My Monte Carlo is pulling to the left HELP!

[vtaylor92]

Hello there!

I bought a second hand Monte Carlo September this year, registered in January 2012 .

It was in like new condition, Under 3000 miles on the clock.

As soon as I bought it I noticed it was pulling to the left and the problem has gradually gotten worse, the steering is out of line and pointing slightly towards the right.

Garage visits;

1. Lookers - tried telling me it was to do with tyre pressure.

2. Lookers - couldn't find a problem tried telling me it was torque pull and put two odd tyres on the front.

3. Private garage - Stated car was unsafe but there was nothing he could do as i should be done under warranty by Skoda

4. ClayBank Skoda - Couldn't find anything wrong, swopped my odd tyre onto to back and charged me £45 for the privilege. Told me it needs an alignment check but it would cost me £110. Since then my breaks are going from keen to dull.

After complaining to Skoda customer services, Skoda finance and trading standards i'm getting the wheel alignment check on 3rd January 2013 for free, but I have a feeling there is going to be nothing wrong with my alignment.

Any advice of what the problem might be or what I should do next?

I would be very grateful of any help I can get.

- Vickey

[Ootohere]

Welcome to the forum.

'As soon as you bought it is the important bit'..

You never kerbed a wheel or anything.

The 2 different tyres on the front is how they sold it.

?? Could this be because it was Kerbed or in an incident before they took it in, or while they had it?

Possible but not likely the garage never road tested or checked the vehicle properly before you collected it.

Skoda UK are going to have to permit the remedial work under your Warranty that came with the used vehicle.

** Ask them the vehicles history before you bought it, and did it require Warranty work or repair before you bought it.

No idea why they are trying to get you to pay.

The Calipers should not be sticking, but need checked,

the alignment needs checked.

The steering and chassis needs inspected closely and properly.

The Dealer put out a vehicle to a customer in an unsafe condition.

I would contact SKODA UK Customer Services again after the Alignment check if no repair work is to e done.

Tell them the whole story again.

See how they deal with it.

They should assist and have your car inspected and rectified.

You can threaten to have a Inspection done privately and any work required done and them billed.

Trading Standards should kick in from there if the problem is not resolved.

All the best with it.

george

[Web Ferret]

Welcome to Briskoda.

Email SkodaUK and the steeler with a link to this thread. Briskoda members are watching and can search this forum for years to come.

This is a cracking website for finding the email address of CEOs

http://www.ceoemail.com/se.php?id=10552

The e-mail address you require for Lookers PLC is

[email protected]

So Peter are you going to fix vtaylor92's car?

Looks like lookers don't look at their used cars properly before selling them on.

Edited 28 December, 2012 by Web Ferret

[vtaylor92]

Hi guys thankyou for replying to me.

The car has an odd tyre, as a week after I took the car into Lookers for the first time to be looked at a group of thugs tried to mug me for the keys and slashed a tyre, although i'm not sure they thought their get away plan through... I couldn't get hold of a matching Dunlop tyre at short notice so it now has a Falken on the rear.

I have a brief history of the car, the car was origionally owned by the finance manager at Lookers who traded it in after a few short months.. I'm starting to understand why as not only is the car pulling to the left something that is irritating the hell out of me I no longer feel safe driving the car and have had to cancel a holiday in Scotland as I feel it would be too dangerous to drive there. As far as I am aware the car was then used at a 'demonstration' car until I bought it.

In the terms of checking the cars warrenty history, I have a feeling due to the car being a car of a member of staffs there will be no history that says there has been a problem with it as I can imagine it would have been up on the ramp as an 'inside job'. But this is defo something I am going to be finding out!

This situation is really getting me down now as I am a student nurse and half of my monthly bursary is being spent on this car so I can drive too and from university & placement safely. As I am the age of 20 I cannot get insured on courtesy cars without spending a fortune. Both garages have been at least 15 miles away from my house, that means including the milage for my car and the car of the poor soukd who has to collect me and drop me off the total milage so far is 180 miles.

Not to mention the suprise charge of £45 i recieved after expecting any work done on my car to be done under warrenty.

I had to fight peoples stereotypical image of Skodas being unreliable when I first got this car now I have to agree with them i'm so dissapointed.

- Vickey

[Ootohere]

If it was a Demonstrator then that is fair enough.

They get the financial benefit of Demonstrators & then selling them after 3000 miles,

this Dealership is being very greedy & outright ignorant.

If the car was the Dealerships and not the Finance Managers, then that is another lie too far from them.

Run by the Dealership for 3000 mikes then sold.

I greatly doubt that any Finance Manager Owned it, he may be the Name used as the Registered Keeper for the Dealership with Demonstrators.

This is How my car was first Registered.

Hopefully SKODA UK will see you right now and any parts required will be replaced at no charge to you.

I would get the EMail off to SKODA UK Today before anything is done to the car on the 3rd,

& a copy of that of to the LOOKERS CEO & Branch Manager,.

They should have provided a Courtesy car while the vehicle is properly repaired.

I would demand that is what they do now.

The additional Insurance cost needs to be born by them as they are the ones that failed to put the vehicle right at the soonest possible chance.

Total Plonkers.

You should not have to suffer any costs,

Let SKODA UK know you wish to be compensated for Expenses and Fuel costs you have incurred.

Sorry your plans were spoiled by their ignorant stance.

All the best in the New Year.

george

[vtaylor92]

I'll post an update after the 3rd of Jan to let you know how it goes when I take it in for the alignment to be done.

Took the car out this afternoon and the pull was really bad, I don't know if it was because it was raining that it was worse.

Thanks for all your help

- Vickey

[arny]

If you look at my old posts I had similar concerns when I first got my Monte (June 2011) . Since then the effect has been less as time has gone on. I believe the Dunlop tyres make the car very camber sensitive and as they have worn this is much reduced. When my winter tyres are fitted (195 width on 15" rims) , the difference is noticeable and it feels neutral as you would expect . I will not be replacing my Dunlops with the same when they need changing on the front. Hope this helps.

[2ndskoda]

I actually made a reply yesterday (can't see it - has it been pulled for any reason?)

I to have dunlop tyres, and like others on this forum - have found these are far from perfect. There is definately directional instability. These has got better as time has gone on (Car now has 7500 on the clock).

I suspect that if you have unmatched tyres on the front, you are not likely to overcome the pulling until this is rectified.

If you have a proper laser tracking setup done (should help your out of position steering wheel) then I suspect it is all down to tyres.

Good Luck

Edited 31 December, 2012 by 2ndskoda

[vtaylor92]

Thanks for your replies guys.

If I have no look tomorrow I will look into swopping my remaining 3 Dunlop tyres for Falkens not like I can afford it.. Or should have to pay to do this.

It just worries me as the pull is so extreme I am on edge driving it these days.

Happy new year!

- Vickey

[Ootohere]

I run on 4 Dunlop tyres during the warm weather and no pulling to the left.

Dunlops should not be the problem.

I would not go to the expense of changing 3 tyres.

The car needs checked out and set up properly.

(Any bent or worn parts replaced & any tracking or alignment adjustment carried out.

UK vehicles are set up to run on the left hand side of the road and to suit the Camber of UK roads.)

** New and nearly new cars should not be put out to customers with 'ditch finder tyres or suspension' or steering set ups.**

The Garage can 'borrow' a matching wheel with a matching 'Dunlop' off another car,

while the cars alignment is done if they think thats a problem.

Once it is sorted you could change that Falken for a Dunlop if you really want to,

personally i do not think i would be doing that..

Tyre pressures need to be set properly on the car.

The 4 tyres need to be matching in size, not approx but accurately.

Hopefully the person that fitted the odd tyre, checked that correctly.

(the Falken is now on the rear you said in a previous post)

?? Are the Dunlops 'Directional tyres', Is there an arrow showing the direction they should roll forward in?

Is the Falken also a directional tyre

& fitted to the correct side and rolling in the correct direction?

george

You should be able to see the arrow,

right at the top of the tyre in the picture.

[dazz600]

+1 with George there

Do not buy 3 new tyres,if the pull is 'extreme' as you claim then the problem lies elsewhere

Especially if it continued when the odd tyre was moved from front to back with no difference

[The Plumber]

Our Monte has a slight pull to the left from new and that's with both 17" summer and 15" winter rubber. Supplying garage has looked at it with the winter rubber on but only found a wheel out of balance (thrown weight :wonder: ). Will get them to look at it again next time I'm down their way.

Seem to remember also, some Mk I's had similar issues but they have a different front carrier and wishbone set-up to the latter Mk II's.

TP

[Evil Miyagi]

My VRS had a slight pull to the left... I reported it to the garage who swapped the wheels front to back which instantly fixed the issue, unfortunately I have an annoying drone now so I'm presuming I have a buckled rim??

[vtaylor92]

Hello,

My 3 dunlop tyres are on the car with the arrow pointing in the right direction, my new tyre does not have this arrow however but it has been moved around the from back to front now to back again and was originally fitted by a tyre specialist who i trust knew what he was doing.

The pull was very bad before I had the odd tyre pull on the so the odd tyre has nothing to do with it as far as I am concerned.

The wheels have been repeatedly swopped and they have also been tracked 3 times.

I took the car into the garage this evening down the motorway and I was constantly battling with the steering wheel to keep it in line, when it started to rain i loosened my grip on the wheel to flip my wipers on and the car shot off to the left and scared the life out of me.

Your responses have been fantastic,

Thank you very much!

- Vickey

[moley]

The car needs a full 4 wheel laser alignment and not just the front tracking checked.

[vtaylor92]

The car is in the garage at the moment & is due to have this done tomorrow!

- Vickey

[vtaylor92]

Update guys!!

My car is fixed!

There is still a very minute pull to the left which I can cope with.

The car had a 4 wheel allignment, I have attatched the picture of the alignment readings.

[vtaylor92]

Thankyou all for your advice and help is was a hard road to get my problem fixed but I did it!!

- Vickey

[Grantson]

Glad you got it fixed

the before image is not showing up though just the photobucket holding image

[vtaylor92]

Turns out the car is not as fixed as I thought it was.. Drives in a pretty straight line when i'm alone in the car as soon as I have someone in my passenger seat.. Off to the left it goes again!

Oh dear! Looks like nobody is having a lift in the future

Heres my before image again, I hope it works!

- Vickey

[AdamJMK]

You'll probably find there's a fault with the suspension on the front passenger side which would be indicated by the problems your having, I had something similar occur in an old car of mine, ended up being a slightly bent wishbone, having alignment carried out sort of cured the problem for a while but it came back again, it was only after the part was replaced it was all good, keep badgering the dealership...

[vtaylor92]

I will do thankyou very much for that tip, i've herd about wishbone problems before reguarding this problem & i'll defo look into it.

- Vickey

[123BRIAN]

Hello there!

I bought a second hand Monte Carlo September this year, registered in January 2012 .

It was in like new condition, Under 3000 miles on the clock.

As soon as I bought it I noticed it was pulling to the left and the problem has gradually gotten worse, the steering is out of line and pointing slightly towards the right.

Garage visits;

1. Lookers - tried telling me it was to do with tyre pressure.

2. Lookers - couldn't find a problem tried telling me it was torque pull and put two odd tyres on the front.

3. Private garage - Stated car was unsafe but there was nothing he could do as i should be done under warranty by Skoda

4. ClayBank Skoda - Couldn't find anything wrong, swopped my odd tyre onto to back and charged me £45 for the privilege. Told me it needs an alignment check but it would cost me £110. Since then my breaks are going from keen to dull.

After complaining to Skoda customer services, Skoda finance and trading standards i'm getting the wheel alignment check on 3rd January 2013 for free, but I have a feeling there is going to be nothing wrong with my alignment.

Any advice of what the problem might be or what I should do next?

I would be very grateful of any help I can get.

- Vickey

iI had same problem with a Roomster, A wheel alignment test was done which discovered that the problem was caster settings were out of tolerance. My garage made complicated adjustments to front suspension. Also wheel alignment should cost less than £30 or so!

[2ndskoda]

Hi Vicky

sorry you still have a problem. The fact that the added weight of a passenger generates a further problem sets me thinking that the whole steering mechanism is not 'centralising' correctly. Ie - the whole steering geometry is not compensating for these load changes, and only one side is acting as it should.

I would nag/bully your dealer into letting go both outer balljoints, and ensuring that the steering/suspension columns on both sides are fully free in its ability to travel.

If one side is harder to turn than the other (extreme to extreme) - this will confirm that all load compensations are not being shared across the steering geometry/mechanism.

I have experienced this many times on many makes of car during my many years in the trade. Worth a try.!!!!

Edited 7 January, 2013 by 2ndskoda

[2ndskoda]

Is there any progress with this one????