nzrossi

Thanks stevo, I think you picked it. I did some further investigation and I think I've isolated the problem. With the steering wheel in a straight position I took some measurements of the clearance between a straight edge placed horizontally across the wheel rim and the bodywork (at both the front and rear of the wheel arch). This gave me a rough indication of wheel alignment. I repeated this after driving around the block making hard left hand turns and again after making hard right hand turns. The measurements for the left front wheel stayed roughly the same (within 2mm) but the measurements for the right front went from clearances of 32mm front and 4mm rear to 16mm front 14mm rear! This islolated the problem to the front right wheel only, and therefore meant it probably wasn't the subframe. I pulled the wheel off and had a good look and bingo!, the three bolts that secure the balljoint in the slotted holes at the end of the control arm showed signs of having been moving in the slots. This would change primarily camber but also toe. I vauguely remember tightening these to the specified torque and thinking that it didn't feel very tight when I replaced the balljoints about 9 months ago. I haven't retightened them and road tested yet but I'm pretty sure this it would have been what was causing my problem. Can't believe the wheel alignment monkeys didn't pick it up! If you want a job done right...

nHi guys, I'm new to the forum. I have a '90 16v with a 9A 2.0l block, schrick cams, milltek header, lowered 40mm on PI spings BOGE shocks, 280mm front discs and 16' porsche replica wheels. I have got a strange steering porblem that I was looking for some advice on. The wheel alignment in my car is good, it tracks straight and the steering wheel is centred... UNTIL I go really hard around a corner to the left (ie pushing to the limit, understeer etc.). When I come out of the corner the tracking is still fine but the steering wheel now sits cocked off maybe 15-20 deg to the right when I'm going straight. The car still feels fine except that the steering wheel will remain in this offset position for straight ahead (possibly for days) until I go really hard around a right hand corner, after which it will return to a central position for straight ahead. A little background: In the last year or so I have replaced the springs and struts with 40mm lowered ones, the strut mounts with vr6 ones, the control arm balljoints, and most recently the control arm bushes with poly ones. I think it was doing it before I replaced the bushes as I remember the steering centre position did seem to vary, but I didn't positively diagnose the problem as above until after installing the bushes. I have had the car to the local wheel alignment specialists and they confirmed the problem but were not able to find a cause. They suspected the steering rack may have been moving on its mounts but after inspection they say this is impossible in this design. They also checked tierod ends, balljoints etc for play. Clearly something in the front steering/suspension geometry is moving. Whatever it is needs a lot of force to move (hard cornering only), and once it moves it stays moved until its gets a lot of force back the other way. This means it isn't play or wear in the steering linkage/tierods as that would cause slop in the sterring, not this problem. I suspect that what is moving is in the suspension rather than the steering, possibly the new contol arm poly bushes (although I think it was doing it before I installed these) or possibly the whole front subframe is moving. It could also be a balljoint moving where it is attached to the control arm. Has any one got any ideas, or better still has anyone enconted this problem before?