How can I tell if my front wheel struts are bent or not

[Woodsman444]

Generally tyre joints charge a lesser fee just for an alignment check and I gather you didn't want to stump up the coin for this service......Unfortunately, you'd be better off doing this, posting up the report and wait for replies....

Or as I previously suggested, check for paint cracking around the strut bolt up points

The reason it was not done was because the tyre bloke did not like my wheel nuts and refused to do the job unless I let him order some more for me from his supplier,that is why I did not like the extortion attempt.

 

[vc commodore]

The alignment check would confirm it and to what extent though. Someone that knows what they're doing needs to measure it, anyone can hook a machine up and tell you it's out. It takes an experienced aligner to read all the angles and determine what, if anything, is bent.

Correction....Anyone that knows what they are doing, can see if something is bent, via a visual inspection.....Hence why I have suggested a simple method of checking, without the expense of an alignment and dealing with a knob that doesn't know what he is doing.

Before computer alignment machines littered workshops, we used simple machines, (cervix is what they were called) which didn't have all these different angle readings, to determine what was bent....We used out eye sight, sometimes a tape measure, sometimes our fingers and on very rare occasions we used a spirit level, just to confirm things. But 99% of the time, eye sight and fingers were sufficient to determine what was bent.

To this day, I will still use a visual inspection and use of my fingers to determine what is bent, BEFORE I will trust a computerised alignment machine.

But hey, old school can't be right....Modern age stuff is.

 

[vc commodore]

The reason it was not done was because the tyre bloke did not like my wheel nuts and refused to do the job unless I let him order some more for me from his supplier,that is why I did not like the extortion attempt.

So from this I gather you have the incorrect wheel nuts fitted to your wheels.. This might explain your problem....The wheel isn't bolted up correctly, therefore causing it to move around and rub.

I don't agree with him insisting you buy the correct wheel nuts from him, however if he has hinted they are the wrong wheel nuts, purchase the correct ones and report back if the problem still persists.

 

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

Correction....Anyone that knows what they are doing, can see if something is bent, via a visual inspection.....Hence why I have suggested a simple method of checking, without the expense of an alignment and dealing with a knob that doesn't know what he is doing.

Before computer alignment machines littered workshops, we used simple machines, (cervix is what they were called) which didn't have all these different angle readings, to determine what was bent....We used out eye sight, sometimes a tape measure, sometimes our fingers and on very rare occasions we used a spirit level, just to confirm things. But 99% of the time, eye sight and fingers were sufficient to determine what was bent.

To this day, I will still use a visual inspection and use of my fingers to determine what is bent, BEFORE I will trust a computerised alignment machine.

But hey, old school can't be right....Modern age stuff is.

Why are you so argumentative?

For the record, I was doing wheel alignments on the old lights and mirrors one, can't for the life of me remember the brand though, that's going back almost 30 years. Then went to a laser and bubble one. Never had a computerized one, didn't trust them. From the caster and camber readings you could also work out steering axis inclination and included angles. Doing some basic arithmetic would tell you what was bent. The included angle has to be the same from one side to the other, if it's different, then something is bent.

Seeing something is bent, then working out what it is and to what extent needs a wheel alignment. 10 minutes.

 

[Tonner Matt]

Because he is an expert mate and no one else knows what they are doing or talking about.
I tried to have a civil conversation with him about wheel alignments once...never again

 

[Immortality]

Can you put up a pic of where it is rubbing as well as a pic of the whole front strut? Turn the wheel to full lock and you should be able to get a decent pic.

If the wheel nuts were at fault I would expect issues on both sides and not just one so I would be sceptical that that is the issue but double checking the type of wheel nut used can't hurt.

 

[Woodsman444]

Correction....Anyone that knows what they are doing, can see if something is bent, via a visual inspection.....Hence why I have suggested a simple method of checking, without the expense of an alignment and dealing with a knob that doesn't know what he is doing.

Before computer alignment machines littered workshops, we used simple machines, (cervix is what they were called) which didn't have all these different angle readings, to determine what was bent....We used out eye sight, sometimes a tape measure, sometimes our fingers and on very rare occasions we used a spirit level, just to confirm things. But 99% of the time, eye sight and fingers were sufficient to determine what was bent.

To this day, I will still use a visual inspection and use of my fingers to determine what is bent, BEFORE I will trust a computerised alignment machine.

But hey, old school can't be right....Modern age stuff is.

I did what you said and to me there are no signs of it being bent or anything that looked like damage at all.

 

[sidecar55]

The old light & mirror machines were Repco Replex. I remember setting the run-out by the adjusters as you spun the wheel around.
Have you checked the offset of both front wheels are the same? Are the camber adjusting bolts in a similar position?

 

[Woodsman444]

So from this I gather you have the incorrect wheel nuts fitted to your wheels.. This might explain your problem....The wheel isn't bolted up correctly, therefore causing it to move around and rub.

I don't agree with him insisting you buy the correct wheel nuts from him, however if he has hinted they are the wrong wheel nuts, purchase the correct ones and report back if the problem still persists.

They are not incorrect because they don't do their job and hold the wheel on he just thinks the mag nuts are not the ones he believes should be on the wheel. As I said the nuts while not the exact right ones do the job but he was looking for any reason so he would not get the blame for not figuring out the problem. I have been running around with the 245/45/18 wheel on the passenger side for a few days now with no rubbing no issues at all,it is just the camber on the right to sort out now.

 

[Woodsman444]

apparently so the tyre bloke said without actually doing any measurements