Steering wheel slightly left = Car runs straight - Tracking?

[daveh 0]

Howdy all,

 

Had the tracking on my C done 16,000miles (18 months) ago, just before I got a new set of tyres.

 

Pretty soon I realised that the car was not perfectly set-up. On the motorway especially, I noticed that the wheel had to be held slightly to the left for the car to track straight. If I moved the wheel to exactly straight ahead, I gently changed lanes to the right.

 

This happened whether the camber of the road was to the left or to the right (checked by driving on the wrong side of the road, and over some sections of motorway, where the rain is drained to the central reservation and not the hard shoulder).

 

I rang the garage, and they asked me to bring the car back. I was really busy at the time, and never got around to booking it in again. After a couple of months it seemed a little churlish to return, so I just put up with it.

 

Now then, whilst having my new exhaust (don't get me started on that one!), I asked them to check the tracking, whilst also explaining the problem I had.

 

To cut a long story short, the car is still the same. I've rung the garage, and they say that it is due to the road camber and not the tracking.

 

Any ideas????

[stevemac 0]

Although most German cars do pull slightly to the left - this is hardly noticable on a correctly set-up car. Your problem could be due to the suspension camber being out of adjustment. 4 wheel laser wheel alignment will correct all of this - provided that your suspension isn't too worn. If your ball joints, top mountings or wheel bearings are worn - get them replaced before having the alignment done.

[dr_mat 0]

If you let go of the wheel, what happens? If it pulls to the right, then something weirdo is happening, or the road is heavily cambered to the right. If it runs pretty much straight, but your steering wheel is slightly off-centre, then the guy that did the tracking didn't set the wheel in the middle properly while he was doing it.

Tracking just means setting so both front wheels point in the same direction, but as a courtesy to the driver, they should set it with the steering wheel straight...

[matt_corradovr6 0]

yeah just ahd my wheels aligned and my steering wheel sits to the left. just cos the roads round this area are so cambered the garage thought they had set it straight. just a 24mm soket and adjust to the straight ahead and your done! :D

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Mine pulls a smidge to the left and I know for sure the geometry is correct.... I think Corrados are just sensitive to road surfaces and don't forget they run a lot of negative camber. Vectras and the like run seriously deep offsets and positive camber, which is why they track dead straight and don't tramline - until I've thraped one to death that is :lol:

[dr_mat 0]

daveh never actually said it pulls to one side, kev. He just said the wheel is offset from straight ahead... We're still waiting for him to clarify his question!

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I know, I was responding to SteveMac, sorry, I should have quoted him!

[dr_mat 0]

Ah, right. Then it was I that was confused.

Nothing to see here, move along ...

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Nice quote from Star Wars :wink:

[dr_mat 0]

These are not the droids you are looking for ...