[Bluu]

Got new front shoes for my SX4 yesterday. Apollo Aspire 215/45/17s. Big thank you to Nikhil for helping me find the tires. Service at Madhu's was fantastic. No wastage of time. New tires installed, all four balanced and aligned in 40 minutes flat (bad pun?). Mechanics are knowledgeable and professional.

Icing was when Nikhil called to confirm if the job was done satisfactorily and if my baby girl was comfortable in their waiting room. He even remembered her name which means a lot to me.

Big thumbs up to Madhu's and Nikhil.
Cheers!

PS - My previous tires were Nankang 225/45/17s. The left was almost completely bald while the right was lesser so. I found out that I was running them under-inflated, 30 psi vs 32psi. The same tires on the rear are doing well and have no problems. Car has run 28K kms. The new Apollo's have made everything seem cleaner, tighter and smoother. Happy now!

[PearlYamaha]

Saturday I and SBala (my BIL) had been to Madhus and got new set of tires for our Fiestas. Mohsin and the entire staff were very helpful and knowledgeable.

Thanks Nikhil for your inputs about the tires and we went for Yoko A series. I wanted to try Yoko A on one car and Energy XM1+ on the other, but the Michelin was not available. So both cars now have Yoko A.

We arrived at around lunch time and haven't called the shop before. They only had one set of tires at the Langford shop and was made to wait for about 20 mins for the second set of tires. No complains though, we were treated well during this wait time

The tires are now upsized to 185/65/R14 and atleast for now it seems like the GC of the car had improved marginally. This morning on my way to office, I noticed that a couple of humps where the underbody scrapes if I am not too careful, are not an issue. I'll post a follow up after a month.

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Met Selva - another fellow TBHP member there.

It is my pleasure meeting you Shankar and my best wishes for your Yeti.

[shankar.balan]

nice to meet you too buddy
thanks for your good wishes!
since you're also in HSR we should link up sometime!
cheers!

Originally Posted by PearlYamaha

Saturday I and SBala (my BIL) had been to Madhus and got new set of tires for our Fiestas. Mohsin and the entire staff were very helpful and knowledgeable.

Thanks Nikhil for your inputs about the tires and we went for Yoko A series. I wanted to try Yoko A on one car and Energy XM1+ on the other, but the Michelin was not available. So both cars now have Yoko A.

We arrived at around lunch time and haven't called the shop before. They only had one set of tires at the Langford shop and was made to wait for about 20 mins for the second set of tires. No complains though, we were treated well during this wait time

The tires are now upsized to 185/65/R14 and atleast for now it seems like the GC of the car had improved marginally. This morning on my way to office, I noticed that a couple of humps where the underbody scrapes if I am not too careful, are not an issue. I'll post a follow up after a month.



It is my pleasure meeting you Shankar and my best wishes for your Yeti.

[mempheS.D]

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

@Nikhilb2008 : Want to commend you for a wonderful job done this afternoon at madhus langford road. Extremely professional and pitstop efficiency. Highly recommended and good job! The Fabia feels like it's first day on the road once again. Wheel alignment and Tyre rotation(cross) all done in 30mins.

@Nikhilb2008: Sorry to say but the problem had re-surfaced. I made another trip to Madhus, and things didn't turn out to be pretty well. I had told the service technicians that the issue could be a steering off-center. From what I've seen in the past, off-center steerings are corrected by first manually locking down the steering with a device, and then adjusting the toe alignment. This was not done. I took a test-drive and the issue still persisted where if i hold the steering centered, the vehicle moves about 10 deg to the left. Then, the technicians interchanged in the front tyres (L-R, R-L) and then the vehicle started pulling to the right. Now, this is beginning to unsettle me esp when one cant predict how the vehicle you're driving is going to behave. To compensate, the technician simply adjusted the air in the front tyres by filling up 30 psi on the left and 34 psi on the right. I asked if this is something I'd have to do all the time I go in for an air fill, and he said NO! All I need to wait for is the tyres tread to correct itself after wearing down.

I'm still struggling across the city looking for someone to help me at least nail down what the real issue is? Unless I know that, I can't get the skoda A.S.S. to help me either from what I've learnt over my experience with those guys when one's vehicle is in the warranty period!

[gpa]

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

All I need to wait for is the tyres tread to correct itself after wearing down. I'm still struggling across the city looking for someone to help me at least nail down what the real issue is?

Your problem is identical to what I had on my Alto. Although, I rotated tyres and balanced the wheels every 5,000-7,500 kms, there was a 10,000 kms running period where I didn't align/balance the wheels. The car had covered around the 30,000 kms on the odo and then after an alignment at Madhus, I had this problem of the vehicle pulling in one direction. It was annoying to say the least but it persisted for about 4,000 kms after which the steering was dead centre and true

It is not a problem with the car's alignment but just the extra tread you have on one tyre that causes the vehicle to drift. Hope this helps

Edit: I just read your first post and realized that your car has covered only 7,500 kms. It is unlikely that you will face such an issue with just 7,500 clicks on the odo as your tyres are relatively new unless you have done some really spirited driving or there is a persistent problem with the alignment that has caused one of the front tyres to wear prematurely. I faced this issue only when my car crossed the 30,000 kms mark.

Cheers,
gpa

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

@Nikhilb2008: Sorry to say but the problem had re-surfaced. I made another trip to Madhus, and things didn't turn out to be pretty well. I had told the service technicians that the issue could be a steering off-center. From what I've seen in the past, off-center steerings are corrected by first manually locking down the steering with a device, and then adjusting the toe alignment. This was not done. I took a test-drive and the issue still persisted where if i hold the steering centered, the vehicle moves about 10 deg to the left. Then, the technicians interchanged in the front tyres (L-R, R-L) and then the vehicle started pulling to the right. Now, this is beginning to unsettle me esp when one cant predict how the vehicle you're driving is going to behave. To compensate, the technician simply adjusted the air in the front tyres by filling up 30 psi on the left and 34 psi on the right. I asked if this is something I'd have to do all the time I go in for an air fill, and he said NO! All I need to wait for is the tyres tread to correct itself after wearing down.

I'm still struggling across the city looking for someone to help me at least nail down what the real issue is? Unless I know that, I can't get the skoda A.S.S. to help me either from what I've learnt over my experience with those guys when one's vehicle is in the warranty period!

Hi MempheS.D, can you scan the alignment report and put it up here?

Also, what GPA says is true. If the tyre wear pattern on the front tyres are uneven, you will have this problem. One way to solve this is to wait for the tread to reach a similar level. Or, keep rotating the tyres in a trial-and-error method till we reach a sweetspot. Also, the fact that when the tyres were swapped, the car started pulling to the opposite side proves it's a tyre problem.

EDIT: I spoke to my manager. The funny part, is he says it isnt the first Fabia to have this problem. He says around 4-5 Skoda Fabias having run less than 5,000 kms are having this problem.

In any case, please come back when you are free... We will try some more combinations of tyre rotation and try to fix the issue. What tyres does the car come with? Apollo Acelere?

[rajcs]

Originally Posted by mempheS.D

I'm still struggling across the city looking for someone to help me at least nail down what the real issue is? Unless I know that, I can't get the skoda A.S.S. to help me either from what I've learnt over my experience with those guys when one's vehicle is in the warranty period!

Sorry to hear about the problem - it appears to me a warranty issue and should be shown to a Skoda dealer - try another dealer if your current one is not listening. Also post on Skoda India web site - their tech team will get in touch with you and also inform the local dealer.

I had a warranty claim due to an occasional noise from front suspension and the Skoda service replaced a link promptly. Never heard the sound again.

I have done over 14400 km on my Fab 1.6 and many of them through extremely poor roads in HP. Never had a problem with alignment. Did alignment check at 10000 km at Skoda service and all values were within limit even before applying correction.

[floyd.bell]

Hi Nikhil,

I seem to be facing the same issue as Memphes above. I have 1996 W124 E220. I had got alignment job done at Madhus on 28th Oct. I feel the steering is slightly off-centered towards the left. For most portion of the driving, it is fine. However, when driving on a road which is sloping towards the left, I can feel a slight strain on my right hand to keep the car going in the straight direction.
The previous owner of the car had put new tyres on the car but didn't do any alignment/balancing job then. When I got the car, it had already run around 4000 Kms on the new tyres. When I got alignment done on the car 1 month back at Madhus, there was a huge deflection which the technician corrected. So, the car had already run for close to 4000 Kms with the alignment problem. Can this cause the uneven tread pattern on the front tyres? To mitigate this, can I rotate the front tyres to the rear and bring the rear to the front? Do you think this will solve the problem? After tyre rotation, do I again need to perform alignment procedure considering I have already done it some one month back?
Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by floyd.bell

Hi Nikhil,

I seem to be facing the same issue as Memphes above. I have 1996 W124 E220. I had got alignment job done at Madhus on 28th Oct. I feel the steering is slightly off-centered towards the left. For most portion of the driving, it is fine. However, when driving on a road which is sloping towards the left, I can feel a slight strain on my right hand to keep the car going in the straight direction.

I think your car is fine. When the road slopes left, a well-aligned car WILL pull to the left. It's completely normal. If it pulls to either side when the road is perfectly flat, then it is a problem.

[condor]

@Floyd, like Nikhil said, the car is fine. The road you mentioned has a left-ward slope and the car is following the natural incline at that spot. If your alignment had been off (either left or right biased), then it would have pulled either much more to left, or gone against the natural slope of that section.

[Kimified]

Had gone to Madhu's to get the alignment and balancing done. Had not taken a prior appointment. Was just passing by that place and thought ill get it done. Neat job. Took around 1 hour 15 mins. But considering that i had not taken an appointment and it was a busy Saturday afternoon, I think its acceptable.

Here is a pic

[Rocky_Balboa]

Had been to Madhus this morning and as always, had a pleasant experience; +1 to the hoarding in front suggesting optimal braking.

[shamanth]

Hi Nikhil, I wanted to leave my Santro for alignment, wanted to check with you if the Wheel Rim Bend can also be addressed ?

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by shamanth

Hi Nikhil, I wanted to leave my Santro for alignment, wanted to check with you if the Wheel Rim Bend can also be addressed ?

Hi Shamanth,

You dont need to leave your car. The job takes about 45 mins to an hour. You can wait in our showroom itself.

Rim bend removal is not done by us here.

[arindambasu13]

Got my new Swift VXi wheels and alloys fitted this Saturday. I was the first one to arrive at Madhus, even before the store officials arrived Carried the already bought alloys with me, fitting them and the tires (Yoko A drives) took about an hour in total, including billing. Overall, a great experience as always.

Thanks Nikhil for bearing with the considerable number of SMSes sent and calls made. First instance of upsizing and alloys for me, so you can imagine the pre-planning that went in.

@Nikhil- On another note, please do check out the pics that I have put up of my car in the alloy wheel show off section today. I think you will like what you see!