I've just bought a vRS (TDi) and have not noticed understeer. I'm with a couple of other posters here, if you understeer at low speed there is something amiss with the set-up of the car OR the road was greasy, covered in diesel or both! I've had the back end step out once in the damp but that was taking a bend at 10mph faster than I would have in my ST TDCi Mondeo (the car replaced by the Skoda). The front went round like it was on rails.

Having trained on a skid pan several times I'd recommend getting your car checked at a dealer (or if you have the right gear do it yourself) as even in a ford mondeo fitted with slicks on an oily skid pan it didn't understeer at walking pace.

Rich

have you checked the tyre pressure garges et-al are notorious for pumping them sky hi ---you could just fit a thicker OE bar - superb springs to mind, it's diameter to power three if I remember right and a lot cheaper than the custom stuff

That is true and to date I have only used the garage gauges. I need a new tyre pressue and depth gauge they have gone missing during the house move

Ditto

Also could have been oil/grease on the road & if wet & near freezing tyres will underperform, most "normal" road tyres tend to suffer reductions in grip as temp drops below around 7 deg C

I agree with all the points too and I have checked as many as possible to ellimibate them from the possible cause. This include speed. I can assure you the speed was very low. However I know its a tight turn anyway and that coupled with some diesel on the road could have made the situation seem worse than normal conditions.

Its difficult to tell if there was a diesel spill due to the road surface being in two tones.

It's Uncle Bulgaria's previous car, so has the S3 stoppers. Which I think are already specced with decent discs/pads.

Yep thats correct

Front brakes are S3 set up wuth 345mm vented discs

Rear brakes are S3 set up with 310mm vented discs

Not sure on the pads actually. Will need to check, but they will be a decent spec/brand i'm sure.

I've just bought a vRS (TDi) and have not noticed understeer. I'm with a couple of other posters here, if you understeer at low speed there is something amiss with the set-up of the car OR the road was greasy, covered in diesel or both! I've had the back end step out once in the damp but that was taking a bend at 10mph faster than I would have in my ST TDCi Mondeo (the car replaced by the Skoda). The front went round like it was on rails.

Having trained on a skid pan several times I'd recommend getting your car checked at a dealer (or if you have the right gear do it yourself) as even in a ford mondeo fitted with slicks on an oily skid pan it didn't understeer at walking pace.

Rich

I'm coming to the same conclusion.

Having done several driving courses over the years including police advance training and even been a IAM tutor a few years ago I know thers something else that is more of an inffluence.

Having said that I will wait for some better weather before confirming my judgement on the degree of understeer. So far i'm confident it does have more understeer than I would expect. Thats comparing it against the Fabia and the standard mk1 Octavia i've previously had.

Will it? An Eibach Pro setup gives you a fixed drop in height and a sportier damper setup? If we're talking suspension. On their ARBs, I recall them being non-adjustable.

On the setup, getting it properly setup should not give you an excess tyre wear at all. In fact, it'll be a damn sight better than it was as standard!

Don't think you'd have found better, and with such a good number of mods already on it. Like S3 brakes

See pro street s coil over suspension......don't know if u still get them ......camber settings extra fittings are required....note - don't do it without an expert.!

Edited 2 February, 201115 yr by pz1811

And for the uneven tread pattern ------

I think you probably will know but ....negative camber has a tendency to wear out the inside tread of tyres

Edited 2 February, 201115 yr by pz1811

I'm coming to the same conclusion.

Having done several driving courses over the years including police advance training and even been a IAM tutor a few years ago I know thers something else that is more of an inffluence.

Having said that I will wait for some better weather before confirming my judgement on the degree of understeer. So far i'm confident it does have more understeer than I would expect. Thats comparing it against the Fabia and the standard mk1 Octavia i've previously had.

I think I've done the same training as you then

Having the same issues Mark with my new toy! The mrkII is awesome but understeering badly, the problem is I'm going from a mrkI vrs with uprated ARB's and coilovers plus extra's and it gripped like hell

I think you'll be doing the same, comparing it to that monster you used to have

All in all, its time to start modding or in your case continue

Chris

Having driven a wide variety of cars ranging from bangers to new over the last 30 years I think that the VRS in OEM form is great in a straight line. I do feel that you need to work a bit harder than in more mundane cars, Mondeo, Astra, Focus to enjoy the same exit and entry speeds and unruffled style. I base this on using Conti 2 and 3.

Having owned a Mondeo ST TDCi and I drive BMW 530's/Range Rovers/Jag XF's and Volvo's at work I must say that the vRS is a great handler into, through and out of the bends - you just have to set it up right on the approach rather than hammering on the brakes, it out handles all the works cars. It's more demanding that the Mondeo - it's twitchy - that's the best way I can describe it - compared to the ST. But it actually out corners the ST even using Conti 2's. I had Goodyear F1 Asymmetrical's fitted to the ST and even with those excellent tyres it was not as good as the vRS.

I think all this talk of Modding for corners means that people are trying to go faster round a corner than the corner can actually handle (if you get my train of thoughts). If you're loosing control while driving a car that handles like this then I'm sure you're already going too fast for the corner - Road Craft states that we should always "be able to stop in the distance we can see to be clear" - more often than not cars can actually go faster round a bend than this golden rule and so when the back end goes we are driving at a dangerous speed anyway. There is a bend by my home - I know that my ST could go round it at 60mph and faster, I'd never had a twitch while driving that fast. But, and it's a big BUT, the limit point of the bend was at about 50mph - any faster than that and I wouldn't have been able to stop in time if there was an obstruction round the bend.

The secret is to learn how to drive quickly but safely using limit points etc.

That said, the OP has the same driver training as me and I believe him when he says he was going slow - so there must be an external factor in this. I know what training he's had and how good it makes you, so, to the OP - I bet the road was diesel'd all to hell. Try again on the same bit of road in wet conditions and if the understeer is repeated then It'll be a drive-train problem.

Rich

Having owned a Mondeo ST TDCi and I drive BMW 530's/Range Rovers/Jag XF's and Volvo's at work I must say that the vRS is a great handler into, through and out of the bends - you just have to set it up right on the approach rather than hammering on the brakes, it out handles all the works cars. It's more demanding that the Mondeo - it's twitchy - that's the best way I can describe it - compared to the ST. But it actually out corners the ST even using Conti 2's. I had Goodyear F1 Asymmetrical's fitted to the ST and even with those excellent tyres it was not as good as the vRS.

I think all this talk of Modding for corners means that people are trying to go faster round a corner than the corner can actually handle (if you get my train of thoughts). If you're loosing control while driving a car that handles like this then I'm sure you're already going too fast for the corner - Road Craft states that we should always "be able to stop in the distance we can see to be clear" - more often than not cars can actually go faster round a bend than this golden rule and so when the back end goes we are driving at a dangerous speed anyway. There is a bend by my home - I know that my ST could go round it at 60mph and faster, I'd never had a twitch while driving that fast. But, and it's a big BUT, the limit point of the bend was at about 50mph - any faster than that and I wouldn't have been able to stop in time if there was an obstruction round the bend.

The secret is to learn how to drive quickly but safely using limit points etc.

That said, the OP has the same driver training as me and I believe him when he says he was going slow - so there must be an external factor in this. I know what training he's had and how good it makes you, so, to the OP - I bet the road was diesel'd all to hell. Try again on the same bit of road in wet conditions and if the understeer is repeated then It'll be a drive-train problem.

Rich

Aye aye officer..... :p

I remember there was one right angle corner in Woking town centre that made my first car, a 1.0 Citroen AX understeer to epic proportions in the wet, even at 10-15mph. It was hilarious once I knew to expect it, must have been the camber / surface matched with a light car on thin tyres In fact that's the only car I've ever experienced to feel lose traction on the move.

Maybe the OP just has "one of those bends" too.

Excluding performance cars many cars are designed to have a tendancy to understeer, Mr average's response is to lift off or brake in a panic situation & loosing the front at low speed he usually recovers the car. The less a car has a tendancy to understeer the more likely the back is to break away whem Mr average lifts off or brakes & thus he will loose control more easily, potentially spin &all at a higher speed.

Most garages & tyre depots even with the best kit still set your car to factory settings. Finding a good specialist they will track a car from first principles can often improve even the basic car. If you start upgrading suspension & ARB's etc it really is worth shelling out at the end to get the car properly set up but make sure you clearly know what you want. setting a car up for the track will mean much shorter tyre life on the road. I always specify fast road & use these guys http://www.powerstation.org.uk/alignment.asp Bit of a drive for me but they have set up my Subaru & the Octy 4x4 in the past & now do the 350.

Edited 3 February, 201115 yr by Stuart_J

I managed to get out for a short drive over the weekend and can report that the understeer wasnt as bad as I first thought.

I pushed it a bit (not much tho) on a couple of round-a-bouts and didnt experience anything like I did before. My conclusion is that a combination of a tight corner and some diesel on the road contributed to my total lack of confidence.

I will continue to have fun in the name of research

Good on you

Keep testing