Cupra Sensitive to Road Camber

[2Stevo2]

Chaps, as the title suggests, im finding my Cupra to be very sensitive to the camber of the road. Are you experiencing this?

For example, whilst on the motorway, with the natural angle of it sloped towards the nearside, I feel as though im constantly having to counter it with some significant input to the right to keep it straight. I fully appreciate this is to be expected to some degree but it gets tiresone and requires a bigger input that what would be required on other cars e.g. my wifes basic Ford Focus. It works equally if the camber changes to the opposite side. Ive had the 4 wheels alligned and its spot on so no issues there and all suspension components and tyres appear in good working order.

Is it merely a trait of the car? Keen to get your opinions. Running with the wheels setup with slight negative camber (as it should be), does this contribute to the sensitivity?

 

[Dr.Dash]

Are your tyre pressures set to the recommended values? These are usually too high imo and exacerbate any tramlining.

Drop them to the Comfort values and see how that goes.

 

[Tara]

Chaps, as the title suggests, im finding my Cupra to be very sensitive to the camber of the road. Are you experiencing this?

For example, whilst on the motorway, with the natural angle of it sloped towards the nearside, I feel as though im constantly having to counter it with some significant input to the right to keep it straight. I fully appreciate this is to be expected to some degree but it gets tiresone and requires a bigger input that what would be required on other cars e.g. my wifes basic Ford Focus. It works equally if the camber changes to the opposite side. Ive had the 4 wheels alligned and its spot on so no issues there and all suspension components and tyres appear in good working order.

Is it merely a trait of the car? Keen to get your opinions. Running with the wheels setup with slight negative camber (as it should be), does this contribute to the sensitivity?

I would definitely try tyre pressure and tracking as mine doesn't do it to the extent your saying.

 

[Damo H]

As others and yourself have suggested already:

• Tyre pressures.
• Wheel alignment.
• Tyres, any sign of damage. Are they really old?

I run -2.5 camber at the front (think stock is around -1.5) and its certainly impacted a little more by camber in the road, but nothing major. Certainly nothing like you're saying

How was your alignment before you had it looked at. Did they do anything to fix it? The reason I ask is to do with the bushings.

I'm not as experienced with the Mk3 as I was my MINI as I've never got to high miles. But on the MINI it was notorious for the rear bushes for the front trailing arms going soft. People would get wheel alignments, for cars with "Sloppy Bushes" (ooooh matron!) and if anything make it worse. They went very sloppy very quickly, more so on the early cars.

So if wheel alignment, tyre pressures are okay then short of driving another car to compare, I'd be getting the bushes check for failure.

 

[TripleBob]

Not a cupra, but my Mk3 FR (so factory lowered suspension) was overly twitchy when I first collected it - I decided to switch to a set of PS4 tyres and had the tyre place do a proper alignment on a Hunter calibration machine... turned out the alignment was waaaaaaaaaay off - afterwards car was hugely improved and I no longer felt like I was having to correct for camber on the road, turn in improved dramatically at speed as well
As above I'd definitely get tracking checked somewhere with a decent machine, and tyre pressure set at the lower value of the 3 - not sure what they are on a Cupra

 

[2Stevo2]

As others and yourself have suggested already:

• Tyre pressures.
• Wheel alignment.
• Tyres, any sign of damage. Are they really old?

I run -2.5 camber at the front (think stock is around -1.5) and its certainly impacted a little more by camber in the road, but nothing major. Certainly nothing like you're saying

How was your alignment before you had it looked at. Did they do anything to fix it? The reason I ask is to do with the bushings.

I'm not as experienced with the Mk3 as I was my MINI as I've never got to high miles. But on the MINI it was notorious for the rear bushes for the front trailing arms going soft. People would get wheel alignments, for cars with "Sloppy Bushes" (ooooh matron!) and if anything make it worse. They went very sloppy very quickly, more so on the early cars.

So if wheel alignment, tyre pressures are okay then short of driving another car to compare, I'd be getting the bushes check for failure.

As it was the 4wheel Hunter allignment machine used, I was able to get a detailed readout of before and after. It was a good bit out so had assumed initially that was the cause. It did improve it a good bit.

The car is a year old with 9k on the clock so would hope the bushes were ok but worth a look

 

[Damo H]

Not a cupra, but my Mk3 FR (so factory lowered suspension) was overly twitchy when I first collected it - I decided to switch to a set of PS4 tyres and had the tyre place do a proper alignment on a Hunter calibration machine... turned out the alignment was waaaaaaaaaay off - afterwards car was hugely improved and I no longer felt like I was having to correct for camber on the road, turn in improved dramatically at speed as well
As above I'd definitely get tracking checked somewhere with a decent machine, and tyre pressure set at the lower value of the 3 - not sure what they are on a Cupra

Oh yeah.

As @TripleBob says, Hunter Alignment machine 100%. A decent alignment is likely to cost you upwards of £50, £100 if you're having everything done front and rear.

If they're charging you £20 on some dodgy machine, chances are they'll make it worse. There are better machines than Hunter, but you're liekly to find they charge even more and will be OEM for the likes of Porsche. Hunter is OEM for the likes of BMW, Merc etc.

 

[Damo H]

As it was the 4wheel Hunter allignment machine used, I was able to get a detailed readout of before and after. It was a good bit out so had assumed initially that was the cause. It did improve it a good bit.

The car is a year old with 9k on the clock so would hope the bushes were ok but worth a look

Yeah I'd be surprised normal wear and tear would be impacting it at 9k. But worth checking in case something has failed.

 

[2Stevo2]

Not a cupra, but my Mk3 FR (so factory lowered suspension) was overly twitchy when I first collected it - I decided to switch to a set of PS4 tyres and had the tyre place do a proper alignment on a Hunter calibration machine... turned out the alignment was waaaaaaaaaay off - afterwards car was hugely improved and I no longer felt like I was having to correct for camber on the road, turn in improved dramatically at speed as well
As above I'd definitely get tracking checked somewhere with a decent machine, and tyre pressure set at the lower value of the 3 - not sure what they are on a Cupra

Had the 4 wheel Hunter allignment done which did impove the pull a good bit but didnt improve its sensitivity to the road camber a whole lot.
Ill defo try the tyre pressures and see how I get on

 

[R.Bot]

All Tyres fitted correctly? For sided / directional. Unlikely, but had it on car years ago and easy to check and rule out.

 

[jt20vt]

I had the same issue on my cupra st 4drive even after 4 wheel alignment, when I changed the tyres so all 4 were the same it had gone. Previous owner had put different tyres on the front to what was on the back.

 

[2Stevo2]

All Tyres fitted correctly? For sided / directional. Unlikely, but had it on car years ago and easy to check and rule out.

Yip, same tyres from the factory with only 9k on them

 

[2Stevo2]

I had the same issue on my cupra st 4drive even after 4 wheel alignment, when I changed the tyres so all 4 were the same it had gone. Previous owner had put different tyres on the front to what was on the back.

Although I still have the same tyres on from the factory, a bit of my homework has revealed that certain tyre brands are worse than others for this apparent tramlining.

 

[TripleBob]

Although I still have the same tyres on from the factory, a bit of my homework has revealed that certain tyre brands are worse than others for this apparent tramlining.

Are the Cupra factory tyres Bridgestones by any chance? My FR had factory Bridgestones with 12k on them (or rather 3x factory and one random Avon one) and the PS4's were a massive upgrade in basically every way - road noise, grip, road/steering feel - they basically eliminated wheel hop (although you've got 4drive so that shouldn't be a thing for you)

 

[2Stevo2]

Are the Cupra factory tyres Bridgestones by any chance? My FR had factory Bridgestones with 12k on them (or rather 3x factory and one random Avon one) and the PS4's were a massive upgrade in basically every way - road noise, grip, road/steering feel - they basically eliminated wheel hop (although you've got 4drive so that shouldn't be a thing for you)

No, its Contisport 5s. And its the hatchback that I have, not the ST. Its defo something I am going to look more into though and I have heard great things about PS4s. Think I need to get the allignment checked again to double down that its ok and then move on.

 

[Damo H]

No, its Contisport 5s. And its the hatchback that I have, not the ST. Its defo something I am going to look more into though and I have heard great things about PS4s. Think I need to get the allignment checked again to double down that its ok and then move on.

So on my 280 ST it came with Kumho ditch finders (from a seat main dealer), When got a bulge after a pot hole, I swapped them for Michelin PSS. Transformed the car.

Got my 300 4drive, and it had the Continentals which were an a big step back, changed to Michelin PS4S within 2 weeks there was that notable a difference in feeling, even before the new tyres had chance to run in.

 

[matthab]

Mine with the stock continentals does this and so did my 280. Changing to PS4s made it better but I think I just got used to it. Even the lane assist struggles as it follows the camber. If it helps I drove in France and it did the same but the other way .

 

[jt20vt]

From past experience with cars conti and pirelli have been the worst at doing this 2 or 4 wheel drive hatchback or estate.

 

[2Stevo2]

Mine with the stock continentals does this and so did my 280. Changing to PS4s made it better but I think I just got used to it. Even the lane assist struggles as it follows the camber. If it helps I drove in France and it did the same but the other way .

Atleast no one can say its not consistent!

 

[2Stevo2]

From past experience with cars conti and pirelli have been the worst at doing this 2 or 4 wheel drive hatchback or estate.

I think your right. Certainly from the bit of research Ive done, Conti tyres appear to be causing issues on various makes and models for the same thing.