Driving into work this morning (yes, this morning)... No traffic, no People... Fun vRS!

Drove on the other side of the road briefly (on a long, wide clear part on our industrial estate) To keep tabs on the pull these cars have. As expected wanted to head into the kerb on the right hand side (though never quite as much as it likes the left hand kerb)..

Put my foot down with hand off the wheel to see how it would react and it went left... power off, back to normal, power on left again.

So, as the titles says really...

Torque Steer? Alignment? Road Surface? Or is something broke?

On the road surface front.. cars are almost always parked there so it never gets swept, and think is prob a little loose still vs. the worn smooth part.

Any comments welcome.. Think I'll try it again on the way home but in the middle to eliminate surface. (checking for safety of course).. and see if its as dramatic.

Definitely Torque steer, nearly all FWD cars suffer from this, the more power a car has the more torque steer it will have. This is due to unequal length driveshafts, there are a few exceptions with some FWD cars that do not have torque steer but I can't remember which cars. One method that prevents torque steer is having a 1 solid driveshaft and 1 tubular driveshaft. It would be interesting to know if there are any upgrade driveshaft kits are available to Fabias.

Which side of the Fabia is the short shaft on, the drivers / off side?

This makes me wonder if rolling in neutral will make the car head straight on when in the centre of the road instead of the slight left bias it has at the minute....

If you are rolling along on a flat road the car should go straight however a lot of Fabias, Golfs etc seem to drift into the nearside kerb. Myself and other VAG owners have had re-alignment of the suspension and managed to have this problem straightened out, so to say. The gearbox is on the nearside as on most FWD cars therefore I would expect the short shaft to be on the nearside as well. There has been much discussion on this Mk4 Forum in the past. Forums - uk-mkivs

before i bought my car i test drove it, and it pulled to the left slightly, mentioned it to the seller who took it to have its alignment done, and problem solved

It's had 3 alignments recently when the wishbone, drive shaft, CV joint / Boot, Console bushes & Tracking ends where replaced on the NS.

After popping over to mkivs It seems quite a common issue that varies from car to car. I already knew these cars where camber sensitive and pulled because of it.. but I'd assumed that in the middle of the road it'd go straight on, not a little left.

Under normal driving circumstances, if I let go of the wheel at 30 I'd gently clip the kerb at about 200-250 yards.

So if you know that the suspension parts are all good and it has been re-aligned, then Don't worry about it, you are probably already used to a bit of pulling to the nearside. No good wasting more cash.

When mine was re-aligned the tech. set up the toe in as per OE settings ie. 0 degrees but after a test drive it still pulled to the nearside, so he readjusted the toe in a bit and now it goes straight as an arrow. Had the same story with the Golf mk4 (previous car). Should have asked what he changed but I forgot.

if all that has been replaced on the NS, what condition is the OS in ?

Soot1e i think that may be what was done with mine too, i seem to remember him saying something about adjusting the OE settings, but whatever was done it drives true now, no probs

OS didn't hit the kerb

I Think I may just be being a little paranoid because of the semi re-build on that side. My Dad did say to me when it was repaired "It'll always be the car that hit the kerb Robert"... He's so wise.......... Flippin' know it all

I seem to remember him saying something about adjusting the OE settings, but whatever was done it drives true now, no probs

You wouldn't happen to have an alignment print off from that session, would ya?

no i dont im afraid, i will ask him though but it was nearly a year ago now

no i dont im afraid, i will ask him though but it was nearly a year ago now

Don't worry about then mate, please don't go to any bother.

Hello reflex88,

It's a quirk of the Fabia VRS to pull left, mine has always done it, keep and eye out for excessive tyre wear.

Best regards. Ian. 01/09/2009.

On my way home last night (Roads still deserted on the industrial estate where I work)... I did the clutch up vs clutch down comparison I mentioned above.

In the centre of the road, with the power on and clutch engaged the car pulled left a bit.

The same position on the road with the clutch dis-engaged and so no power to the wheels did actually give a little less pull to the left!, it wasn't completely straight, but the minute I engaged the clutch with a little (normal 30mph) power the pull was just a little stronger again.

So Torque steer is apparent even at low speeds, even if highly reduced? I always thought it was only really when giving in the beans, Or maybe it's not Torque steer at these speeds?

Giandougl, So yours (and indeed, many other peoples) pulls left a little on a flat piece of (or in the centre of) a road was well, with no camber and no huge power, at say just 20 - 30mph?

So Torque steer is apparent even at low speeds, even if highly reduced? I always thought it was only really when giving in the beans, Or maybe it's not Torque steer at these speeds?

Peak torque on a (standard) Fabia vRS is fairly low down the curve - somewhere below 2k rpm, IIRC...so you don't need to be going especially fast or pushing it especially hard for torque steer to be an issue.

Rob.

So the poor vRS has a chassis that likes the kerb as well as a power output that sends it that way as well! No wonder it's a common phenomenon!

You don't get what most people think is torque steer at constant speed because there is no wind-up in the driveshafts when the car isn't accelerating. HTH.

i *might* be having console bushes fitted on friday, and ive asked at work for before and after geo print outs, so i should be able to show my settings