUTRIGHT AVOID for tracking? Apart from Halfords Autocentre obviously....lol.

Was going to go to Kwik Fit but even there I hear bad stuff about them.

Find a good local garage that has a laser alignment system. Stay away from the bigger dealerships

Going to a place tomorrow that has laser alignment. The rear tyres were tracked about 3-4 months ago when new ones were fitted for a servicing, I don't need to do them again do I?

Right, tracking done and all should be sorted. No more noise coming from the wheel hubs! At least not for now anyway, drove at 40mph and the noise isn't evident anymore. They said to check wheel caps/hubs after 5 miles, tracking doesn't involve touching those though? I mean the mechanic that fitted the new bearings yesterday would have made sure they were tightened plus the guy doing the tracking wouldn't have got an accurate alignment reading with loose bearings.

Good stuff. No it's just if they took the wheels off. Should be fine though.

I'd say it's all sorted

The tracking guy did take the wheels off to adjust something, can't remember what he said, he had a pot of something and a brush, and the shock absorbers. I don't have a jack trolley so wouldn't have the facility to check the tightness of the wheel hub nuts, all I know is if that sound comes back again I'm in trouble.

Driven about 10-15 miles in it since leaving the tracking place, seems fine to me at the moment, did a lot of dual carriageway stuff and its alright. Only 'noise' I can hear is the clattering of the engine when I press the gas pedal down which should mean its healthy.

I think I had done about 80-100 or so miles since i got it back with the tyre/clutch fitted before I noticed the noise. I tried rocking the wheel with the vehicle flat but of course this isn't really accurate.

I guess I'll have to wait and see after 100 miles or so if the wheel hubs are loose, or, can I go back to the tracking place and ask them to check them? The have a 5 day warranty and its only been 2 days. Also they said at the bottom of the invoice that you must check them after 5 miles.

Your getting a lot of terms confused here - feel I should clarify a bit.

The main nuts that were loose were the driveshaft nuts

The Bolts that hold the wheels on are the wheel bolts

Hub nuts is a very ominous term and could be used to describe many different nuts on the actual wheel hub

What the garage that did the tracking is saying is to check the wheel bolts are tight after five miles - you can easily do that yourself on the roadside

So the locking wheel nuts I keep for tyre changes are what I need to check those bolts? I don't have a torque key or whatever they're called.

I just want reassurance they didn't touch the same wheel hub nuts (driveshafts according to you) when they did the tracking.

They would've had no need to touch the driveshaft nuts

The wheel bolts just have to be tight so you can't easily undo them - using the wheel spanner with the spare wheel is sufficient

If in doubt take them back to the garage just so they can check

As mentioned before he took the front tyres off to do something with the shocks. Wouldn't have thought he would have had to touch them.

Ah, I'm suspecting the previous owner took the spanner with him! I remember seeing it in the boot when I was test driving it but when I looked a few months ago it wasn't there. Why would they give me back the car with loose wheel bolts anyway? Surely if they had tightened them in the first place there'd be no reason for them to come loose!

He would've probably adjusted the lower hub to shock bolts as there's camber adjustment in these - quite normal, but they would've been torqued back up

They just tell you that to cover their arses should they come unusually loose

Yeah he adjusted the camber, he said it was a bit out afterwards.

Is a 'torque' the powered spanner thing that is like a drill? I saw him using that several times on the front wheels.