Hullo

I took off for work in my car this morning wearing my new wheels and semi-slicks and there was a pronounced pull to the left I had to fight against.

This wore off a little bit on the journey but is still there. Anything obvious I should look for. The 17s were fine and I made sure I got the same axles with the same amount of tread (two had good tread, two were more marginal)

There's no wobbling, just a pronounced left pull

Sounds like a wheel alignment issue to me. If you take it to a Kwikfit or ATS they should be able to sort it out in under half an hour.

My last car, a fiat punto 75 SX (Stop laughing at the back there) had the steering wheel pointing to 1'o clock when I was driving straight. ATS looked at this and it then was a little straighter. They got me to come back after 500 miles to straighten it out but the ruddy thing broke down long before that.

I'd recommend doing it soon as it can cause uneven wear on the tyres at the front.

The alignment should be fine as it was perfect with the 17s on. Just when these wheels went on, it started pulling. :confused: I'm putting it down to the tyres not being bedded in or fitted 100% right as it eased off on my 17 mile commute this morning.

its possibly due to the fact that there's more grip with the semi slicks so one wheel is getting more grip first, generating more torquesteer. This is what i'm fearing once the golf gets some semi slick track rubber!

Jason, lets hope it doesn't rain otherwise you'll be doing donuts

Uneven length driveshafts, highlighted more by the stickyness of the rubber?

Uneven tyres pressures? Uneven length driveshafts!!?? WTF.

Or possibly you've fitted the tyres in different positions from the car they were previously on, or worse, they've got directional tread and you've got one or more of them on back to front...?

How about having 10 PSI in the front left?

Went out for a good look at lunch and saw it was WELL flat. Must have either got a slow puncture, or the fitting wasn't right and its not sealed right. Pumped it up to 36 and shall be checking it when I go home, and tomorrow morning....

They're damn sticky though. Economy was really bad coming in to work, not helped by a car full of stuff to dump.

jason what rubber have you bought?

Uneven tyres pressures? Uneven length driveshafts!!?? WTF.

Most front drive cars with transverse engines have uneven length drive shafts ie one side is longer than the other. This can lead to one side of the car "accelerating" faster than the other, ergo, it pulls to that side.

As for the tyres pressure (which is what caused Jason's problem as it turns out, if it is flatter (in pressure terms) it will have a smaller rolling radius and will therefore rotate"quicker"

Mark - They're Kuhmo V700s I think. 205/45 R 16 V

At least I've found the problem and after whacking them up to 36 at the front, the car now tracks straight. Just need to monitor it for a while now though. Can visualise myself now pumping up the tyre at 5.05 to get home. If it's going down too quick I'll be putting the 17s back on for CC - would be a shame.

Mark - They're Kuhmo V700s I think. 205/45 R 16 V

700's? u sure, they are not V70's?

I'm wanting some for the golf, in 205/45/16 - not here from?

Might be 70s. I can't remember.

Mine came second hand from Mr Fish & Chips man himself. But I think he'll know where he got them from new.

oh yeah, i was going to buy them... I had a look and one of them had a slight slow puncture. did he not tell you?

only joking!

Most front drive cars with transverse engines have uneven length drive shafts ie one side is longer than the other. This can lead to one side of the car "accelerating" faster than the other' date=' ergo, it pulls to that side.

As for the tyres pressure (which is what caused Jason's problem as it turns out, if it is flatter (in pressure terms) it will have a smaller rolling radius and will therefore rotate"quicker"[/quote']

Uneven drive shafts will not make a blind bit of difference!

Uneven drive shafts will not make a blind bit of difference!

If thats the case, why does EVERY powerful transverse-engined FWD car torque steer? :confused:

Most front drive cars with transverse engines have uneven length drive shafts ie one side is longer than the other. This can lead to one side of the car "accelerating" faster than the other, ergo, it pulls to that side.

Wouldn't it pull to the opposite side? ie. the one spinning slower?

What, spinning slower? Unless your wheel are lossing traction or going round corner both wheels will be turning at the same speed. The reason a flat tyre pulls to its side is that it's much harder to turn. Every tried pushing a car with a flat tyre? Fabia steering is so light you get sod all feedback though the steering wheel anyway.

I was just thinking that if it was due to uneven length shafts making one 'accellerate' quicker, then you would pull to the opposite side (the slower one)

But I found this on the net which makes sense, so I think I get torque steer now:

Torque steer can be a problem on front wheel drive cars with higher torque motors( > 210 Nm ). This is the name given to the tendency for some front wheel drive cars to pull to the left or right under hard acceleration. It is a result of the offset between the point about which the wheel steers (which falls at a point which is aligned with the points at which the wheel is connected to the steering mechanisms) and the centroid of its contact patch. The tractive force acts through the centroid of the contact patch, and the offset of the steering point means that a turning moment about the axis of steering is generated. In an ideal situation, the left and right wheels would generate equal and opposite moments, cancelling each other out, however in reality this is less likely to happen. Torque Steer is often incorrectly attributed to differing rates of twist along the lengths of unequal front drive shafts.

Maybe help you understand

How does torque steer happen?

In a front-wheel-drive car' date=' engine power is applied to wheels that also want to turn, unlike in a rear-wheeldrive car in which these two tasks are separate. When you turn the steering wheel, the wheels pivot about the appropriately named steering axis. Power is applied pretty much equally over the tire's contact patch (the part that's touching the road), which we'll approximate to a single force at the center of the patch. Now, if you extend the steering axis to the ground, it will be offset from the center of the contact patch. In case you were wondering, yes, this is called the steering offset.

The fundamental reason for torque steer is that the power applied at the contact patch wants to turn the wheel around the steering axis, which, you'll remember from the last sentence, is offset. If you compare it to a door, the steering axis is the hinge, and the center of the contact patch is where you push to swing the door open, hence the offset.

Most cars, of course, have two front wheels, so the forces on each wheel should counteract each other. But if the forces on each wheel are different, or if a tire's contact patch changes, that imbalance will cause one tire to twist more than the other, and that's when you get torque steer.[/quote']

Great minds mort

I think torque steer / uneven driveshafts thing comes in when giving it some serious beans. In many ways,my thing this morning eased off under acceleration as I guess the acceleration was over-riding the pull of the flatter tyre.

However when I eased off / coasted / braked, it was really tugging to one side.