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[addy]

The wifes car has wear on the inner edge of both front wheels. I am led to believe it means the bushes on the control arms are shot.  When I come to replace them, hopefully using the original arms, with new bushes either Poly if possible to get for both bushes needed, or normal lemforder ones. When refitting the arms, it says in the HOW2 that they must be tightened with the car level on the ground. The wifes car has not been lowered, so would I be able to get under to tighten bolts, with it on ground or would putting all four wheels on blocks to keep it level be better? Sorry for all the questions, want to prep everything before starting the job. Understand then a full Geometry setup is needed. Do Wheels In Motion, still have franchises over the country? If there was one near Darlington would be great.

Thanks in advance for any help.
Addy

[Enceladus]

You'd be better off with the use of a pit. Try the friends, relatives and neighbors. Some peoples garages had them as standard, even if they never got used.

The reason is you need to get enough access to swing a 1/2" breaker bar and a torque wrench. Very restricted just lifting the car on blocks. That said estates are a bit higher than saloons. Or else get the bolts as tight as you can and get the car properly aligned immediately, ask the shop to loosen and then fully tighten the bolts with the car on the ramp, before they start adjusting the camber and toe-in.

[addy]

Thanks for reply. Just wandered. Got a electronic torque and angle attachment for a ratchet. So that is why I wandered if blocking it would be enough height, using a normal size breaker bar.

The torque attachment is similar to this one, they are a great piece of kit. :- https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Clarke-PRO238-Drive-Digital-Torque-Adaptor-1700638/303220818523?epid=1066925132&hash=item46995e825b:g:Gi0AAOSwPX1dJzyk

Thanks again
Addy

[terry paget]

All my Omegas wore their front tyres on the inside edges, I reckon it's a consequence of the Mcpherson strut front suspension with rubber front horizontal pivots and rubber rear vertical pivots. System works well enough, is silent, and cheap. Replacing the front pivots with nylon stiffens that end, then replacing the rear pivots with nylon stiffens it so much the wishbones break.

It's obviously desirable to righten the front bushes in the middle of suspension travel so that the rubber flexes in both directions during service. This means tightening the bolts with the front of the car on its wheels, tricky.

[BazaJT]

AIUI the weight of the car needs to be on the wheels,but the car doesn't necessarily need to be level fore/aft,so running it onto a pair of ramps would do just as well?

[BazaJT]

As an aside I used to see professional garages-including main dealers-doing this job on various makes/models with the car on two poster ramps and when I asked how they then managed to load up the suspension to its "normal" position to tighten the bolts I was told they don't bother they just "gun them up"

[dave the builder]

All my Omegas wore their front tyres on the inside edges, I reckon it's a consequence of the Mcpherson strut front suspension with rubber front horizontal pivots and rubber rear vertical pivots. System works well enough, is silent, and cheap. Replacing the front pivots with nylon stiffens that end, then replacing the rear pivots with nylon stiffens it so much the wishbones break.

It's obviously desirable to righten the front bushes in the middle of suspension travel so that the rubber flexes in both directions during service. This means tightening the bolts with the front of the car on its wheels, tricky.

un-even tyre wear is down to worn or badly adjusted suspension components Terry
(or incorrect tyre pressure)
I've never suffered un-even tyre wear in 20 years of big RWD vauxhall ownership carltons and now the omega
similarly with astra,cavalier,vectra B ,corsa and the zafiras ,all Mcpherson strut based
BUT, I don't let suspension components wear enough to be flagged as "slight play" at MOT time
(and MOT is "meets minimum requirements" to pass)
suspension parts are cheap,
 even black and round tyres are expensive if they wear un-evenly and need replacing prematurely

[terry paget]

All my Omegas wore their front tyres on the inside edges, I reckon it's a consequence of the Mcpherson strut front suspension with rubber front horizontal pivots and rubber rear vertical pivots. System works well enough, is silent, and cheap. Replacing the front pivots with nylon stiffens that end, then replacing the rear pivots with nylon stiffens it so much the wishbones break.

It's obviously desirable to righten the front bushes in the middle of suspension travel so that the rubber flexes in both directions during service. This means tightening the bolts with the front of the car on its wheels, tricky.

un-even tyre wear is down to worn or badly adjusted suspension components Terry
(or incorrect tyre pressure)
I've never suffered un-even tyre wear in 20 years of big RWD vauxhall ownership carltons and now the omega
similarly with astra,cavalier,vectra B ,corsa and the zafiras ,all Mcpherson strut based
BUT, I don't let suspension components wear enough to be flagged as "slight play" at MOT time
(and MOT is "meets minimum requirements" to pass)
suspension parts are cheap,
 even black and round tyres are expensive if they wear un-evenly and need replacing prematurely

Congratulations, Dave. I have been running 6 car fleets of big Vauxhalls for 20 years, Senators, then Omegas. Initially I let garages or tyre shops adjust my steering, latterly I devised ways of doing it myself better, with the suspension loaded normally during adjustment. I adjusted only toe-in and camber. I changed wishbones, track rods and drop links when required. I never visited Wheel in Motion at Chesham though I learned on this forum that they set suspension with wheels suspended.

OK, I'm an old fool, but my point is that, whatever I did, the front tyres wore on the inside edges. Bearing in mind the curious location of the lower wishbones - front pivots horizontal, rear pivots vertical -  I am not surprised.

Wiser heads than mine will now tell me where I went wrong.

[TheBoy]

Front inner shoulder wear is *ALWAYS* the result of incorrect camber.

Resolve any worn components, and then get the camber set to WIM values.  Do this *BEFORE* replacing the tyres.

[Enceladus]

There is a Vauxhall Technical bulletin (TID) to set the toe-in to the limit to counteract abnormal wear on the inboard shoulders of the tyres. The official spec is -1°40' +/-45' with a max left/right difference of 1°. But setting to -1°40 with zero tolerance per side is fiddly to achieve and takes more time. So doesn't get done. Not to mention that the seats are supposed to be weighted to load the suspension when it's done.

Also if you are replacing the wishbones then consider replacing the springs and the strut top mounts, even the shocks, especially if there is any evidence of spring sag or compressed top mount rubber. The alignment values are optimised for a car that sits at the correct ride height with no wear in the suspension. That's why it starts to get expensive.

[TheBoy]

There is a Vauxhall Technical bulletin (TID) to set the toe-in to the limit to counteract abnormal wear on the inboard shoulders of the tyres. The official spec is -1°40' +/-45' with a max left/right difference of 1°. But setting to -1°40 with zero tolerance per side is fiddly to achieve and takes more time. So doesn't get done. Not to mention that the seats are supposed to be weighted to load the suspension when it's done.

Also if you are replacing the wishbones then consider replacing the springs and the strut top mounts, even the shocks, especially if there is any evidence of spring sag or compressed top mount rubber. The alignment values are optimised for a car that sits at the correct ride height with no wear in the suspension. That's why it starts to get expensive.

Toe can not and will not fix a shoulder wear issue on the front (the rear is slightly different on an Omega, due to the tie rod adjusting toe and camber simultaneously). That's a camber issue, nothing else.  Obviously, the cause of the camber being out could be a number of things.

[Nick W]

Worn location bushes are a fact of life on Macpherson strut front ends. A 100E Ford suffers, and the problem gets more obvious as tyre width and vehicle size/weight increase. A strut only has 3 mounting points, and the whole assembly has to turn. None of the usual means of controlling the lower location are particularly durable.


 The Omega wishbone exacerbates the problem by aligning the bushes on axes perpendicular to each other. This can only work with compliance built into each bush. That's soon taken up, and the whole assembly becomes sloppy. This is also true of other instances of this arrangement: Escorts and Fiestas need wear wishbone bushes really quickly too.


Omegas are made even more susceptible to this by being very fussy to alignment settings, yet cannot be disassembled for routine maintenance without requiring a full alignment by someone who knows what he's doing. A large part of knowing what you're doing in this case is understanding that the factory alignment tolerances are much too generous. A properly maintained and aligned car will drive well and will easily give good tyre wear - mine wore out all four at about 25k miles.


Heavy wear on the tread edges is a camber issue - poor adjustment, inadequate control or both. Incorrect toe can do this too, but the actual wear looks different - there are sites that show what to look for.