Steering Issues

[Paul Smith 0]

HI

 

I am after any suggestions, when driving my GTI the steering wheel isn't straight when you are driving straight which comes across to me as the tracking. Just wondered if there was anything else to check.

 

When driving hard as well at fairly high speed the car is very twitchy?

 

Thanks

 

Paul

[stuart1298 6]

i had the exact same problems,get ya wish bones and ball joints changed, tracking would just pull to the sides,

[SurGie 54]

Tracking, wishbones and rear beam could be at fault from the sounds of it.

[GLPoomobile 958]

A misaligned steering wheel is caused by the track rod ends being adjusted unevenly (although it could obviously be caused by taking off the steering wheel and re-fitting it one or more splines out ). This in itself does not mean that the tracking is out - the tracking could be spot on perfect, but the monkey who did it may have done so "the lazy way", taking up any adjustment on one side only (on the track rod end). This means the overall length of the track rods is different on each side, so your rack is not centred when driving in a straight line. Then you have to get all deep about Ackerman angles and stuff like that, but the general summary is that it's not good, albeit not the end of the world either.

 

As for twitchy handling, I think it's a little premature for anyone to claim to know the cause based on that description It could be any number of things, so you'd really need to be a lot more descriptive about the problem and the symptoms etc.

[zebedy101 0]

Wishbone bushes are another are to check and fairly simple fix really. What suspension setup do you have?

[Paul Smith 0]

It has the standard suspension setup, although I think some one at some point has lowered the rear so I will hav this done.

 

From the sounds of it the track rod ends are a good place to start?

 

Thanks

 

Paul