Alignment - 2 wheel or 4 wheel?

[Jetta Fan]

OK, here's the thing. My 97 Jetta has been wearing the inside edge of the tires and I took it in for an alignment. They guy at the shop said I only need a 2 wheel alignment. He did the alignment and away I went. Now, the car was not pulling to the side at all, but the steering wheel was not centered (prior to the alignment). Now it is and the car still doesn't pull to the side (it will drift a bit, but that's likely due to road surface). The wheels seems to look like every other Jetta or Golf I've seen. They don't seem to be in at the top of the wheel. In other words....it looks normal.

But last night on the way home from work, I blew a tire at about 115km/h (70mph). When I got it home and looked at it, it was so badly worn on the inside that it let go. Now, I knew the tires had been worn on the inside edge (and by edge, I mean from worn down but only came across the tread surfac about 1/2"....think 45 degree angle type of thing) but I hoped the alignment would stop the excessive wear..

What I want to know is should I have a 4 wheel alignment done? CAN one be done? Is there adjustment to eliminate this? I've asked a few shops this morning (by phone) and they say a 2 wheel alignment should be fine. Two said that there might be adjustment, one said there isn't any. And no, my normal mechanic doesn't do alignments. I have 4 new winter tires going on soon and don't want to ruin them.

Any input would be appreciated.

[jtanguay]

i'm very sure that a 4 wheel alignment can be done.  the rear wheels are connected to the rear beam by means of a stub axle.   4 bolts.  i think its just that most shops don't want to remove everything to place the shims.  i don't think there is any easy way to do it...  remove everything, put a shim, put everything back, test, then have to repeat if its still off by a bit.

can the stub axle be removed with the drum/bearing still in place?  if so that makes it a little bit easier... c-tire said they could do it with shims for me.

[duffer]

The stub axles can't be removed with the
   drum/bearing assembly in place.
 
   The drum has to be removed to gain access
   to the bolt heads.

[jtanguay]

sounds like a lot of work if the stub axles need to be shimmed...

[madmedix]

I just had a 4-wheel done at the same time the car was safetied. And yup, shims were involved. He quoted a price for each side due to the possible shimming of each side. The pass side actually cost me $35 less than the right. Judging by the looks of his knuckles he was having a real hard time living with the original price quote  

Andy

[clbanman]

Even if you don't get the rears adjusted, getting the information on the rear settings is worth it in my opinion.  You can use the information to show any changes if nothing else.  The biggest thing in my opinion if you are already having alignment problems is don't rely on them telling you everything is OK.  I went through several months of trying to sort out alignment problems on one car I had that involved 4 different shops (multiple visits to each) and a dealer.  After the first couple times, I started telling them that something was wrong, describing the symptoms, and telling them I wanted them to find out what was wrong BEFORE they tried to do an alignment.  I would get it aligned, and within a day or two my tires were howling again.  The whole mess cost me over $340 in tires not to mention whatever the alignments cost.  I finally ended up diagnosing and  fixing the problem myself - broken stitch welds on a front subframe crossmember.   If you're wearing out tires and they tell you it was only a minor adjustment I would say they're missing something.  Wearing tires down to the belts indicates something more serious.

[Jetta Fan]

Thanks for all the info guys, I appreciate it.

I think what I'll do is have it checked on all 4 (now that I know there is some adjustment in the rear), just to see how far out of whack things are. Then I'll go from there.

Sounds like shimming the rear is a real PITA, but it might be necessary.