2012 & 2013 Passat Alignment Discussion

tdiatlast, you are right, there are dealers somewhere that might have recognized and corrected the misalignment. I wasn't in the mood to sift through the chafe. Instead, I took my passat to united tire 1/2 mile from the dumb dealer where two vw master techs reside. one was the service manager for that vw dealer till he left. I was lucky that I knew where they were. the dealer service manager at the vw dealer was backed up by the vw regional service rep in saying that my caster/camber problen was not fixable and the car was within vw standards. I still haven't been reimbursed for the inept alignment done at the dealership although vw customer service promised to. Again the vw district manager backed up the service manager's statement that it was up to vw standards and queered the customer service promise to refund my expense. I personally have been involved with alignments, etc for over 60 years, including having been a franchised auto dealer for over 30 years.

I would only add if you use the settings I posted here, castor/camper r&l are very close, oe conti's, you will find your passat is a totally different car, a pleasure to drive.

Thundershorts, Tdiatlast, IndigoBlueWagon: You guys are rock stars! Can’t thank you enough for all this info and support! Testament to this being an amazing message board with people who care.

I’ve summarized everything everyone’s said and sent to VWOA Customer CARE, who’ve been helpful in coordinating communications between the service manager, the regional field tech and myself. All I’ve been told so far is that they continue to work on my car, which I find reassuring after highly disappointing interaction with the service manager from the outset.

As far as tire pressure, I’m not sure at this time, as my car has been at the dealer for the past week and a half. I also don’t have the alignment report either. I truly hope that they fix my car on this one visit and that VWOA’s communications with me are not disingenuous.

I'll update everyone with anything concrete I hear! Just unbelievable that this continues to happen after so many years of it being a known problem.

Question: Why is it that on 'large' VW's improper tie down can shift subframes? In other words, any reason 'small' cars may be less likely to be damaged?

Less mass with smaller cars. Don't expect too much from either the dealer or the district rep. The correction takes less than an hour and they have been diddling how long?

I can’t believe it.

No matter all the great, responsive communication back and forth with VW Customer CARE thus far, I received a call from my service advisor today stating the car is ready, that all they did was a road force balancing of the wheels and that the TSB's I sent - discussing optimal tire/wheel placement - don't apply to my model year. I then receive the VW Customer CARE e-mail below.

“I hope this email finds you well, and thank you for working with Tasha while I was out of the office.

I spoke to Paul, the Service Manager at Sunrise Volkswagen, and he advised me that they performed a road force balance on your Passat. He stated that this was successfully completed, and that your vehicle is ready to be picked up.

Paul is also stating that there will always be a slight pull to the right with all vehicles, which is due to how the roads are designed, to have a slight crest, as we have previously discussed. Paul is stating that at this point, the vehicle is operating as designed, and there are no further repairs that can be completed on your vehicle at this time.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions or concerns.”

WHAT THE ****!!! WHAT THE **** WHAT THE ****

I just wrote VW the following:

"WITH ALL DUE RESPECT, with the productive, responsive communications we’ve had to date, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?

Road Crown IS NOT the problem, as discussed. Paul can state WHATEVER he wants, but he’s wrong and the reason why I needed to reach out to you in the first place. You were going to speak with a regional technician. What came of that? At this time, appropriate work is not being followed through on and I now need to be put in contact with and speak with the regional technician.

I DON’T COMPREHEND how I have this problem, learn this has been an ongoing problem for many years, there are TSB’s on the precise matter, I offer you many possible ways to fix my car and all I get is a call from my service advisor, who I follow up with, who states all that was done to my car was a road force balance of my wheels and tires, in response to which I state “THAT ALONE WILL NOT FIX MY CAR” and his response is “I understand, but this is out of my hands”.

What happened to corrected/revised alignment figures? What happened to redoing the alignment becuase values simply being ‘in-spec’ aren’t sufficient and same can be fine-tuned and still be ‘in-spec’? What happened with employing ‘selective tire placement to improve vehicle drift/pull’ and ‘use of the Hunter GSP9700 Balance with StraightTrak or John Bean RFV200 with Opti-line to determine the best tire placement to improve vehicle drift/pull’, as detailed in the TSB’s? What happened with all that I wrote in my August 30, 2017, 12:08 AM e-mail to you, stating the sub frame needs adjustment, which I’ll repeat at the bottom of this message? After all we’ve discussed, the call from the dealer and your message to me below is INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

AGAIN, WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!? All of my communications back and forth with you, my feeling confident in the matter being worked on, and all you leave me with a e-mail repeating what Paul states coupled with work that was done (which work in and of itself cannot resolve my matter), and we’re now back at square one. Furthermore, the laughable message from Paul stating ‘there will always be a slight pull to the right with all vehicles’. PLEASE. I WAS NOT BORN YESTERDAY AND THIS ISN’T MY FIRST VW, that last of which DID NOT PULL, otherwise, I suppose, you would’ve heard of it!

When driving on a flat road and holding the steering wheel straight the car pulls to the right. NO CAR SHOULD DO THIS, MUCH LESS ONE WITH 150 miles.

ALSO, what happened with the holograms in the paint on my trunk lid and c-pillar which the dealer created after fixing the scratches the car was delivered with. The dealer made the holograms slightly better but they were still there last time I saw the car. WHAT WAS DONE WITH THIS?

I do not plan to pick up my car until I hear back from you and that additional work has been done to rectify this problem, to which end I need to speak with / meet the field technician ASAP. I am a most reasonable and respectful person, but this is NOT right. I am very upset and this can all be resolved if VW truly cares to see to it."

Below is what I wrote VW earlier today; not sure what else to write directing them on how to fix this problem:

"Please note another owner posted the below in response to my post on a message board.

Please share with all parties in an effort to fix my car. Thank you.

Before I got this fixed, the dealer told me that my Passat was up to standards and that they could not fix it, telling me the lane changing was due to road crown!

So, go to a good competent alignment shop. Have both front and rear toe set to zero. If the castor and camber right and left are not very close, your subframe is misaligned. If the shop is not familiar with this procedure to loosen subframe bolts and retorque in proper order, stop and find a shop who knows how to align correctly.

On my 2013 Passat, after the zero tow setting, both caster and camber were within 1 minute of a degree right to left. On my 2016 Passat, the right side castor and camber were way out. After the subframe was realigned, the castor and camber both sides were within 2 minutes of a degree.

You can set rear camber from 1/2 to 1 degree negative. Most dealers only use tenths of a degree not seconds of arc. Minutes of arc is six times more finite than tenths. Subframe misalignment occurs on transporters from improper tiedown.

As to alignment, most techs want to set or see readings in middle of green which is not usually the ideal setting. Now, with it set to settings mentioned, I can go a mile on turnpike without changing lanes. I’ve found that the electromechanical steering has the capability to correct for any other exceptional road crown.

P.S.: I had my car aligned at the dealer three times before I gave up and took it to an independent shop. The dealer may have the capability to do it right, but when your car is repeatedly given to the same tech who doesn't care, at some point you cut your losses. That said, there are competent dealerships and techs that can, and should, perform the work detailed here, and if you use the settings I posted, you will find that your car a totally different car and a pleasure to drive.

Last, note that tire PSI is critical on our cars, as if too high, the car will "tramline". I keep mine around 38 PSI."

I'M PISSED. I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BRING MY CAR TO ANOTHER SHOP. VW SHOULD FIX THIS.

Can someone please, please share particular VW of America contacts with me who can get down to the bottom of this all and make it right?

I can see that you have the right to be pissed. With all the billions of dollars spent finding cures for various medical issues, not one dollar has been spent on finding a cure for stupidity. I fortunately have the knowledge to know what to do to get some things fixed. If you feel like driving a couple hours, I can tell you where you can get it fixed by two vw master techs. Road force(farce) is a balance technique to make a bad tire somewhat tolerable,not to correct alignment issues. You are welcome to drive my passat and see the difference. The district service vw rep must be the same as the one for this area, Won Dum Fuk. The biggest problem in dealer bad service depts is that they don't even know they are stupid, and when you know they are, they resent it.

dbs600, hopefully you have Conti's, not bridgestones or the unmentionables, as the Conti's do track well.

thundershorts said:

I can see that you have the right to be pissed. With all the billions of dollars spent finding cures for various medical issues, not one dollar has been spent on finding a cure for stupidity. I fortunately have the knowledge to know what to do to get some things fixed. If you feel like driving a couple hours, I can tell you where you can get it fixed by two vw master techs. Road force(farce) is a balance technique to make a bad tire somewhat tolerable,not to correct alignment issues. You are welcome to drive my passat and see the difference. The district service vw rep must be the same as the one for this area, Won Dum Fuk. The biggest problem in dealer bad service depts is that they don't even know they are stupid, and when you know they are, they resent it.

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Thank you for your kind offer, thundershorts; very nice of you.

Not sure what to say; I'll take you up on it when the time comes; thank you.

Just e-mailed my entire correspondence history with VW Customer CARE to many of those listed on this page:

https://media.vw.com/page/14/

Otherwise, sadly, not sure which tires I have; sorry I don't have this info for your either; just got the car.

This shouldn't be so difficult.

Unfortunately none of the top execs are going to fix your car. They could if they want to, tell customer service to try to resolve the matter, which would possibly send you to another dealer and waste your time. I could recommend one to the gurus here on the forum who are closer to you but it would be rare to find one who has an alignment setup. Perhaps someone here will chime in. Many here drive hours to avoid incompetent people touching their cars. For you its two hours flat from the midtown tunnel. So far your car has been getting what we referred to as the"sun treatment" meaning its parked at the dealership and lip service. The dealer in Trenton probably could fix it as the service manager there knows what needs to be done

thundershorts said:

Unfortunately none of the top execs are going to fix your car. They could if they want to, tell customer service to try to resolve the matter, which would possibly send you to another dealer and waste your time. I could recommend one to the gurus here on the forum who are closer to you but it would be rare to find one who has an alignment setup. Perhaps someone here will chime in. Many here drive hours to avoid incompetent people touching their cars. For you its two hours flat from the midtown tunnel. So far your car has been getting what we referred to as the"sun treatment" meaning its parked at the dealership and lip service. The dealer in Trenton probably could fix it as the service manager there knows what needs to be done

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I agree with you, but the car is still at the dealer.

At this time, the VW Executive Team has taken over the matter from VW Customer CARE.

I should receive an update later today.

Will keep everyone posted.

I think VW knows all about the subframe missalignment problem and has decided not to in anyway admit to it. They exclude alignment from warranty. If they did admit to it they would be obligated to pay to have lots of cars fixed which they have not done up to this point, including mine, which I not only paid for the incompetent alignment at the dealer but also paid the master techs who fixed it correctly. You've already heard the party line" its up to vw standards". Even if they were to tell the dealer to realign the subframe, its highly doubtful they would even come close to doing it correctly, judging from what they did so far. Just the fact they road "farced" your tires shows their stupidity. What you ought to ask customer service is if they will pay for you to take it to a competent shop to have it done right.

we''ll see what kind of response you get, if they accept responsibility to pay to correct it, I and others will be on the horn with customer sevice demanding that they reimburse us for our expens

dbs600: I'm with thundershorts now. You gave it your best shot, they've responded. Time to get your car out of their storage lot (with all the hyper car jockeys sliding around it!), take it to a legit alignment shop, eat the cost. (I NEVER leave my car overnight, unless it's disabled.)
You might get some pleasure taking the paid receipt to your offending VW dealership, but they probably won't care, nor will they reimburse you.
This whole scenario is just stupid, and unacceptable, but you'll finally get your issue resolved, and then work on finding a legit guru to work on your car.
Good luck!

tdiatlast, you said it better than I ever could. Btw, the settings I posted here are in the green zone of the alignment program for Passat, nothing radical. The same corporate attitude that cost them billions still remains at VW apparently, lots of people with that "Chinese" sounding name. I asked customer service why no one there had a last name, just initial, response was security, understandably, given how pissed people are.

(...that's why the time was right for me to bail...enough already...)

You should be able to drive your passat on a straight highway half a mile with your hands off the steering wheel without changing lanes. The controller for the steering is programed to correct for road crown but not for misalignment. If you don't think its possible, just drive mine.

Klystron said:

:
Today they did the alignment and when they put it on the rack the only two things that were out of spec were the right front caster and the right rear toe.

The front right caster is 7.24 with a acceptable range of 7.25 to 8.25
The rear toe was -0.03 with a acceptable range of 0.10 to 0.00

After the alignment everything was centered pretty much center of spec with the exception of the caster. With the left being perfect at 7.40 deg but the right still at 7.24 deg.

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caster- FR has to be slightly higher than LF to counter right pulling due to road crowning..

i did some online research/phone calls finally found one of the best ind specializing alignment shop here in Arizona. they do lot of high end & race cars alignment, as well as frame alignment for accident involved cars. but for me, subframe alignment was very important, and this shop does it,since firestone alighnment tech told me Caster is not adjustable and is off.

i stayed entire time while tech/owner was explaining me, he said: Right front caster "has to be" slightly higher than LF to avoid pulling right effect on crowning road. mine was slightly higher on RF than LF. and he likes to keep it that way.but FL camber also was slightly off (than RF)and i said to change it and make both front camber even.

than he sat on driver's seat and said watch both front camber readings, both cambers came to even -0.55 degree or so. but he said he can change both front camber and caster readings to your liking by slightly moving subframe, but you'll come back again. front toe was off and he corrected it. rear toe adjusted to 0.00d. he went ahead and explained that driver's weight, air pressure, loaded weight make difference. lot of it was out of my comprehension. and now car does not pull right at all. and it tracks perfectly fine..

for alignment i would not recommend to go to dealer. i prefer ind shop that specialize in alignment. shop that i went to does race car alignment, suspension work, lower or uplift cars etc.,there aren't many but one can be able to find in metro area.

Brad95, thanks for joining in here. The theory of setting camber/caster to compensate for road crown has its flaws as well...crown varies as well as vehicle loading. Fortunately on our passats and other vw products such as my other tdi '15 golf, the steering controller senses the slight variation caused by the crown and corrects for it. Go to 44 with vcds and you will see what all the steering controller does. so it is not necessary nor desirable to set r/l differently. When you set toe front to zero, it is best and truest starting point for right/left castor/camber comparison.

Hey guys, thanks for the education. I found this that helped me further understand a bit (not a lot, ggg):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3jgcmPc8_I

thundershorts said:

The theory of setting camber/caster to compensate for road crown has its flaws as well...crown varies as well as vehicle loading. When you set toe front to zero, it is best and truest starting point for right/left castor/camber comparison.

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thundershorts!, after reading many of your posts, i am thinking to re align the way you are describing. so to better understand correctly! there shouldn't be any toe:
1) another words make toe zero (front & rear) for comparison purposes.
2) then adjust camber and caster of front end.(by aligning subframe).
3) then readjust toe for both ends according to specs.. doesn't that offset camber and caster afterwords?

can you post final specs of your passat after alignment was done.

not too long ago, replaced tires, due to high speed vibration! and both front tires had very bad "rounded edges"(52k). balanced it twice still vibrated!.

No, leave the toe at zero front and back. When loosting the subframe bolts it may jump back into position by itself or need to shift it slightly. The subframe bolts must then be retorqued in the proper order to the specific setting. My B5.5 specified using new bolts and I don't think that may be totally critical. Assuming its a modern alignment bench, use minutes of angle rather than tenths for a more accurate result. If tires are funky/worn, they should be replaced with something of good quality before you align. When done, there should be only a couple of minutes of arc difference right and left. your thrust angle should end up at zero. Rear camber setting anywhere from 30min to one degree negative. If this is done right, your passat will feel like a totally different car.

Service manager either quit or was fired since my last visit.

VW corporate states I need to pick up my car by tomorrow and that there's a road test scheduled with two regional reps one week from today at a dealer an hour away from me. Corporate also states that all the TSB's I've referenced are not applicable to my car.

Latest TSB as follows: http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=659033&d=1504651909

What BS!

Well the vw corporate is right about one thing at least...you need to get your car far away from the dealership. I guess its then up to you. Before my present 2015 sel I had a 2013 sel which I ran 56000 miles on the settings I posted here. Tires would have been good for another 25-30k miles, so the settings do work well and extend tire life also. If I were you, I'd ask the vw people a question, after the test drive, demonstrating the steering drift, are they going to fix/realign your subframe so the castor/camber match right and left, while you are there or not? Or do you have to dick around with another appointment? If you get a mealey mouth answer you can ask them if you get it fixed by a vw master tech, will they pay for it? My guess would be you will be wasting your time. I guess its question for you whether you want to play it out to the end and then write the corporate heads amout the total experience,

her is what i sent cRe: Volkswagen Customer CARE 170570597

Fri, May 26, 2017 10:10 am
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johnspetard (johnspetard@aol.com)To:VWExperience Details

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Case # 170570597

Dear Douglas O,
Douglas, thank you for talking to me and taking the time and consideration in this matter.

I took the Delivery of this 2015 SEL Passat TDI at Hamilton Volkswagen, New Jersey and drove it 80 miles home. D'Ambrosio VW did not have a TDI SEL Passat. As soon as I got home, I made an online appointment for alignment and State Inspection, Monday, May 15, 2017.

I was charged for a four wheel alignment and the Service Manager, Larry and the Service Writer, Andrew, came out to discuss results. When I saw the results, I told them that it would pull right. I drove less than five miles and called them to tell them it had a definite drift right. Larry drove the car and said that the drift was because of Torque Steer and that it was up to VW's Standards. I told him that I wanted the car to be fixed. He said, if requested, he would generate and estimate to correct the right side Caster/Camber issue. I left and consulted with a VW Master Tech, who told me that the problem was pretty common and could be corrected by realignment of the sub-frame. On May 18, 2017, he corrected and aligned the car so that it drives even better than my 2013 Passat TDI SEL.

Friday, May 19, 2017, after being unable to reach Larry by phone, I stopped by D'Ambrosio to see him in person. I told him I wanted a refund for the alignment his shop had done, as it was obvious it was not done correctly since the rear camber was not set (see attachment.) He told me that the rear camber is not adjustable on a Passat TDI SEL. I told him that the car had been fixed. I again asked for my money back, he refused saying, "You didn't buy your car here." If I had said that to a customer during my thirty years as a franchised new car dealer, I probably would have received a termination letter. He also told me that VW had instructed him not to do any further work on my car.

My last encounter with Larry was after having to replace a defective drivers door lock assembly on my 2013 Passat TDI SEL. The Latch failed on a Saturday during a snow storm. D'Ambrosio had the latch and not the cable. I drove to Garnet VW and bought the cable then drove back to D'Ambrosio all the while holding the door closed during this journey.

The Mexico made latch was replaced with a Czech Republic latch. The following week I stopped in to see Larry as to whether there had been any TSB 's regarding door latch and cable problems and the safety issue with such failures. Since he didn't know, I requested to speak or meet with the District Service Representative on his next visit to the Dealership. Larry refused, stating; "A door latch is no more a safety issue than a burned out headlight bulb." NHTSA disagreed with that assessment. I've included photos and the RO from that failure from the 2013 Passat TDI SEL repaired at D'Ambrosio VW.

Please contact me if you have any further questions on this matter.

Now the 2015 Passat TDI SEL is a pleasure to drive, so much so that I went back to United Tire the next day and gave the Tech a hundred dollar tip.










customer service about my problem.

Re: Volkswagen Customer CARE 170570597

Fri, May 26, 2017 10:10 am
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johnspetard (johnspetard@aol.com)To:VWExperience Details

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Case # 170570597

Dear Douglas O,
Douglas, thank you for talking to me and taking the time and consideration in this matter.

I took the Delivery of this 2015 SEL Passat TDI at Hamilton Volkswagen, New Jersey and drove it 80 miles home. D'Ambrosio VW did not have a TDI SEL Passat. As soon as I got home, I made an online appointment for alignment and State Inspection, Monday, May 15, 2017.

I was charged for a four wheel alignment and the Service Manager, Larry and the Service Writer, Andrew, came out to discuss results. When I saw the results, I told them that it would pull right. I drove less than five miles and called them to tell them it had a definite drift right. Larry drove the car and said that the drift was because of Torque Steer and that it was up to VW's Standards. I told him that I wanted the car to be fixed. He said, if requested, he would generate and estimate to correct the right side Caster/Camber issue. I left and consulted with a VW Master Tech, who told me that the problem was pretty common and could be corrected by realignment of the sub-frame. On May 18, 2017, he corrected and aligned the car so that it drives even better than my 2013 Passat TDI SEL.

Friday, May 19, 2017, after being unable to reach Larry by phone, I stopped by D'Ambrosio to see him in person. I told him I wanted a refund for the alignment his shop had done, as it was obvious it was not done correctly since the rear camber was not set (see attachment.) He told me that the rear camber is not adjustable on a Passat TDI SEL. I told him that the car had been fixed. I again asked for my money back, he refused saying, "You didn't buy your car here." If I had said that to a customer during my thirty years as a franchised new car dealer, I probably would have received a termination letter. He also told me that VW had instructed him not to do any further work on my car.

My last encounter with Larry was after having to replace a defective drivers door lock assembly on my 2013 Passat TDI SEL. The Latch failed on a Saturday during a snow storm. D'Ambrosio had the latch and not the cable. I drove to Garnet VW and bought the cable then drove back to D'Ambrosio all the while holding the door closed during this journey.

The Mexico made latch was replaced with a Czech Republic latch. The following week I stopped in to see Larry as to whether there had been any TSB 's regarding door latch and cable problems and the safety issue with such failures. Since he didn't know, I requested to speak or meet with the District Service Representative on his next visit to the Dealership. Larry refused, stating; "A door latch is no more a safety issue than a burned out headlight bulb." NHTSA disagreed with that assessment. I've included photos and the RO from that failure from the 2013 Passat TDI SEL repaired at D'Ambrosio VW.

Please contact me if you have any further questions on this matter.

Now the 2015 Passat TDI SEL is a pleasure to drive, so much so that I went back to United Tire the next day and gave the Tech a hundred dollar tip.

thundershorts said:

Well the vw corporate is right about one thing at least...you need to get your car far away from the dealership. I guess its then up to you. Before my present 2015 sel I had a 2013 sel which I ran 56000 miles on the settings I posted here. Tires would have been good for another 25-30k miles, so the settings do work well and extend tire life also. If I were you, I'd ask the vw people a question, after the test drive, demonstrating the steering drift, are they going to fix/realign your subframe so the castor/camber match right and left, while you are there or not? Or do you have to dick around with another appointment? If you get a mealey mouth answer you can ask them if you get it fixed by a vw master tech, will they pay for it? My guess would be you will be wasting your time. I guess its question for you whether you want to play it out to the end and then write the corporate heads amout the total experience,

Click to expand...

Thank you, thundershorts.

I will heed your advice when meeting the reps!

Alignment Report:

http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=659745&d=1504734084

First thing I noticed eas that your car was not given a pyedelivery inspection. tire pressures were never lowered to specified 35, which is a filly laden setting, not always optimum for lighter loading. Second thing is your subframe is not misalignrded, meaning any good alignment tech can set it up correctly easily. somehow, even without knowing, I am going to guess you do not have Conti tires. The road farce balance job is the clue. Your car of course will feel different simply because the tire pressure was lowered. VW will claim your car is fine and won't do much if anything for you. They most likely have never driven a passat that was set up correctly and most likely have no clue as to the tracking characteristics of the different brand tires that the factory puts on these cars. My advice in advance is to take your car to an alignment shop equipted to align to minutes rather than tenths, use the settings I gave you, then go meet the VW people if you want. Tires will be the final determining factor as to your sucess turning your car into a pleasurable car to drive. I bought a golf tdi last month and drove two identical ones, one with Conti's, one with Bridgestones, rge difference was night and day between the tires. Bridgestone equipted one felt softer and less precice tracking.

Agree with ^^^. Alignment elsewhere, then back to VW...but that might just be even more wasted time.
So sorry to hear about all this. This isn't rocket science!

thundershorts said:

First thing I noticed eas that your car was not given a pyedelivery inspection. tire pressures were never lowered to specified 35, which is a filly laden setting, not always optimum for lighter loading. Second thing is your subframe is not misalignrded, meaning any good alignment tech can set it up correctly easily. somehow, even without knowing, I am going to guess you do not have Conti tires. The road farce balance job is the clue. Your car of course will feel different simply because the tire pressure was lowered. VW will claim your car is fine and won't do much if anything for you. They most likely have never driven a passat that was set up correctly and most likely have no clue as to the tracking characteristics of the different brand tires that the factory puts on these cars. My advice in advance is to take your car to an alignment shop equipted to align to minutes rather than tenths, use the settings I gave you, then go meet the VW people if you want. Tires will be the final determining factor as to your sucess turning your car into a pleasurable car to drive. I bought a golf tdi last month and drove two identical ones, one with Conti's, one with Bridgestones, rge difference was night and day between the tires. Bridgestone equipted one felt softer and less precice tracking.

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Thanks so, so much! So all can be made right!

How can you tell my subframe is not misaligned?

Argh; sorry I forgot to check the make of tire; will do so and post.

Otherwise, yes, who knows if they read tire pressures when hot or not.

And not sure why the rear left tire is showing '0' PSI.

Strange report. :|

tdiatlast said:

Agree with ^^^. Alignment elsewhere, then back to VW...but that might just be even more wasted time.
So sorry to hear about all this. This isn't rocket science!

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Thanks for your continued support as well, tdi.

I don't want to have a non dealer touch the car until I resolve all with VW. I don't want VW telling me something done elsewhere caused this and I'm no longer covered under warranty therefore. I better not take time away from work and drive an hour away to go on a road test for no reason. They damn better take the car and do what's necessary to get sorted. Pissed. :|

subframe ha not shifted by the settings.....and you thought I was clairvoyant Hot or cold 44 is shipping pressure and is supposed to be lowered during predelivery inspection before delivery to a retail customer. The zero must have been caused by a brain fart. alignment isn't covered by warranty anyway, Driving around and hitting a pothole could obviously knock something out of whack easily. After you!have your waltz with vw, you could take it to a Porshe, BMW, Audi, Benz dealer if you want and have them align it to the settings I gave you if you feel better going to a dealer. VW will do absolutely nothing but what I told you because they don't want to set a precedent

I hear you about warranty concerns. Keep in mind that NOTHING done at a reputable alignment shop will affect warranty. Dealerships threaten all the time that ANYTHING done outside a VW shop will void your warranty, which is very from the truth.

So, you're going to give them another chance? Go for it! Hopefully you'll find someone there who can do this (simple!) alignment. BUT...leave the "pissed" part out of it. If you find continued belligerence/incompetence at the next dealership, raising your own blood pressure will get you nowhere, except threatening your own health.

Just...drive...away...get it resolved elsewhere...and report back here with the names of the offending dealerships. HA!