Hi, i hope someone here will be able to help me. My car: octavia mk2 fl vrs dag petrol. I have finally managed to fit my lowering springs (h&r -35mm) and I'm really happy with the result. After replacing springs I went to do wheel alignment everything should be fine but the car is pulling to the left so i went back to see if all geometry is good and it is. They suggest to swap the wheels over so I've done it and now the car is pulling to the right??? Any ideas?? Everything seems to be good but it isn't I really have to hold steering wheel strong to keep car going straight.

Can you give us a print out of the results? I take it was done on a hunter rig and all 4 wheels were checked?

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yes  it was done on a hunter and on 4 wheels  and after this car was pulling to the left now when exchanged  wheels (front left with front right) the car is pulling to the right.

Please see below picture :

could be 1 of the tyres is a lot newer than the other??

Checked tyre pressures?

all tyres are the same UniRoyal 3 all bought from the same place with the same manufacture date on.

Tyre pressure checked all good.

I never had this problem before the car gone down on those springs. thanks for your ideas. 

Balancing or a defective wheel?...if it's following the wheel

Possibly but why I never felt this before lowering?

Easy to lose balancing weights in the change overs. Might be worth trying a swap between front and rear to see if the problem persists?

I was thinking about this, will do this as soon as possible.

One of your tyres has runout in it. Maybe an offset belt. Maybe just an existing wear pattern.

 

Possibly it wasn't apparent before because of the wonky camber up front?

 

Have you tried rotating them front to rear?

 

Unrelated, but unless you corner quite hard all the time, there's still a bit much camber on the rear.  If you tend to drive "normally" it needs to be as close to 1'15" (1.25 degrees) as possible or the rears will sawtooth..

 

The front camber is right at the limit too.  You can get away with it but were your top mounts and console bushes in good condition when you did the springs?

Checked tyre pressures?

Surprisingly, this affected mine after swapping console bushes and alignment being done..

 

I was driving home and it would not drive straight. Luckily I checked the pressures before complaining and, lo and behold, it drove straight.

 

I thought they would have had to check the pressures were correct before aligning, no?

 

I thought they would have had to check the pressures were correct before aligning, no?

Yes they should.  The 3rd thing you should do.

 

1) Ask customer why they are getting alignment

2) pre-alignment road test

3) check tyre wear pattern and check pressures

4) Check ball joints, tie rod ends, control arms for wear & damage

5) Do alignment

6) Road test

 

One of your tyres has runout in it. Maybe an offset belt. Maybe just an existing wear pattern.

 

Possibly it wasn't apparent before because of the wonky camber up front?

 

This^.

 

You will have already had wear on the tyres and now they pulling in that direction. Swapping rears to front may help but you can confirm by just using a tyre tread gauge and takings measurements across the width of the tyre.

all tyres are the same UniRoyal 3 all bought from the same place with the same manufacture date on.

Tyre pressure checked all good.

I never had this problem before the car gone down on those springs. thanks for your ideas. 

 

As already said, swapping the tyres moved the problem from one side to the other.

I'd be looking at the tyres too, because they've probably been worn unevenly from the first issue.

Right sorry for late reply and thanks for all ideas I have swapped wheels over (front with rear) and the problem has gone! So I believe the problem is with one wheel or tyre. There is no different in tyre wear and the car is going straight with no vibrations so I don't really care anymore Thanks again for your support

worn arm bushes - it may look good on static geometry testing until you start to turn wheels

Might be worth checking across the whole width of the tyre with a depth gauge. I had this with the Accord.

 

Car was pulling left, swap fronts around and then it pulled right. Checked tyres and there was really not a lot of diffference.

 

I put up with it until the tyres were due to be changed, new rubber solved it in the end.