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GTI Pulling left when accelerating


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After a quick google this seems to be a common problem with the little Lupos but just after some advice.

I fitted coilovers yesterday, new top mounts and decided to get my tracking done. When i left i noticed the car pulls very heavily under acceleration to the left. The harder you push the more the turn is. On a 3 lane carriageway i can go from the fast lane to the slow with just accelerating.

i decided to take the car back today and they retested the car on another machine and the figures came back as they were on the other machine. They then ran a full geometry check and it pulled up the caster was slightly out so they adjusted this by fiddling with the subframe but the problem was still there. They then jacked the car up and pushed and pulled on the wheels to check for a worn bush but they found nothing. His last ditch effort was to switch the front wheels round but this still did nothing and the car continues to pull left when accelerating. 

My Alignment report:

Front
Caster Left and Right = 1.56*
Camber Left = -3.47* Right = -2.53*
Toe = Left = 0.04* Right =0.04*

Rear
Camber Left = -1.57* Right = -1.43*
Left = 0.29* Right =0.33*

Any light people can shed on this would be a great help as i would love to get it fixed.

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Just look at the figures, a whole degree of camber difference between left and right no wonder it pulls left you have 0.94 the maxiimum allowed is 0.3.

Camber adjusts the tyres contact patch on the road less camber = more contact patch and more grip, so you have much more grip on the right than the left.

Make sure you coilovers are set  the same both sides to 1mm precision, if they are not idetical you will get different readings for camber.  You may need camber bolts to be able to adjust it out.

You don't say how low you are but i'm guessing  40mm down, try to get your camber below -2 to get better tyre life

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1 hour ago, carrera-gt said:

Just look at the figures, a whole degree of camber difference between left and right no wonder it pulls left you have 0.94 the maxiimum allowed is 0.3.

Camber adjusts the tyres contact patch on the road less camber = more contact patch and more grip, so you have much more grip on the right than the left.

Make sure you coilovers are set  the same both sides to 1mm precision, if they are not idetical you will get different readings for camber.  You may need camber bolts to be able to adjust it out.

You don't say how low you are but i'm guessing  40mm down, try to get your camber below -2 to get better tyre life

Thanks very much, thats spot on. To be honest the car is far to low and thats the reason why there is so much camber. With the APs there is a lot of movement in the top bolt on the strut so will easily be able to get it in to a better state when i raise it up tomorrow. When i do that i will also check they are all even. Thanks for the replies guys.

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Ok...

So today i raised the car and made sure the suspension is equal, i then checked all the tyre pressures, then the tracking was carried out and all camber value are now good both are around -2* toe was corrected as i had undone the shock mounts and everything was giving the all clear. However i still have the same issue, I'm going to get a garage to have a look at my lower control arms in the week as the chap at the wheel place said there is a little bit of play.

 

Other than that I'm lost. 

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it wasnt doing this before changing suspension over we assume? Any powerful FWD car will deliver some torque steer on hard acceleration though, but this is suddenly very obvious after the suspension changes?

Was anything else changed or done at the same time as the coilovers? 

 

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I changed the top mounts, bearing and the threaded bush (nut) on top of the top mount. 

I have only owned the car since January and to be honest the handling was always a little sloppy but with my main car being an Octavia VRS and having come from a Clio 200 Cup i just put this down to it being older and just not so focused for track days. Normal day to day driving you wouldn't even notice the pulling its only when you really push the car (which i don't very often) you notice. Having covered less than 1k miles since i purchased the car i can't remember feeling the pull but i also don't think i put the car in a situation where it would have done it.

The Phirm is only round the corner from me and after a quick phone call today they said they might be able to give the car a quick look over at some point in the week if a ramp becomes free.

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Well i had a good think about it this weekend and the simplest solution for this will just be to carry out a small front end refresh.

I have ordered the following:

Powerflex Wishbone forward bush PFF85-401
Powerflex Wishbone rear bush PFF85-402
o/s track rod end 6x0422 812 
n/s track rod end 6x0422 811 

Hopefully this will fix or at least make the issue less noticeable. Whilst i have the wishbones off is it worth replacing anything else? All nuts and bolts will be replaced and everything will get a lick of paint.

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You may as well replace the anti roll bar drop link bushes where they join to the wishbone. They are always the first bushes to crack. You can get powerflex ones for a MK2 golf which fit, dont it a few times now.

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