Thread: Wheel Alignment for D3/D4/RRS is not that simple!

Originally Posted by AndyG

As I said what does the service manual say

Here ya go wantok, refer to step 6:

The D3 has always wandered to the left ever since I got it.

After a new steering rack and replaced control arm bushes it was terrible. Almost did a left hand turn when you let go of the wheel. Had a different place do an alignment after I received my Nanocom and so was able to put it in TTM. Better but still not as good as when I picked it up.

Had two new tyres put on today and they also did a full alignment - results attached.

It still takes pressure to the right to keep the vehicle tracking straight so that it does not wander to the left. Possibly as it was when I bought the vehicle.

However, is it possible to get it to track straight down the road in the same way my D2 did? And yes I am driving the same sections of road to compare both vehicles.

I have to get my D3 re-aligned every time we change over front end/steering parts (and it has had at least 3 sets of lower control arms), and usually have to rely on local country aligner with a 4 wheel laser aligner, who rarely sees a Land Rover, but manages to do a pretty good job of aligning.
Seems that he always leaves the drivers door slightly open, once vehicle is set up to start the alignment. Says leaving the door ajar stops the suspension altering itself while he is making adjustments.
His alignments seem to work pretty well, and the vehicle drives straight and tyres don't get excess wear on tyre edges.
HOWEVER. alignment done by LR aligner "expert" in city, managed to rip through to canvas on inner edges of new rear tyres in under 3000 k's. I did a visual self align with a large crescent that got me out of trouble until could get it back to local "amateur'.
If you find an aligner who can do a competent alignment on your D series, stick with them.

Originally Posted by vbrab

If you find an aligner who can do a competent alignment on your D series, stick with them.

Amen to that!

Glad you at least get something reasonable where you are.

Originally Posted by catch-22

Sure is.

These experts charged me $300 for an alignment when I changed out my LCAs. A few days later I got steering angle errors and re-calibrated it myself using my IID tool.
It was only because my regular indy was unavailable that I went there.

Hi All,
Well another day another comical conversation.
Due to my complete inability to just let things go {one of my many character flaws}, I have had several conversations with the local ?Landrover wheel alignment specialists?, over the last couple of weeks. This is the specialist on the north side of Perth that's owned by the local land rover dealership and does all the nearby dealerships vehicles. Today's conversation was by far the funniest.
This company had done a wheel alignment on my vehicle some time ago, which resulted in the inner edge of front tyres being worn to the point of being nearly illegal but with over 6mm of tread on the remainder of the tyre. By way of proof I returned to them today with one of the worn tyres and had an extensive conversation about the use of TTM during which their representative repeatedly said ?we have never put any vehicle into TTM? and continued on with many stories of how people have never complained about the wheel alignment s that they have done and in fact have received many compliments on the extra mileage their clients have got out of the tyres due to the accuracy of their wheel alignments. When I pressed them on what the Land rover manual clearly states as the correct procedure for doing wheel alignments I got a response that I can truly say I never expected. The representative's response was, and I quote ?WE DON?T WORK FOR LAND ROVER, SO WE WOULD HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE MANUAL WOULD SAY?. This took me by such a surprise that I just stood there looking at him and went ?HUH? at which point he repeated the statement verbatim. Now remember this is the primary wheel alignment specialist for the dealership around the corner!!! It was at this point I recalled the old saying about getting into a battle of wits and quietly left.
Final thought ? This really is NOT the rite tyre place!!!

SO now for my stupid question- Mostly aimed at Graeme.
If you were to park the vehicle on level ground and pull the main suspension fuse in the engine bay, that would prevent any movement, would that effectively be the same as TTM?

regards
Brian

Originally Posted by NomadicD3

Hi All,

SO now for my stupid question- Mostly aimed at Graeme.
If you were to park the vehicle on level ground and pull the main suspension fuse in the engine bay, that would prevent any movement, would that effectively be the same as TTM?

regards
Brian

Hi mate. I'm getting new tyres fitted this week so am just about to delve into my Nanocom to see if I can find a TTM setting......

Re your question, sure pulling the fuse will stop any movement, but it will not help if the vehicle is not at the right height in the first place. Doesn't TTM adjust the corner heights to a tighter tolerance, pulling the fuse will not help this at all?

Originally Posted by NomadicD3

SO now for my stupid question- Mostly aimed at Graeme.
If you were to park the vehicle on level ground and pull the main suspension fuse in the engine bay, that would prevent any movement, would that effectively be the same as TTM?

regards
Brian

If you park the vehicle on flat, level ground and let it "find its level" before pulling the fuse, each wheel will be at the selected suspension height (assume "normal" height) +/- 10mm. TTM will see the suspension adjust to the selected height, with each wheel being at the selected height +/- 3mm.