Having bought a new Fabia one year ago,three dealers have attempted to rectify, what I consider, excessive near-side steering. I still consider the steering is not satisfactory, although the wheels have been changed round, and the rear axle has been replaced, the tracking is perfect. Has anyone had a similar problem, and is this, in fact a common fault with Skoda. I don't think,as commented by the dealers, that this is due to the camber of the road. I have never noticed this with other cars. Any comments, please

Welcome to Briskoda. I have moved your post to the Fabia II forum where it is more likely to attract attention.

Actually, yes... Sometimes I have the feeling that my Fabia steers towards the nearside. Then I would jiggle the steering wheel about and it would seem it drives straight.... Around the centre (driving straight) the steering is very vague. To me, there is absolutely no way of guessing where the "zero" of the steering wheel is. And this causes the feeling that the car steers this way or that. I have sort of noticed that on various new cars with that new fancy piece of crap - electro/electro-hydraulic PAS.. how rubbish this can be. Nowhere near the nice, solid, informative feeling from the good old proper hydraulic PAS driven from the engine.

The Fabia system is actually a hydraulic system, but the pump is driven by an electric motor rather than the engine. The system is well proven and has been used for 10 years or so on millions of cars (Fabia I, VW Polo, SEAT Ibiza etc etc). Can't fault mine. I did find the steering a little light to begin with, but I turned down the assistance using VCDS, so its a little heavier with a bit more feel.

Have you had a FULL alignment - not simply just a check of tracking? Insufficient castor can give the effect you describe.

From experience, all VAG cars seem to suffer from camber sensitivity, probably due to the simple macphearson strut suspension and how they are setup at the factory. What I find is they tend to drive straight on the continent but drift to the left in the UK. What is needed to correct the problem is camber adjustment - however this is not possible, its fixed at point of production in the factory.

Be thankful that the Fabia has electro hydraulic steering and not electric steering as on many other superminis. Drive a Corsa and you will see what I mean - no feeling - no sense of centre and need for constant correction.

Edited 14 July, 201015 yr by xman

I have noticed mine tends to be more sensitive to camber than any other modern car Ive owned, but not to the point of me being concerned about it. I like the Fabias steering, its nicely weighted and feels good. Ive had cars with all electric steering and Ive found the ones Ive owned (all Fiat) to be very good, I think people get influenced by roadtests in magazines which always criticise those systems.

It's not just VAG cars either. Many Ford and Fiat models also have that tendency to want to go down the camber...I'm assuming this is what you mean? When switching to Skoda Fabia I haven't had any problems...that is it performs fine compared to other makes I've owned and driven in respect of the steering. However, if you have had some work done by your dealer, that indicates your car may not be quite normal. Dealers usually won't do any work that isn't justified especially when under warranty. Since the work has been carried out has anything regarding the problem changed ie: perhaps it doesn't steer to the left quite so much, steers more to the left, or any other differences? Have you driven any other Fabia's as a comparison? Of course cars will want to go down the camber even when set up correctly. But it shouldn't be any effort to maintain her on the straight and narrow. If that is not the case then both castor and camber should be checked. One other point, make absolutely sure the tracking is spot on and make sure a Skoda dealer does it and not a tyre fitting establishment as they use tracking data from charts that are not supplied with manufacturer specific and accurate data. In other word they will set up the front tracking to plus or minus 1 or 2 degrees toe in or out depending on model, but the actual manufacturers will quote sometimes quite different data. This has been know to cause all sorts of handling and steering problems such as you describe and is sometime the last thing to be picked up.

PS. Forgot to say "Welcome"...this is a good place to be!

Edited 14 July, 201015 yr by Estate Man