Steering pulling to left..

[jamiepyrite]

Hi all, so I somehow managed to kerb the ibiza about a week ago. Long story.. I won't explain it

Anyway, basically the wheel was wrecked, the tyre wall was damaged a bit and the lower suspension arm (all front left) was like a V as opposed to being straight!

We managed to get the car home at 15mph and got a new lower suspension arm and a new wheel.

My dad fitted the new arm and it all went well. He also picked up a VW wheel for it from the scrappys and stuck one of my 2 spare pirelli tyres on it. (I had brand new pirellis on the back, and half decent tread tyres on the front, with the other 2 pirellis sitting in my garage)

Well I took it to my friend's Dad's garage and he sorted all the tracking out. Thing is though, the steering is very light now and I feel like I don't have as much control now. Also it pulls to the left slightly - Enough to annoy me alot when going along a long straight road!


I've had a talk with my Dad and the mechanic who did the tracking and the possibilities seem to be:

Hub assembly is nackered
Strut Brace is nackered
Steering rack is nackered
VW wheel is causing it - get a Seat wheel?
brand new pirelli on the left but not so new old tyre on the right



Any ideas which of these (if any) it could be? I really don't fancy trial and error to find out the last thing I change is what was wrong!



Cheers

 

[hopkinsgm]

Did your Dad's mate check the camber too? If you walloped a kerb hard enough to make the wishbone taco-shaped, then the bottom of the strut will have shifted on the hub carrier throwing the camber out. Come to think of it, is the strut straight? Did the back whel make contact with the kerb? If it did, and given the force you must have hit the front end with, you might have a bent stub axle...

Hub assembly knackered? Posible, but it's a fairly substantial casting. Not impossible but unlikely.

If the strut brace is knackered, that would suggest that one of your inner arches had moved. And if that's the case, then replacing the strut brace should be the least of your worries.

Steering rack knackered? Not impossible.

VW wheel? Most Seat and VW stuff is fairly interchangable, and I'm guessing that the dead wheel and the replacement are both the same size and offset?

New tyre on the left would mean that for each revolution the left tyre would travel further, i.e. car would tend to pull to the right. So that's unlikely to be the problem.

 

[jamiepyrite]

Did your Dad's mate check the camber too? If you walloped a kerb hard enough to make the wishbone taco-shaped, then the bottom of the strut will have shifted on the hub carrier throwing the camber out. Come to think of it, is the strut straight? Did the back whel make contact with the kerb? If it did, and given the force you must have hit the front end with, you might have a bent stub axle...

Hub assembly knackered? Posible, but it's a fairly substantial casting. Not impossible but unlikely.

If the strut brace is knackered, that would suggest that one of your inner arches had moved. And if that's the case, then replacing the strut brace should be the least of your worries.

Steering rack knackered? Not impossible.

VW wheel? Most Seat and VW stuff is fairly interchangable, and I'm guessing that the dead wheel and the replacement are both the same size and offset?

New tyre on the left would mean that for each revolution the left tyre would travel further, i.e. car would tend to pull to the right. So that's unlikely to be the problem.

Hi, thanks for the reply.


The back wheel didn't hit the kerb.

If by camber, you mean the angle at which the wheel sat when looked at from the front of the car, he sorted that out. It was rediculously out. The top of the tyre was pointing away from the car.

From everything you've said there, it seems its the strut brace.

I'll replace this and hopefully it should be sorted.

Cheers

 

[Dolly_Gti]

track rod end bent or tie rod.. youd do well to damage the rack but no impossible.. We had a BMW MINI at work had new suspension, got all the angles in and went for a drive, the wheel didnt self centre and it pulled like a biatch.. after a brew and a biscuit we investigated, the distance between front and rear wheels was different from side to side, ie one wheel was sat a fair few mm back....new subframe sorted that one out.

 

[jamiepyrite]

Would the mechanic not have noticed if the track rod end was bent when he was doing the tracking/camber?

I'll look into it


subframe? Sounds worryingly expensive On a £400 car, don't know if this much work would be worth it if I have to replace expensive parts!

 

[Dolly_Gti]

problem with a fairly solid thing like the subframe, it probably wont be obvious if its bent slighty, but ud notice it when driving.. on a £400 motor id just live with the pulling lol

Edit:
Just noticed mork has a subframe with steering rack and maybe because hes idle wishbones. Worth bearing in mind if ur really stuck?

 

[hopkinsgm]

...Would the mechanic not have noticed if the track rod end was bent when he was doing the tracking/camber?...

Probably.

 

[jamiepyrite]

To Jamie from his Brother. Please change your front right to the Pirelli, I think you will notice the difference. Its surprising how much of a pain in the arse it is having a weird tyre set-up!!!

 

[m0rk]

Edit:
Just noticed mork has a subframe with steering rack and maybe because hes idle wishbones. Worth bearing in mind if ur really stuck?

certainly is considering it's 100% free