Boxster 981S wheel alignment & recommendations in Kent....

[Spydermonkey1985]

Hi All,

Apologies if this has been covered before, I've recently had two brand new P-Zero N0 front tyres fitted and have been advised by my OPC that they have worn quite unevenly in the space of around 300 miles (nearly 2mm of difference between the pair). I've called Pirelli's performance centre up (on the back of Porsche's recommendation) who fitted them (part of the cracked tyre saga) and they haven't been particularly helpful... basically either Porsche have measured tyre depths incorrectly or your alignment is out.

So... easiest thing to do is get the wheels aligned, however it doesn't feel like its out and 2mm of tread wear in 300 miles is pretty extreme so I'd like to think i'd notice it through the steering wheel! Pirelli's fitter said it could be that they didn't have a full 8mm of tread on them out of the mould... which seems a bit wishy washy given how many tyres they must produce to have such a large tolerance.

OPC want's to pull my arms off for an alignment, quoting around 3 hours labour.... tyre centre's tend to charge per adjustment...but will they set the car up correctly?

Any recommendations in West Kent?

 

[Dylan1]

Why don't you call Mark sumpter at paragon for his advice?
theyre a really helpful bunch

 

[Chrishazle]

Another option would be Merchtech at Ellingham Industrial Estate in Ashford, they have proper alignment gear and know their german cars, plus just along from them is a one man band who has Hunter alignment gear and sets up track cars. Afraid both are East Kent rather than West, further east I don't know if La Rose do alignment, I do know Project 9 in Marden have Hunter alignment gear but - better not say any more.

 

[BoxsterLL11]

I had a local garage chain up here in the north east set up the suspension geometry using their Hunter laser alignment equipment on an MG TF and my Mitsubishi FTO after putting new coil-overs and poly bushes on both cars.
The MG TF was easy as the suspension data was in their database but as the FTO is a grey import, I had to give the mechanic the OE suspension geometry which he input into the alignment database manually and then play around with the suspension to get it close to OE specs even though the car was lowered and it was difficult to get all the geometry close to OE spec.
Having said that, it took about an hour and cost me less than £100 for each car.
So I would shop around, find a specialist that know what they are doing with the laser alignment gear.
I was told a while ago that Kwik Fit now have Hunter alignment gear in some of their garages. Personally, I wouldn't trust KF to set up the geometry on my 981 or my FTO.