Ive recently bought an 07 vrs and am experiencing an issue with it pulling to the left, sometimes quite alot. Its alot worse when accelerating,but does it all the time.

Ive had the wheel allignment checked and was told the front is in line with the rear perfectly. The only issues noted were there is play in the steering rack, and the n/s/r wheel hasnt got any toe in at all, whereas the other side is toeing in slighty, which im told is what the other side should be doing.Ive tried swapping front and rear tyres over, that hasnt helped.Tyre pressures are fine.The underneath looks fine, lower arms, track rods etc dont show any signs of damage. Is this a common issue with fabias? is there anything else i should check?I understand the fabia has a front subframe, is this something that can move around?

I should add the 4 wheel alignment was done at an ATS, i didnt see the display or anything, so am only going on what they told me.

Cheers

Should be a simple matter of having the tracking set correctly. Tracking needs to be set by adjusting both TREs equally. Some poor garages, set tracking by adjusting one side only, this doesn't work, as it effectively pulls the steering to one side. This effects the steering angle sensor as the steering wheel wont be in the straight ahead position.

However, if there is play in the steering, it must either be worn consul bushes, TRE's or rack. Pray it's not the rack, very expensive.

Edited 3 January, 201016 yr by MoggyTech

sounds like tracking get a proper garage to have a look im not a fan of theese quick one stop fix places like ATS and Kwick fit!

Ive recently bought an 07 vrs and am experiencing an issue with it pulling to the left, sometimes quite alot. Its alot worse when accelerating,but does it all the time.

Ive had the wheel allignment checked and was told the front is in line with the rear perfectly. The only issues noted were there is play in the steering rack, and the n/s/r wheel hasnt got any toe in at all, whereas the other side is toeing in slighty, which im told is what the other side should be doing.Ive tried swapping front and rear tyres over, that hasnt helped.Tyre pressures are fine.The underneath looks fine, lower arms, track rods etc dont show any signs of damage. Is this a common issue with fabias? is there anything else i should check?I understand the fabia has a front subframe, is this something that can move around?

I should add the 4 wheel alignment was done at an ATS, i didn't see the display or anything, so am only going on what they told me.

Cheers

Hi H

I am not a expert, but you say one rear wheel has not got any toe in but the other has some, but you have not said what the front is !, as I say no expert but you want to ask your self why is there a difference on the rear,on a 07 car there should be no differences (unless a fault) I could under stand if a front was out, catching curbs etc, Do you see where I am coming from ?

But also you say you have just bought the car, take it back to the garage and get them to put it right !

One last thing, did you have a HPI check on the car to see if it was wrote off ?

But has been said I also would not go to the Kwic-fit types, but I must admit some years ago I used National Tyres, (not cheap) but the did a good job of mine.

Radiotwo

I failed to notice it was the rear end that has the tracking error. Something VERY wrong there. Car is under warranty. Get Skoda to fix it. Perhaps some idiot has jacked it up using the rear beam axle, which bends if you stick a trolley jack on it.

yeh rear tracking !SHOULD NOT! go out unless there is something realy wierd or bad going on! Bet its messing up your tyres good and proper!

Worth getting a full 4-wheel alignment done so that you have the print-out with all figures for front and rear camber, toe, caster and thrust angle. Then check against the manuf. spec. - that way you have something to pin the dealer down with and he can't fob you off. I use a place in Leicester (Leicester 4-wheel alignment centre, Mayfield rd) and they only charge £15 for a full check on a Visualiner optical aligner.

Read the pinned post on this forum called " Wheel Alignment the big con!"

Should give some advice, and a link to a place to find a nearby garage with a decent machine to test it with!

Wow, cheers for the quick responses guys

Yeah i had it hpi'd before i bought it and it was all clear.Id normally go to a guy in sittingbourne who has setup my other cars,but he is moving units and doesnt know when he will be up and running again.

The front was apparantly 8 degrees out the first time i had the alignment done(that was just the front checked that time,different place), then on the 4 wheel alignment it was slightly out again. The n/s/f wheel showed signs of curbing.Its still under warranty,so the rack should be covered id hope.

Theres also a few modifications fitted when i bought it, coilovers, octavia wheels,rear arb.All could have been fitted by someone incompetant and messed something up in the process.

What kind of issue would i be having if the console bushes are gone?

Theres also a few modifications fitted when i bought it, coilovers, octavia wheels,rear arb.All could have been fitted by someone incompetant and messed something up in the process.

To use a famous Mythbusters line: "There's your problem." Given the car has been messed about with, it could be anything.

Occasional clonking, wondering wheels, vagueness on turn in, uneven tyre wear etc.

You can give them a visual inspection by popping your head under the front behind the wheel looking towards the front of the car... they're the big circular bushes on the console arm. Voided if standard or solid if cupra already fitted

Not sure if you'll tell much by looking unless one of them is clearly split or sagging

To use a famous Mythbusters line: "There's your problem." Given the car has been messed about with, it could be anything.

I think thats half the problem.If i was starting with a standard car, id have a bit of an idea where to look for problems.Id also know a bit more about what could have been disturbed.

So really i need to get a proper 4 wheel alignment done, somewhere where they know what they are talking about and can hopefully point me in the direction of the problem. Can anyone recommend anywhere in south east kent?

Lob your postcode in here mate:

http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/

To quote a more knowledgeable man than me (hard to believe i know)

...

What i would suggest is to put your postcode into this site> www.AlignMyCar.co.uk since the machines listed are for the serious centres.

...

Lob your postcode in here mate:

http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/

To quote a more knowledgeable man than me (hard to believe i know)

Ah, excellent link thanks. By the look of it theres a place in canterbury, or near work. Ill have to give them a call, see what they can offer. Hopefully shed some light on this annoying problem :'(

Had the car up in the air today and was able to look underneath properly. Nothing is visibly at fault.Lower arms look straight,as do chassis rails,subframe etc,couldnt feel any play in the console bushes either. The steering rack does not have any play in it that i could notice.

The only thing i could see that was odd is that the n/s/f wheel sat alot higher while it was in the air, the lower arms were sitting at different angles.Hard to explain really, just the o/s/f wheel had dropped lower when it was jacked up.No idea what that could suggest?

Will be getting 4 wheel alignment done somewhere that can give me a printout, hopefully help identify where the problem lies.

Sounds like you have a partially seized damper on the high wheel, or the ARB is distorted.

Shouldn't the rear have a total of around 20 toe in? Front about 15?

On the fabia the only thing that can be altered is front toe. Everything else is fixed.

Just to update this a bit. Ive checked the console bushes, they are the Seat Cupra type, so ive ruled them out of the equation. I have a printout of the geometry adjustment i had carried out last week, it all seems to be lined up well now. Although still pulls to the left quite a bit. Its going in to the Skoda garage next week for a service, but ive asked them to check it over at the same time.

if your front tyres aren't directional, you could try swapping them side to side to see if it improves the issue

There has been much discussion on this subject on all the VW based forums. The affected cars being Golf mk4, Fabia's & Ibizas, probably more.

Pulling to the left under acceleration is purely down to Torque steer.

Pulling to the left under normal driving is more problematical, See Basils thread http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/90281-diy-pic-guide-proper-re-alignment-of-rear-axle/ for adjusting the rear beam which most people seem to think is the primary cause.

Toe in at the front is normally 0deg. but if this is set to exactly 0deg. some cars will naturally drift to the left due to road camber, It is annoying and can be compensated for by adjusting the fronnt toe in by 1/2 deg or so to stop pulling to the left, call it a custom alignment if you like.

It isodd though that your car is a late one, '07, as I thought VW had the problem solved in the mid noughties.

There has been much discussion on this subject on all the VW based forums. The affected cars being Golf mk4, Fabia's & Ibizas, probably more.

Pulling to the left under acceleration is purely down to Torque steer.

Pulling to the left under normal driving is more problematical, See Basils thread http://briskoda.net/forums/topic/90281-diy-pic-guide-proper-re-alignment-of-rear-axle/ for adjusting the rear beam which most people seem to think is the primary cause.

Toe in at the front is normally 0deg. but if this is set to exactly 0deg. some cars will naturally drift to the left due to road camber, It is annoying and can be compensated for by adjusting the fronnt toe in by 1/2 deg or so to stop pulling to the left, call it a custom alignment if you like.

It isodd though that your car is a late one, '07, as I thought VW had the problem solved in the mid noughties.

Heres my alignment printout, shows some toe in on the rear. Theres slight toe in on the front too.

Anyone elses similar to mine? Im hoping it looks pretty normal, still cant work out what it could be though