4 wheel tracking

[Orland]

I took my W205 Estate to have 2 new tyres fitted and have all 4 wheels tracked up. I understand why it's necessary to have wheels tracked and also roughly how it's done. What I don't understand is that when I got the car back they gave me a print out of the tracking measurements, before and after. The before numbers were quite different and in my naivety I expected the after figures to be a zero default figure, but when I later looked at the results they were, after adjustment, different for each wheel, not huge around .01 or .02. Could some kind person please explain to me why this could be correct? I can't get back to the garage that did the work at the moment, also it was an excellent specialist tyre company in France and to be truthful my French isn't really up to a technical discussion on the telephone. Many thanks in advance

 

[renault12ts]

It's very difficult to get everything exactly on the spec since adjustment is by relatively crude means.

 

[whitenemesis]

There's normally a range or tolerance for each measurement, as long as the final readings are within that tolerance all is fine.
That said the closer to the ideal the better. the more symmetrical about the ideal the better.

 

[Orland]

Thanks guys, I sort of thought that might be the case, I was just looking for a bit of reassurance. After all, we all need that now and then.

 

[John]

Sometimes geometry can be programmed in to overcome a specific problem such as Mercs pulling to the left.

Tony from WIM is the man to ask.

As far as I understand it, tracking just refers to toe and doesn't encompass camber or castor saying that, but you still have some toe which is normal i.e. front wheels are rarely toe-neutral.