Aligment after bushes settle??

[AttaBoy]

Hey people,

Just a quick dumb question.

I went to pedders to get my whole front end done with new bushes. Also includes free wheel alignment. But one of the guys told me to come back to do another wheel alignment after it done a few hundred k's.

I assume the the suspension geometry change a little while the bushes settle in after a few hundred k's which may throw the wheels a little out of alignment??

Are they pulling my leg or what they say is true??

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

If everything was done properly, the bushes can't really settle. They will move a little bit, but once they are fitted, the weight of the car brought down onto them, then tightened, any settling will be very minimal and unlikely to affect the alignment. Maybe they were too busy to do the alignment on the day and used that excuse to get you back when it suited them.

[jules]

i'm not a suspension expert, but i would have thought that any adjustments were locked in, and wouldn't be affected by bushes settling.

the suspension geometry isn't dependent on bush geometry is it? sounds like you were fed BS to me, but someone else here may now more than i do.

[AttaBoy]

Yeah I'm getting the feeling they are not being 100% on me but at the same time they are great blokes who worked on my other car and did a fantastic job.

Thats why I want to come back to let them work on my car. Also when I came back to pick my car up they were doing the alignment.

[jules]

after thinking about it a bit more, it may make sense that the bushes may settle and interfere with the alignment. how much difference it makes is a bit doubtful though, to me at least.

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

If they ask you back to check the alignment after doing one, it is more a case of getting the settings right. The specs are a guide, every car is different. You set it by the book, and then after about 1000kms you check it again to see if it needs tweaking to suit the car.