Power On/off Steering Change

[nick205 12 5 Cars]

Hi All,

 

So far I've replaced the complete front suspension on my 205, overhauled the steering rack and had the rear beam reconditioned. The only non new suspension parts are the rear dampers, although they felt good when off the car during the beam rebuild. 4 wheel laser alignment shows everything well within in tolerance.

 

When coasting, the car drives dead straight, with the steering wheel dead centre, car feels planted.

 

When under power, the car pulls towards the middle of the road and the steering wheel is off a few degrees. The steering also feels a little twitchy.

 

The only thing I can think is the engine and gearbox mounts are shot and the engine is moving under load and affecting the drive shafts. The gearbox oil seals are leaking, so this may indicate the same.

 

I'm going to replace the engine mounts anyway, but wonder if there's anything else I may be missing.

 

Cheers

Nick

[jackherer 543]

Did you fit new wishbones? This is normally caused by the wishbone bushes. If you fitted pattern wishbones you'll need to fit genuine Peugeot bushes, the pattern ones fail almost immediately.

 

Unfortunately Peugeot have just discontinued the kit of bushes so you'll need to buy them individually which works out to quite a lot of money. http://forum.205gtidrivers.com/index.php?showtopic=159465&hl=

 

If you've already done that you need to look at the wishbone balljoints and the hole they fit into on the hubs, this hole can become ovalled due to over-tightening.

[nick205 12 5 Cars]

Thanks Jack

 

Wishbones are pattern, but <1k miles on them, if the bushes are spanked then the factors will be refunding them very quickly. It's also just sailed through the MOT with no comment, although they mave spotted new wishbones and not actually checked the bushes. Will check this tonight.

 

PITA on the OEM bush kits, but then at least the parts themselves are still available.

 

As far as I can tell the hubs are OK with a good sized gap on the ball joint clamp. Again, no comments on MOT, but same applies to actually having been checked. I'll have another look tonight at this as well.

[Anthony 1,002]

Wishbone bushes can be horrendous to drive on the road and still sail through an MOT in my experience - 205's are very sensitive to wishbone bushes compared to most cars and will be all over the road before there's anything like enough movement to get flagged on the MOT.

 

Less than 1k miles isn't unheard of failure wise either - they really can be that bad, especially if they weren't torqued up in their sitting position.

[nick205 12 5 Cars]

Definitely torqued up in their at rest position, but will have them apart and check.

[hoodygoodwood 70 3 Cars]

Does sound like ovalled holes for the wishbone balljoint pin , I had this many years ago and it pulled badly to one side when coming on/off the throttle .Not nice at all .

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Mines like that right now patent wishbones were brand new fitted last june and within a month steering wheel sits off centre pulls to the right when braking or accelerating but my tie rods are nackered as well now so its even worse.

[nick205 12 5 Cars]

Just been out in and it's annoying me even more now!

 

I see allenallen on here can repair them and have dropped him a PM to see what's involved.

 

Does anyone know what the repair is? Sleeve maybe?

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Repair for what?

[nick205 12 5 Cars]

The ovalled hub.

 

Bore it out and sleeve it back to size.

[jackherer 543]

There is no point doing any of that while you have pattern wishbone bushes, only genuine Peugeot ones will work, there are hundreds of threads backing this up.

[Anthony 1,002]

I'm not sure I completely agree with that.

 

Genuine Peugeot bushes will certainly usually last far longer than pattern bushes (although not all pattern bushes are equal and some do last quite well) but if the hub is ovalled then that needs to be sorted out otherwise it'll never drive correctly regardless of bushes.

 

Not only that, but there's only a given degree of ovalness that can be repaired as far as I understand, so it's better to catch it early then it is to leave it until it is absolutely ruined.

[jackherer 543]

Well, yes, but go back and re-read the thread, the OP thinks the hubs look OK, my money is on the bushes.

[Anthony 1,002]

Oh, don't get me wrong - I agree that the bushes do sound like the prime suspect here

[Mac Crash 78 1 Cars]

Polybushes? have read somewhere here in the past that they are not favoured and that OE bushes are better... any idea why? because I can't understand that. Good polybushes don't wear quickly and have next to no movement. I've used them on all my other cars and the difference they make is fairly noticable, the OE Peugeot bush therefore is obviously of very high quality but better than a polybush? how?

[Slo 283 1 Cars]

Don't think anyone said they are better, you may get more preciscion from a block of plastic compared to a block of formed rubber but the ride will be a lot harsher and probably put more stress on other components. Suspension is designed to flex a little I would've thought.

[Tom Fenton 1,540]

Part of the problem with poly bushes on 205 wishbones IN MY OPINION, is that for some bizarre reason the wishbone pivot points between front and rear bush are not on the same axis. Therefore every time the wishbone moves it is not only rotating against the bush, it's also twisting the bush across the axis. This in my mind is why the poly bushes don't last well, because they don't take this twisting force well.

That's my theory anyway. I agree in lots of other vehicles they work a treat, but on a 205 they just do not!

[allanallen 528 2 Cars]

Standard bushes actually have less material in them to flex in the first place too, there's a load of metal in there as well!