Suspicious suspension...

[Veearrhsix 0]

Private messaging to K-rado about a month ago re. my C's handling.

 

Veearrhsix:

Basically it's about my Corrado. I don't know if it's a common thing but here it goes...

 

It's happened a few times now but every time I go round a roundabout at a slow-ish speed the car loses grip and then I have to give it opposite lock in order to snake it back. Now could this be driver's error with not understanding the characteristics of this particular car, or do you think that there might be something wrong with my suspension or something? I just look a tit when I have to correct it. Hope you can help! Chris. P.S. I can't see why it could be a suspension fault tho...(Hadn't looked under the bonnet at this point.)

 

K-rado:

no expert, but could be a number of things including driver error, but if i were a betting man, assuming your tyres are good and the road not greasy and speed not excessive, i would say your suspension geometry is out.

Corrado

[dr_mat 0]

I assume you've ruled out sticky rear brakes .. ? That can be caused either by faulty calipers or by a badly adjusted/seized rear brake compensator valve.

[Veearrhsix 0]

It's got an MOT due at Christmas... Last service approx. 4 months ago - tightened the handbrake as rears were slipping (mechanic said brakes were V. good).

[davidwort 0]

park with the wheels straight ahead on the level, look down the side of the car from the front in line with the body/door, do the front wheels look like they have different camber to the rears, they should very slightly (by eye) lean in at the top, if the camber is way too positive, i.e. leaning out at the top the cornering would be poor, it could have a bent wishbone or something. Are the dampers leaking at all, are any of them really soft?

[Veearrhsix 0]

Suspension seems firm enough on all 4's (not spongy/not rock hard). Wheel alignment/camber doesn't seem out of the ordinary either (just like you said it should be davidwort) - however, gonna get it checked over soon... From reading certain threads on here recently, perhaps my left rear brake caliper has started to stick (Cheers dr_mat). All these things I'll add to the list for next month!. The heater matrix burst just before summer and needs replacing asap, as I'm scraping ice on the inside of my windscreen these days!

[dr_mat 0]

I hope you used a *slightly* more scientific method of judging the camber than "looking at it"..!

[Veearrhsix 0]

Could you give me another way of checking the camber?

[dr_mat 0]

Perhaps a camber gauge?

Or at the very least a plumb bob and a ruler??

[Veearrhsix 0]

Veearrhsix = Mechanical novice. I'm somewhat walking into these somewhat sarcy answers...

 

I'll leave this thread alone for now. :oops:

[dr_mat 0]

Veearrhsix = Mechanical novice. I'm somewhat walking into these somewhat sarcy answers...

 

I'll leave this thread alone for now. :oops:

 

Is this take 2? What were you going to write .. ;)

 

I'm no mechanic either (rarely do I lift a spanner), but I do realise there's no way on earth I'm going to be able to judge +/- 1 degree of camber on a road wheel without a reference .. !

 

Get a plumb bob (i.e. a string with a weight on it!), hang it at the side of the wheel in the centre of the wheel. The top of the wheel should be around 1 cm FURTHER from the string than the bottom of the wheel is. There you go, a home-made camber gauge.

[davidwort 0]

I'm no mechanic either (rarely do I lift a spanner), but I do realise there's no way on earth I'm going to be able to judge +/- 1 degree of camber on a road wheel without a reference .. !

 

You'd be surprised what you can see by eye, using the rear wheel rim as reference, I'm not saying you could tell half a degree out on one side, but you'd certainly be able to tell if there was a major problem like positive camber.

If you look at RWD cars on the road, it's pretty easy to see the negative camber on the rears.

[dr_mat 0]

Maybe you would spot it if it was that far out, but it's not hard to find a bit of string with a weight on it ..

TBH I think you'd more readily notice a problem with camber from behind the steering wheel - the car would pull one side horribly if a wheel was that far out. You can feel 0.5 degrees of camber, so +1 would do your head in (not to mention your tyres)..

[Veearrhsix 0]

...rear driver's side caliper has been sticking - and so far seems to have remedied the slow cornering control. Going in Awesome for a check over on a few other observations this week, as well as a new heater matrix assembly (quoted @ 500ish pounds). Hmmmm.