Guys,

Help me understand whats wrong - I'm going to just leave it with a garage anyway, but I always say to myself Scoobynet will know the answer.
And it usually does too


My MY05 UK STI has been pulling left for a while now.
I just assumed it was the alignment and left it as I was verging on requirinig new tyres anyway and thought I'll just get it all sorted together.

Got my 4 new tyres.
Car pulling to left still.
Tyre place recheck alignment - all OK he says.

I take it to my garage and guy tells me I've a worn steering arm on passenger side.
He replaces it and a new track rod end and does geometry setup too

Its still pulling left - albeit not as bad
I've told him.
He says he thinks its the tyres (Vredestine sessanta's) but bring it back and he'll look at it.
He said that its 100% not the alignment (and I'm inclined to believe him)

So bearing in mind its covered 60K now
What could be the problem?
Bushes?
Engine mount?

Cheers,

Shaun

 

I am not sure if this is any use to you but...I have had a 55 uk STI and have an 07 uk STI i have also had an 04 STI, both the 55 and 07 STI have a habit of finding the "ruts" / inperfections in the road which gives the impresion that the car pulls to the right (on mine). When on a nice bit of tarmac its not a problem.

I have put this down to the tyre as the wheels are different from the 04 model. I.E high wall tyre designed for hard cornering.

I hope that has been of some use to you.

 

Ball joint maybe but would of thought they would of checked that when they found the faulty track rod ?

 

They did.
He distinctly seperated the two.
He initially called this thing a drumstick, then later distinctly said that he also put a new track rod on there.
I asked is the "drumstick" also called something else and he said its proper name is a steering arm.
It connects directly to the steering rack.

I understand what you mean about the "imperfections" alright T5BNC

When i changed the tyres the passenger front was badly worn on the outside too.

 

How long did it run on it's new tyres, still pulling to the left, before you had the steering arm etc changed?

If it's more than a few miles, you MAY have worn the new tyres into a pattern that will continue to pull: difficult to correct. Can you borrow a set of wheels to try?

 

checked tire pressure and alloy for a buckle? As already said the tire may have formed a groove and now naturally pull to one side.

 

IMHO, a slight geometry issue combined with normal road camber and a specific tyre type can conspire to make a car feel "nasty", mine hated it's Toyo T1-S's with a vengence...

I too have had a drum-stick swapped, but it was due an MOT, and Ben told me to do it !

dunx

 

I had a similar problem and switched the front wheels over and it seemed slightly better. Check the ball joints, and steering universal joint. Mine tends to pull left too, I just put it down to the road camber.

 

about 2 days before the new steering arm so approx 100miles

I'll try swapping the fronts left to right and see what happens.

I'll ask the guy at the garage if he's got a set of wheels I could just try with

 

I had similar steering issues, Turned out to be the alignment. After having it done 3 times.

Eventually i got the place to make it spot on accurate and hey presto. drives straight.

 

The guy who works on my car is an ex subaru & toyota wrc head mechanic

He says that alignment is 100% spot on including camber etc
He was Solbergs & McRaes chief man

 

A head-mechanic? I could do with seeing one of those, my head's not been right since I was a lad, or so my wife says

 

interesting topic. I had/have similar issues. Once I've put a new set of goodyear f1's car started pulling left. Checked geometry 3 times, and it was still pulling... started swapping wheels front/back - similar issue. Then I swapped only 1 wheel(front/back) and car started to pull right, but only a bit. Left it since... I am due to new tyres, and I'm going to get the geometry checked with this one again, but I am also going to dial in the prodrive settings, and hope it will get cured. I don't know what the cause was or is, but I know this: with my new set of tyres I am going to go back as many times as needed to garage, until it is going straight

 

Couldn't we all

My wife also says that I'm not right in the head too sometimes

Bulk discount?

 

I've just got back from Kwik Fit after a similar issue. My car pulled to the left and had a tyre that kept going flat, they replaced the tyre and noticed that the alloy (Rota) had a buckle. He's managed to balance it out, not sure how you can balance a misshaped wheel mind but now it's stopped going left! I'm going to see if the tyre holds its pressure and leave it if it does, if it doesn't i'm going to order another alloy He did say I could probably get it mended though.