I had new tyres on the front of my 140,000 Octavia 20Valve turbo and since then the car has pulled to the left.

During the tyre change the operative broke the right side antiroll bar link but this was fixed within days.

It made no difference.

I have since had a four wheel alignment check and adjustment.

It has not made any difference.

The changes made were only very slight and as there are 14 different elements of measurement it is difficult to understand what was actually changed.

I think the main change was to move the thrust angle to -2 degrees from 0 degrees.

The thing that sticks out to me, which they didn't change is the front camber.

The left was -0.37 degrees and the right -0.14 degrees

The said it was within Skoda tolerances which it seems is from 0 to -1.0 degree.

After adjustment it is -0.40 and -0.14.

The main thing is the driving experience is ruined.

What should I do to recover the previously fine drive.

Could an operative damage anything else when changing a tyre, like dampers or springs or ball joints etc?

PeterGAH

you have checked you tyre pressures ?

Try rotating your wheels, see what happens.

You could have an unbalanced wheel.

Thanks

Sorry forgot to mention I have just had fronts and backs swapped and all balanced but I don't know if pressures were checked.

You would like to think so.

Anyway, I do not understand the tyre pressure stuff written in the fuel cap

what are pressure settings for Octavia 1 in Pounds per Sq foot please anyone?

Here's a converter:

http://www.tvr-webmart.co.uk/tvr_info_psi.asp

how did the operator brake the arb link if he only changin tyres.

mmm

Thanks

Sorry forgot to mention I have just had fronts and backs swapped and all balanced but I don't know if pressures were checked.

You would like to think so.

Anyway, I do not understand the tyre pressure stuff written in the fuel cap

what are pressure settings for Octavia 1 in Pounds per Sq foot please anyone?

Can't help you on the pressures ,but it's more than likely wrong pressure ,as a lot of these guys guess. Another thing ( wont be connected, but worth a check) is the torque settings on the wheel nuts. I've had one place tell me that on my Furby it's 120ftlb ,when book says NM-and that's a fair bit of overtightening .

Added - try googling "tyre pressure" . Looks like a few tyre places will find it for you on reg no .

Thanks for the converter. So its 28.9 PSI fronts and 31.9 PSI rears.

I do not know how the operative broke the antiroll bar link.

It has done 140,000 and they are only made of black plastic. Perhaps it was done by the MOT tester who did the test just before the tyres were fitted. Perhaps it was the MOt test that put something else out that causes the pull to left.

I will get the pressures checked again.

I can have the Wheel nuts retorqued as well.

If you've just fitted new tyres - are they same as last set . I once got askd to pick up a replacement van at work . ABS light came on at 60 .Turned out that one rear tyre was the size fitted to lower weight rating,and was smaller in diameter . If you can find your user manual -the pressures for the tyre sizes fitted will be in there ( in Bar ,of course).

Did some research and found that 1bar =( as near as makes no difference )14.5PSI ( =1 ATMOS, )

HMM after my last abortive visit to a tyre place for an MOT- I'd never go back to one. ( for operative ,read untrained monkey, with deepest apologies to the intellect of a Chimp)

I mentioned torqueing in case you've got Alloys on . I took all my wheels off once ,refitted them with the Skoda spanner ,took the car round the block and checked again .All loose ,so I dug out my cheapo torque wrench which now sits in the boot.

(

Thanks that is useful.

I have noticed both current front tyres are marked "outside" so they are on the right way round.

However what is strange is the tread pattern. On the offside the groove at the edge of the tread comes across the surface of the tyre and then aims backwards to eject water I suppose. Like this \_____ looking from the front.

On the Passenger side the same groove ejects the water forwards. ---------\ again looking from the front.

Are there any tyre experts out there to comment on the Bridgestone tread patterns?

I think they have got direction of rotation wrong way around on one. As above how the hell did they brake a drop link? Go somewhere else get offending tyre reversed and all should be ok.

Thanks very interesting. I will return to the place that fitted the tyres and see what they say.

Not a lot I expect as these were the old rear tyres moved to the front.

I will first take a close look at the writing on the tyre to see if direction of rotation is mentioned

Thanks again.

If they're marked "outside", they're asymmetric tyres. I've always had suspicions about the ones that seem to push all the water one way (left or right) having more to do with quietness than with water dispersion. I'd not expect them to have a direction of rotation on them.

Also, a rear thrust axis set to 2deg (either way) seems odd, because that's like driving along with a touch of steering lock on all the time!

I once put my spare on the front, it was exactly the correct size & spec as the removed one & the opposite side one but it was a different brand.

The car felt truly awful, it was pulling hard to one side, much worse under acceleration.

In my case the brand was different to the opposite side,but the effect it had was horrid.Maybe your fronts are both Bridgestone but are they the same product exactly?

Good luck in getting it sorted, hope it's not further damaged underneath

Hi there. I work in an alignment/geometry specialist garage and I would suggest that if the car has correct tyre pressures, correct sized tyres and the tyre orientation is correct I.e asymmetric then the next logical step would be to check out the geometry of the car.

I would use alignmycar.com and hunt for a liCal garage to you that uses Hunter Alignment Equiment - this stuff is the most advanced in the market and what we use at work. No levels or lasers to work with, it's all measured via digital cameras and well worth hunting a garage down that uses it.

Anyway, the measurement you were given on your previous 4wheel alignment; did that system work in minutes I.e 60minutes to 1 degree or on hundreds I.e 100th's is 1 degree? Depending upon which system of measurements they use may make the settings look worse or better than they are.

It's also worth mentioning that you can have too much of a good thing and a perfect car on paper can result in a car that is much more willing to follow the natural cambers in the roads. A good alignment Center will test drive your car after adjustments have taken place. Also on the rare occasions when certain aspects of your chassis cannot be adjusted to bring back into manufacturers tolerances I.e rear cambers for most cars - assuming it has travelled outside of OE spec over the years due to wear and tear. Making the car perfect everywhere else will only emphasise the issue and you'll find that a car with perfect geometry in all other aspects will begin to "steer from the rear" do to speak and also contribute towards drifting.

A skilled and knowledgeable mechanic may wish to counter act this issue by reviewing the calibration sweep(before) measurements of the car and compromising the 'perfect' geometry settings - therefore trying to cancel out the rear steering issue. Failing that or if you do not have a reliable local garage; it would be wise to invest in new bushing/hubs/bearings to sort out the none adjustable rear issue and align the car again.

Sorry for the whole essay but hey ho hopefully it may be of some use : )

Thank you for your help. Sorry its been a while.

I know a lot more now.

The steering is too heavy!

I asked a friend to drive the car and my wife and they both exclaimed - jeez how heavy is the steering!!

I also observed that when going past roadworks on the other side of the road the car was now pulling right,

So basically it was too road camber sensitive.

Heavy steering would cause this.

Next step is to have the pressure in the steering checked. I may need a new steering pump.

I hope this is of some help to other readers.

PeterGAH

PeterGAH,

Just wanted to find out whether you found and fixed the cause as I am in a similar situation.

Thanks in advance.

KSAOctavia

Yes

I had a puncture in the rear left tyre. I blew it up with my inflator and drove to the garage.

It was a screw through the centre of the tread £22.00 to fix - lucky but I asked them to do the pressures all round and the car drives straighter now.

When I checked the pressures before I only did the front ones, so its the rear pressure that can cause a pull

I still pulls a little to the left but I don't seem to notice it as much now.

OK I have now found out what the garage did to stop my Octavia from pulling left and putting a scallop or cupping pattern on the tyre.

They changed the Near Side Front lower suspension arm as the rear bush in it was worn and actually split. That must have happened when the car was jacked up at the tyre place.

The garage owner told me the bush was not available as a separate item, and it had to be the whole arm. The part number on my invoice is FCA5866 but not sure whose number that is.

Anyway, that was the cure.

PeterGAH