Constantly drifting to the right

[pcspinheiro]

Ok, sorry but it's me again...

My MK3 superb has, for a while now, been constantly pulling to the right. I've had it aligned several times, including at the dealership, where I even got a printed report. It was within specs before and maybe a little better after. The problem remains: it always pulls to the right. Tire pressure is as indicated and even across tires. I never had any accident or anything, so this is starting to annoy me. Obviously, the dealership finds nothing wrong with it (it's still under a warranty extension...). What could be the causes? Worn ball joint? Worn motor mounts (I complained of what seems like too much play and a clicking sound when I press and release the accelerator and suggested bad mounts, but they said its the transmission gears moving, never even looked at the mounts...). Any help is appreciated, I feel like my car will last very little as long as it's in the hands of this stealership... Even the interior blower makes a chirping sound on cold days THAT I RECORDED in a video, but they say they must observe the defect themselves... and apparently don't... so f**** frustrating... They will obviously see EVERYTHING - and them some - once the warranty is over...

 

Anyway, any help is appreciated!

[Ootohere]

Can we assume this is a left hand drive car and going intowards the side of the road and not into the other lanes / oncoming traffic? 

 

They are going to have to look better or get in someone that can and fix this safety issue.

 

Google 'Tyre runout stripes'.  

?

What tyres are on the car? 

?

Does the Dealership have the 4 wheel alignment check equipment or are they having the check done by trained professionals with the equipment? 

[pcspinheiro]

Yes, LHD. Constantly drifting toward the side of the road (better than the other way around...), but I have other cars that I drive on the same roads and they don't do it, at least not nearly as much. As soon as I let go of the steering, off it goes. And I have to constantly have the keep pulling the steering to the left a bit to prevent it from drifting. Doesn't seem normal.. 

 

A 4-wheel alignment was done, I have the report. The alignment had been done before at a tire place that I trust, same result... The car has 4 almost new goodyear vector 4 seasons. Before it had the factory Falken "something..." and had the same issue. I thought it could be uneven war on the old tires but problem persists after changing all 4

[Legion]

"Not nearly as much"?

 

So it's observed on other vehicles?

 

Do your roads have camber built into them?

 

If you have a nice flat piece of road will it pull to one side?

 

I can only think of

Alignment

Tyres

Brake drag

Road

Edited 12 May, 2022 by Legion

[Ootohere]

^^^ Exactly that.

 

Or not even a road but i big flat space like a car park.  Does the car go off to the right? 

[pcspinheiro]

Have to take road camber into consideration and see about it. But in stretches of road where other cars I own just keep straight if I let go of the steering, the Skoda just swerves to the right, quite fast too... I tested this and the Skoda needs to be constantly pulled to the left to travel straight.

Alignment: has been done several times, last one at the dealer (even have the report)

 

tyres:  are almost new (and it did it with the old ones, but only after a certain mileage)

 

brake drag: dunno... I do have some vibration from a slightly warped rear disc and more recently I'm a front one seems warped too (steering vibration on braking), possibly thanks to an idiot at the workshop that tightened the lug nut all wrong. Some were pretty lose, others over-tightened. I have to sort this out too... 

 

Road: could make the issue worse, but definitely the car is to blame. I don't feel this need to constantly pull the steering to prevent the car from leaving the road with my other 2 cars...

[Danoid]

Swap the front left wheel with the front right, does it make a difference?

 

It sounds like your car could be crabbing, are you the first owner from new?

 

I know you said you’ve tried other cars and they don’t do it as much, but I’m assuming they are different sizes in every way including tyre size to the superb?

 

Only other thing I recommend doing is going back to your dealership, explain the issue again and ask for a test drive on a new superb they have, then go on the same roads.

 

You’ll then be able to mentally compare your car and the new test drive car, if it does the same then it has to be the road, if it doesn’t then you know something is amiss with your car.

Edited 12 May, 2022 by Danoid

[J.R.]

Has the gearbox been removed for a clutch change?

 

A misaligned front cross member will give exactly your problem, dont ask me how I know!

 

It should show up on a 4 wheel alignment check but they are only as good as the operator.

 

 

[Legion]

As Danoid said it could be thrust angle.

 

Did they actually do a full alignment and give you the results?

 

The other thing that will do that is if the wheel caster is uneven side to side. It will pull the steering wheel to one side.

[pcspinheiro]

On 12/05/2022 at 17:09, Danoid said:

Swap the front left wheel with the front right, does it make a difference?

 

It sounds like your car could be crabbing, are you the first owner from new?

 

I know you said you’ve tried other cars and they don’t do it as much, but I’m assuming they are different sizes in every way including tyre size to the superb?

 

Only other thing I recommend doing is going back to your dealership, explain the issue again and ask for a test drive on a new superb they have, then go on the same roads.

 

You’ll then be able to mentally compare your car and the new test drive car, if it does the same then it has to be the road, if it doesn’t then you know something is amiss with your car.

 

I can't swap the front wheels because of the thread. That would make the tires run backwards... I'm the first owner, so to speak. It was a test car and came with very few kilometers, like a couple hundred. This issue came to be more recently, I've put over 70k km on the car myself. Could it be a worn shock making it "lean" more to the right? I also seem to have the rear right bearing on it's way out, I hear a drone noise when driving over 40 km/h and today I removed the rear discs to have them resurfaced (slight warp to at least one) and it makes more noise than the left one, though does not feels loose (yet). The front right also may be a little noisier and I recently started getting some brake pedal judder. But the car drifting right predates these other issues.

 

The other cars are a 2018 Nissan leaf and a 2001 Opel Astra.

 

Since I did the alignment at the dealership I will go there and complain that something is still off. Someone told me that the steering box has like a "zero" position (or something like that), and that it may be off, so it wants to go there? 

[pcspinheiro]

On 12/05/2022 at 19:14, J.R. said:

Has the gearbox been removed for a clutch change?

 

A misaligned front cross member will give exactly your problem, dont ask me how I know!

 

It should show up on a 4 wheel alignment check but they are only as good as the operator.

 

 

Nothing like that has been done, no. At least not that I know of, I owned the car since it was only a few hundred kms old (it was a demo car).

It got a 4 wheel alignment twice, the last at the dealership. I even got a report. Nothing was wrong to begin with, all within specs. I suppose they just tweaked it a little to justify charging me their ridiculous fee. 

[Gingerboy]

Stupid question, it's not the lane assist kicking in is it? Have you got it enabled and if so what level of assistance is it set at?

[pcspinheiro]

Mine doesn't have lane assist, AFAIK. And if it was LA, it would be doing a very poor job trying to get me off the road. It's really just pulling to the right. As soon as I let got of the steering, off it goes.

[Gingerboy]

4 minutes ago, pcspinheiro said:

Mine doesn't have lane assist, AFAIK. And if it was LA, it would be doing a very poor job trying to get me off the road. It's really just pulling to the right. As soon as I let got of the steering, off it goes.

 

I wondered if it was potentially out of calibration. 

 

It sounds like either camber in the road or a worn bush 

[MarkyG82]

Did the dealer (not who I would use for alignment) do all 4 wheels and what system did they use. I would only trust old school string or a laser 4 wheel setup.l like hunter.

 

It could also be a worn bush. Sits straight when aligning but put load on like drive or a person and it could push it out.

[J.R.]

On 12/05/2022 at 14:21, pcspinheiro said:

Obviously, the dealership finds nothing wrong with it (it's still under a warranty extension...).

 

I have nothing to add.

[ChrisJ944]

On 16/05/2022 at 07:13, MarkyG82 said:

Did the dealer (not who I would use for alignment) do all 4 wheels and what system did they use. I would only trust old school string or a laser 4 wheel setup.l like hunter.

 

It could also be a worn bush. Sits straight when aligning but put load on like drive or a person and it could push it out.

I had this with an old Volvo of mine.  Wheel alignment checks over a couple of years were always bang on, but the car consistently pulled to the left (RHD) when driving.  It turned out that one rear bush had failed, and the other was about to (circa 100K miles).  Got them replaced and it went in a straight line again.

 

I'm not saying in this case that the issue is definitely bushes, but highlighting that it could be any of many seemingly innocuous components.  To be fair on your garage, it can be really hard to diagnose this kind of thing without any disassembly and people rarely want to pay for potentially fruitless investigation work.  You may be better off going to an independent garage who have experience of older cars with worn/damaged suspension, not a dealer looking after newer cars.

[Legion]

On 16/05/2022 at 07:27, pcspinheiro said:

I even got a report.

 

Can you post it up here?

 

[pcspinheiro]

On 17/05/2022 at 11:26, ChrisJ944 said:

I had this with an old Volvo of mine.  Wheel alignment checks over a couple of years were always bang on, but the car consistently pulled to the left (RHD) when driving.  It turned out that one rear bush had failed, and the other was about to (circa 100K miles).  Got them replaced and it went in a straight line again.

 

I'm not saying in this case that the issue is definitely bushes, but highlighting that it could be any of many seemingly innocuous components.  To be fair on your garage, it can be really hard to diagnose this kind of thing without any disassembly and people rarely want to pay for potentially fruitless investigation work.  You may be better off going to an independent garage who have experience of older cars with worn/damaged suspension, not a dealer looking after newer cars.

I get what you're saying, some things can be hard to diagnose. But they are even harder when dismissed from the start... I complained from what seems excessive play/vibration from the engine, did they bother to even look?... Anyway, I'm busy getting the discs out to have them machined (even thought they have 73k km on them, both discs and pads are almost new, I drive carefully and defensively), do I'll see if I can spot a bad bush. I'll try to find some tutorial on how to do it. 

[pcspinheiro]

On 17/05/2022 at 11:34, Legion said:

 

Can you post it up here?

 

Here it is, in Portuguese though (but I guess most of it is understandable). Direita = right, esquerda = left. 

[Legion]

For me its a bit difficult to tell but does the above show that they have addressed crabbing like Danoid mentions or thrust angle?

 

Understanding Thrust Angle and Alignment | TireBuyer.com

 

 

 

[pcspinheiro]

Sorry for the absence, was away on vacation. Yes, thrust angle is within spec (last line on the upper half of the table).

 

So, additional info. My car has had a high speed vibration ever since I can remember but Skoda never found anything, until they found the obvious when I suggested it: a slightly bent rim on the right side, where the vibrations clearly came from! Now, wheels have been refurbished but the car still (as per other posts):

- pulls to the right, but maybe less I'd say 

- does this swooshing sound over 40km/k, apparently also from the right)

- vibrates at over 140 km/h but way less (still right side) 

- the rear right hub spins more freely and with a higher pitched sound (wheel off), buy has no noticeable play.

- front wheel seems to transmit more vibration to the suspension when spun by hand, when the car was up to remove the wheels for refurbishing (a little subjective, should use a mechanic stethoscope, which I even have but lack the time to be constantly around the car at home...)

 

So I guess this points to bearings going out on the right side, which could explain most if not all symptoms?

A Google search told me that my symptoms coould be caused by worn bearings, even of not enough to cause play... But I don't want to go about changing parts without being sure... I did complain to Skoda just today, when reminding them about the warranty claim for the various oil leaks on the engine, but my hopes are realistically low...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited 17 August, 2022 by pcspinheiro

[thejames]

On 15/05/2022 at 22:24, pcspinheiro said:

 

I can't swap the front wheels because of the thread. That would make the tires run backwards... I'm the first owner, so to speak. It was a test car and came with very few kilometers, like a couple hundred. This issue came to be more recently, I've put over 70k km on the car myself. Could it be a worn shock making it "lean" more to the right? I also seem to have the rear right bearing on it's way out, I hear a drone noise when driving over 40 km/h and today I removed the rear discs to have them resurfaced (slight warp to at least one) and it makes more noise than the left one, though does not feels loose (yet). The front right also may be a little noisier and I recently started getting some brake pedal judder. But the car drifting right predates these other issues.

 

The other cars are a 2018 Nissan leaf and a 2001 Opel Astra.

 

Since I did the alignment at the dealership I will go there and complain that something is still off. Someone told me that the steering box has like a "zero" position (or something like that), and that it may be off, so it wants to go there? 

I owned a 330ci BMW once and despite multiple attempts at alignment and checking/changing various bushes, I couldn’t quite stop it tramlining… until I changed the directional tyres, which is what you’re describing here. I had Eagle F1s which were basically just massive arrows - about as directional as you can get. When I changed to asymmetric tyres, I didn’t have to wrestle the car anymore. 

 

may not be your entire problem, but likely isn’t helping.