Non-205 (corsa) Steering Pulling Left.

[scottish_lion 0]

Hi folks, would appreciate your input...

 

My little bro has just bought a 1.2 Corsa B. He's just had 4 wheel allignment done, so when the steering wheel is straight, the car is straight and true.

 

It's lowered 60mm on coilovers all round.

 

My dad sorted the camber (before they tracked it) on one side as it was negative, so both wheels look fine camber-wise, the top mounts look fine and are the same on both sides at least.

 

The rack is Ok as it turns fine from lock to lock and is centred.

 

Basically, it just pulls left and if you have right lock on it wants to self-centre pretty aggressively.

 

Oh, and they said when they tracked it that the track rod ends were adjusted pretty much as far out as they could go (almost at the end of the thread).

 

Any ideas would be welcome

[ablister 31]

was the 4 wheel alignment carried out after all the work was carried out on it (coilovers, camber adjustment etc)?

 

Are tyres ok ie are they the same tread depth on them all as i've seen different tyres causing steering problems. Also simple thing like tyre pressures will upset steering

[philfingers 5]

is there a diff in it/ (ie LSD?)

If so LSDs certaintly highlight the smallest of geometry inadequacies.

I also had this problem (though notas severe as yours sounds) in an old nova i had, i swapped the front tyres side to side and that was it sorted. Maybe something to do with the way the belts were laid in the tyres?

 

Phil

[scottish_lion 0]

Thanks, I'll give that a try. The allignment was done after everything else yes.

 

Tyres are new but cheap crap ones by the look of them.

 

No lsd, it's just a 1.2.

 

I'll let you know, anyone else feel free to add you input.

 

Thanks, Leo

[jengis 0]

What alignment check was done? How did you adjust the camber?

 

Reason I ask is if it was just "tracking" it wouldn't check castor and camber etc. Most so called "4 wheel alignment" services just measure toe. My guess is that camber and castor are different each side. These have a big effect on steering and need to be even to "track" straight. Propper adjustment/measuring is quite expensive and not something that a local garage will do for 25 quid - needs to be propperly equiped specialist.

Edited August 31, 2009 by jengis

[Fox 3]

What are the bottom arms like?

 

It might have been in a prang

[philfingers 5]

worth dropping a tape measure on each side and making sure the distance between the fornt and rear wheels is the same both sides. It it's not then try and measure the back for instance relative to the front edge of the cill or the front edge of the door and try and figure out is it the back that misaligned or the front. Maybe the issue lies at the back, hit a curb and it got bent?

[scottish_lion 0]

Thanks for taking the time guys, I'll forward this to dad and get back to you!

[scottish_lion 0]

Just spoke to dad on the phone and had an interesting conversation.

 

So apparently the 1998 car has electric power steering ( which I didn't think manufacturers used until much more recently) with a little motor and gearbox acting directly onto the steering column. It is positioned just under the speedo and apparently there is a known fault where the sensor for where it centres gets confused and tries to centre it to the left.

 

This nearly always results in the car darting left and being harder to steer right.

 

This seems to explain it as dad says he's changed various things like camber but it's not made any difference.

 

So he's going to get in and re-centre the sensor and this should fix it.

 

Strange eh?