Pulls slightly to left whilst driving.

[bob54321]

Hi All,

Thinking of buying a Fabia Estate 1.9TDI - it pulls very slightly to the left whilst driving. Tyre pressure looks ok, and wear on the tyres looks pretty even. What the most likely cause?

Cheers,

Matt

[kiddy1]

Get the tracking checked out, thats most common..... Especially in this weather with all the pot holes etc it's easy to knock the track rods

[Rob.]

Fabias are quite camber sensitive so a little pull to the left is normal.

To check it's nothing more than this try driving on a completely flat surface.. or on the other side of the road. You'll find that in the middle it'll go in a straight line and on the other side it'll pull slightly right if all is well.

Obviously, do this in a situation you know is safe.

Also, I find on my vRS that you can only really get a true representation of what's going on when you dip the clutch as you'll get a tiny amount of torque steer due to the un-even drive shafts.

[LexVRS]

tracking check mite be worthwhile but they do go very slightly to the left, i take it we are on about more of a drift to the left than wanting to turn off

[bob54321]

tracking check mite be worthwhile but they do go very slightly to the left, i take it we are on about more of a drift to the left than wanting to turn off

Yes def more of a drift to the left....more than I'd say is acceptable. Sounds like it probably isn't anything major.

Thanks for your help!

Matt

[LexVRS]

no prob glad to help

[Big Mikey]

They all do it. Skoda once tried to pass it off as a safety feature in case you fall asleep on the motorway so you will drift onto the hard shoulder and not into traffic. Everyone laughed at this.

[Rob.]

I'd still get your alignment checked though.. That is if you buy it..

The problem with the built in drift is it can mask a tracking issue.. I had my front passenger wheel wear quickly on the out side shoulder and so had it checked and it came back as having been out, hence the wear.. but because I'd got used to it wanting to go left I never really thought it was out.. when it came back it was much more willing to not send me into the kerb..

I'm gonna get it checked every 6 months (as advised somewhere) regardless now.. especially with winter doing what it does to the roads now, as i'm sure this is what will have knocked it out before (pot hole).

Edited 4 January, 2011 by Rob.