[Vwdiesel] mileage woes

[gary]

My Quantum TD used to dog-track.

When I had it aligned, I had a "four-wheel" alignment. Not that they
align all four wheels, but they check the total toe between front and
back. What was this called? Thrust Angle?

The rear wheels relative to themselves were in perfect alignment, but
the rear toe veered off to one side.

My solution was to remove the rear beam support brackets and elongate
the mounting holes. I was able to shift one wheel forward and one wheel
back enough to straigten out the rear toe.

Ditto what others have said, aligning an A1 is easy with typical hand
tools.
-- 

-Gary
1980 P/U NA-IDI
1997 Passat TDI

On Tue, 2004-12-28 at 02:46 -0500, Johann Koenig wrote:
> Hey,
> I just got my '82 Rabbit on the road last week, and have been trying to
> figure out how to calculate my mileage, because I don't have a
> speedometer/odometer (gotta check the cable ...). Yesterday I drove up
> to my apartment in Ithaca to clean it out, and figured this would be the
> perfect opportunity. From past experience, I know the mileage to be
> about 160 from my parent's house to the apartment. So I drove to town,
> tanked up, and started the trip. About 15 or 20 miles from my
> destination, I stopped to fill up. Much to my chagrin, I put almost 5
> gallons in the talk, for about 150 miles of driving. After I got to my
> apartment, I went to the city to grab some food, adding perhaps 10 miles
> overall. Drove home, unloaded my stuff, and went to town to tank up
> again and check my mileage (another 6 or 7 miles). Put in just about 5
> gallons again! So now I'm looking at a total trip of between 320 and 350
> miles, using about 10 gallons. 32-35 mpg?!?! Man, was I bummed at that.
> But then I got to thinking, I was driving pretty fast there and back,
> averaging probably 70-80mph. Of course, no speedometer, so I really
> can't be sure. But I was passing a lot of people. Now I'm wondering,
> could my fast driving really have affected the mileage that much? I'm
> really hoping so!
> 
> Also, about what speed does the rabbit start shaking? At times, the car
> would start vibrating, but only when I was going really fast, and the
> engine sounded like it was about ready to rip itself to pieces (4spd
> manual). It's got almost new tires, that were just mounted/balanced, and
> a front end alignment just last week.
> 
> Which brings me to yet another quick question, my brother mentioned that
> it looked like my car was driving sideways, or at least angled, when he
> was following me. Can the rear end be out of a alignment? Can it be
> fixed?
> 
> Thanks