Budget car tyres

When I were a lad, I remember Bridgestone, Toyo etc coming onto the market. Nobody had a good word to say about them. They were considered Jap crap, in the same way as Datsun and Toyota were.
 
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When I were a lad, I remember Bridgestone, Toyo etc coming onto the market. Nobody had a good word to say about them. They were considered Jap crap, in the same way as Datsun and Toyota were.

Jap crap???

Datsuns n Toyotas were a Godsend after rusting Fords/Vauxhalls/Leyland
 
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I’ve never understood the concept of tracking being out on one side only. I have a set of laser wheel alignment gauges and know how to use them. If, for example, you heavily kerbed the nearside and bent the track arm so that the alignment on that side went 10° out, as soon as you started driving, the wheels would equalise and each wheel would be out by 5° causing equal wear on both tyres. The steering wheel would also be off-centre too. It must be something else such as castor, camber or even chassis alignment.
Coming to this thread a bit late, but that's also my thinking. If the tracking adjustment isn't balanced on each side it means the steering wheel isn't centred when driving straight, which would look a bit odd, but I can't see how that affects tyre wear.
 
Coming to this thread a bit late, but that's also my thinking. If the tracking adjustment isn't balanced on each side it means the steering wheel isn't centred when driving straight, which would look a bit odd, but I can't see how that affects tyre wear.

Nor I, the wheels will run straight ahead, irrespective of the steering wheel position.
 
The wheels will run equally whatever the track is set at. If they were dead ahead, knocking one side out by say 5mm will result in an off centre steering wheel and each wheel running at 2.5mm out. Whenever tracking is set, if it’s out, the total amount it is out must be halved and adjusted equally on each side. If you just adjust one side, the tracking will be correct but the steering wheel won’t.

I've never seen basic wheel alignment pre-checks carried out correctly in any place that does it!
 
Nor I, the wheels will run straight ahead, irrespective of the steering wheel position.
On a related subject, the Haynes manual for my old Mondeo stresses aligning the rear subframe accurately. But there is only enough clearance between the bolts and the mounting holes to be about 2mm out max. If the subframe were displaced laterally by that much I don't think you'd notice, and the steering still straight ahead. If the subframe were rotated by a degree or so about a vertical axis, say clockwise looking down, you'd just steer slightly to the right to compensate and unlikely to notice.
 
If the subframe were rotated by a degree or so about a vertical axis, say clockwise looking down, you'd just steer slightly to the right to compensate and unlikely to notice.
Apart from the car crabbing down the road.
 
Bit of an update,

So sent all the bits down to the garage but turned out to remove the rear arms the rear subframe needs to be removed, which they didn't want to do.

They freed up the bolts replaced the CV joint and boot (damaged joint replacing the boot) and re-traced it.

They took it for a test drive and the wife picked it up, all assured me everything was fine and sent me a couple of photos of the tracking all in the green position, great I thought.

First time I drive it on the way to holiday, the steering is proper on the ****, so clearly something isn't right. When I get back will have to take it to the specialist tyre shop to get it sorted.

They havnt charged us for it so I can't complain too much, but I'd rather they did charge me so I can complain about it and get it done proper rather than messing about taking it to various places.
 

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Apart from the car crabbing down the road.
Yes, if the misalignment is substantial. But (on the Mondeo at least) the clearance is so small that if you went out of your way to make it as bad as possible I doubt it would drive noticeably different.
 
Bit of an update,

So sent all the bits down to the garage but turned out to remove the rear arms the rear subframe needs to be removed, which they didn't want to do.

They freed up the bolts replaced the CV joint and boot (damaged joint replacing the boot) and re-traced it.

They took it for a test drive and the wife picked it up, all assured me everything was fine and sent me a couple of photos of the tracking all in the green position, great I thought.

First time I drive it on the way to holiday, the steering is proper on the ****, so clearly something isn't right. When I get back will have to take it to the specialist tyre shop to get it sorted.

They havnt charged us for it so I can't complain too much, but I'd rather they did charge me so I can complain about it and get it done proper rather than messing about taking it to various places.

It looks like you had almost a degree of toe-out on the front - which is excessive and would explain wear on the inside edge. Also a tad too much negative camber on one side - which on its own, isn't a big deal, but wouldn't help. It is possible, I guess, that they have corrected the toe setting but haven't done it in such a way that the steering wheel is central. If your car is new enough to have a steering angle sensor (which, if it has Electronic Stability Control it probably will), You might get a warning light on the dash.
 
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