-08 tracking is rubbish

[GlennQuagmire]

Hi,

I drive a -08 1.4 TDI and I'm having problem with the tracking of the car. During regular driving the car steers heavily to the right which is really anoying. On super flat surfaces it's pretty fine though but most times the surfaces where I drive aren't super flat.

Sure, a simple allignment would rectify this, right? Wrong, tried it but there's no difference.

Im running summer tires on 195/55/15. Rear wheels are really torn dunlops and fronts are new unknown (very cheep probably) tires fitted by the dealer (the old dunlops were shot). The problem remains if i rotate the tires.

My winter tires are brand new goodyear 185/60(?)/14 and the tracking with those is fine.

Do other people have problem with poor tracking on 15" wheels or is it just my tires that just aren't compatible? On option would be to downgrade to a 14 inches but I'd rather just put new tires on if that's the remidy.

Ideas?

Thanks

[Fatbloke]

If it runs fine on your winter tyres I would have thought the old tyres on the 15s might be to blame or even the newer ones could be causing a problem. Although I would look into getting a full alignment done also. There are threads on here about it where the alignment, angles etc, pretty much anything that can be measured and checked is. The set up you get at your tyre place only adjusts one parameter, which, if everything else is fine, is enough. I don't think that it is on 15" rims is an issue

[fabia55]

have a look at the wheel alignment thread in the fabia i section.

imo tracking is a waste of money

[GeneralPurpose]

Glen, you shouldn't be having a problem with either tyre/wheel sizes fitted as you rightly say. This WILL be a tyre or tracking issue for sure (although there are other things that can cause it as you may know, but shouldn't be relevant on an 08 plate). Caster and camber shouldn't come into it unless you have clobbered something with one of the front wheels very hard. These Skoda's are tough old beasts and neither tracking or the other angles go out easily.

ONE VERY IMPORTANT POINT ABOUT TRACKING MEASUREMENTS: very often a tyre fitting shop, as opposed to your Skoda dealer who may fit tyres, will have different tracking measurements for you car. I don't know what these are off hand for the Fabia. But be aware that manufacturers often quote one thing and the tyre shops quote another and indeed set it to their own settings, different to the Skoda dealer settings if your dealer fits tyres. This is particularly noticeable on front drive cars. Manufacturers FOR EXAMPLE ONLY, will set the front tracking as 'TOE OUT SET' but often tyre shops quote front setting as 'PARALLEL SET'. For nearly every small to medium front drive car the correct setting is 'Toe Out Set', usually by two degrees but this varies from model to model. If this setting is incorrectly set as 'Parallel' this does affect the steering and tracking of the car and will wear the tyres. At certain times it can make the car wander slightly and it will steer to one side or the other. If your tracking is out a bit and you change tyre sizes this may promote the problem, a problem that doesn't exist with the previous tyres and wheels fitted.

Ultimately I may be speaking Bol*ocks, but I've come across this problem many many times and it is usually as above. Of course it can be a problem with actual tyres themselves, or a wheel rim problem. I'd say get that tracking checked at a Skoda dealer before going on to anything else. Can you keep in touch with us all so we can see what's happening please. Ta! Good luck.

[GlennQuagmire]

The alignment I did was a full 4 wheel measurement and the alignment work was done on the front end. You can't change very much on the Fabia. The tech guy said one caster value was slightly out of spec but that it was normal and that the driver would not notice it.

Funny thing:

I tried swapping the wheels placing the new wheels in the front and the old ones in the back. I set a pressure of 2.4bar in the rears and 2.2 bar in the fronts. The steering now got Very sensitive and the car instead had a slight pull to the left (bear in mind that we drive on the right side of the road where I'm from) so it was against the curvature of the road.

I've had similar experiences on other cars when trying to induce oversteer by overinflating the rear tires. That gave the car a more jittery ride and a sharper turn-in.

I hope it's just the rubbers that needs changing.

Only 1.5 months left until the winter tires come on .. and in the spring, a new set of summer tires (now what size would be good ..).

[GeneralPurpose]

The alignment I did was a full 4 wheel measurement and the alignment work was done on the front end. You can't change very much on the Fabia. The tech guy said one caster value was slightly out of spec but that it was normal and that the driver would not notice it.

Funny thing:

I tried swapping the wheels placing the new wheels in the front and the old ones in the back. I set a pressure of 2.4bar in the rears and 2.2 bar in the fronts. The steering now got Very sensitive and the car instead had a slight pull to the left (bear in mind that we drive on the right side of the road where I'm from) so it was against the curvature of the road.

I've had similar experiences on other cars when trying to induce oversteer by overinflating the rear tires. That gave the car a more jittery ride and a sharper turn-in.

I hope it's just the rubbers that needs changing.

Only 1.5 months left until the winter tires come on .. and in the spring, a new set of summer tires (now what size would be good ..).

Hi Glen, that's frustrating.

Just one point to mention if I may, and you prolly know this but worth mentioning for others perhaps. When you swapped the wheels over, did you keep them on the same side of the vehicle ie: rear on left to front on left and visa versa? Some tyres have a need for directional correctness and cannot be swapped to the other side of the vehicle like in the old days. If done so it causes all sorts of handling problems including pulling to one side or the other. Even if the tyres are not rotationally marked it's often not a good idea to swap them over to the other side of the vehicle as it will/can cause similar initial handling problems until the tyre wears in on that side. Just a thought. Cheers bud!

[GlennQuagmire]

Hi Glen, that's frustrating.

Just one point to mention if I may, and you prolly know this but worth mentioning for others perhaps. When you swapped the wheels over, did you keep them on the same side of the vehicle ie: rear on left to front on left and visa versa? Some tyres have a need for directional correctness and cannot be swapped to the other side of the vehicle like in the old days. If done so it causes all sorts of handling problems including pulling to one side or the other. Even if the tyres are not rotationally marked it's often not a good idea to swap them over to the other side of the vehicle as it will/can cause similar initial handling problems until the tyre wears in on that side. Just a thought. Cheers bud!

Hi, thanks for your input. I did keep them on the same side of the vehicle. Two of the wheels (the old dunlops) have directional markings, the new (Z-something ...) dont have directional markings.

I might add that I have no idea where the previous owner (bought it at 27000km, at 53000km now) placed the tires from the start so I might be way off either way. I got the car in January on brand new 14" good year winter tires and they we're steady as a rock (more or less).