UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hey Guys

I wondering if anyone could help.

After owning my car for a year i decided to get the wheel alignment done and the wheel balanced. i told that the front could only be adjusted but not the rear. So my rear alignment is out quite significantly. I have been told it could be one of many things. Would be worth replacing the rear suspension? or replacing the springs?

1. the axel
2. the hub?
3. shocks / bushes
4. the suspension arm
5 the springs

Any advice would be greatly appreciated

it depends a bit what is off. toe, camber, trail.

the rear axle is rigid so there is not really anything to adjust. by default it has a bit of negative camber but nothing too extraordinary

here is the report not sure if its the camber, toe or trail?

the top image is before adjustment
the bottom image is after
left wheels = left column
right wheels = right column
upper row = front wheels
lower row = rear wheels
and then there is toe and camber for each wheel

toe is fine for every wheel. the axles are also perfectly aligned (bottom middel graph)
the camber of the rear wheels is more or less the same as mine, 1.2 degrees
they probably did the left front in such a way that it compensates for the left rear

but it looks fairly reasonable and i really wouldn't worry too much. we're talking about tenths of degrees.
and the vw polo has some camber on the rear wheels, you can see it if you drive behind another polo. wouldn't worry too much.

I think that the fact that one end of a car can not be adjusted is not a good reason to believe that 4 wheel alignment is a waste of time - I'm not suggesting that you are by the way. What is important is to check the rear end probably for build or accident damage, then if okay centre the front wheels about the rear and also try to equalise the front camber and correct front caster at the same time. I've been flamed on a few VAG forums for suggesting that getting a 4 wheel alignment check is a total waste of time as the rear end is fixed, but VAG have made slight adjustment possible by the front subframe fixing bolt holes being a bit generous, and if necessary a small adjustment can be made at the end of the TCA - well at least on the 9N etc. Unfortunately I had to get this work done twice on wife's 2003MY Polo 9N, once to correct VW garage mess after replacing the ARB (old style plastic end stops cracked) - they charged for doing this work while replacing the ARB but made a mess, it needing doing again so I got an indie to replace the TCA voided bushes for solid Cupra bushes before re-aligning the car. Current model Polo's front end looks very like the same set up as a Fiesta from 1990s so no doubt alignment should be more stable!