Seat Exeo 2010

[kblackburn]

Hi Guy's,

 

Feel a bit cheeky, posting so quick after joining the forum, but I have been advised on another forum to post here.

 

I bought the above vehicle, a little while ago, it drove arrow straight, the best I've ever driven, steering wheel dead level and no pull or wander what so ever.

I then fitted winter tyres, again the car was still perfect, however, on a trip to London, I hit a kerb, with the offside front wheel, at no more than 10mph, on the return trip home to the lake district, I noticed that the vehicle had developed a drift to the left, and the steering wheel is down to the left, by about 3-5 degrees.

On return to work I put the car on our hunter aligner, unfortunaty the system is old, and the company will not pay for updates to the vehicle data base, so I do not have any alignment figures to work from, so I figured that Audi A4 B7 would be as near as I could get, seeing as that is what the car is based upon.

There was some discrepences from the Audi figures, when I took the readings, so I tried to correct it in the short time I was allowed, to use the equipment. The vehicle still had the slight drift and the steering wheel is still off center, however, when I connect my vcds software to the car, and check the G85 reading, with the steering wheel in the straight ahead position,it reads zero degrees, which is what it should do.

I have since replaced the winter tyres, with my summer tyres and the car still drifts to the left, I again had a little time yesterday to check on the aligner, I altered the front camber to equalise, as near as i could, and altered the rear camber, near side had way more than the offside, steering wheel centered and front toe set, on the drive home, it still drifts left and as it drifts the steering wheel goes off center to the left, any suggestions greatfully recieved.

( sorry about the length of the post)

 

kevin

[89mustang]

What readings did you get for front camber, castor and sai? Imbalance here is the most likely cause of the drift/pull?

[kblackburn]

front camber readings before adjustment were        camber                  nearside    -1*10'

                                                                                 camber                  offside       -0*23'

                                                                                  sai                        nearside      4*11'

                                                                                  sai                        offside         3*15'

                                                                                  castor                   nearside    3*02'

                                                                                  castor                   offside       3*01'

 

After adjustment     

 

                                                                              camber   n/s                 0*44'

                                                                                             o/s                 0*40'

 

                                                                               sai         n/s                3*46'

                                                                                             o/s                3*42'

 

                                                                              castor      n/s               3*04'

                                                                                              o/s               3*24'

 

 

cross caster                                                                                          -0*20'

cross camber                                                                                       -0*04'                        

[Tony]

Hello Kevin

The castor might be an issue since the stagger is low on the NSF but i think the problem is the tyres? move the wheel/ tyre assembly side-to-side and test drive to eliminate a pneumatic pull.

[Rich]

Can hitting the kerb at low speed damage the tyres Tony?

 

Welcome to WIM Kevin

[liner33]

A pothole can

[kblackburn]

Hi,

 

I had  a look at the tyres at lunch time, I fitted them with the bias to the off side, so tyre drift should have been towards the right, if I've read correctly about the tyres and the way they are made. It also had the drift with the winter tyres fitted.

The caster is not adjustable, but when I moved the front sub frame to equalise the camber, could I have inadvertanly moved the caster ?. Another thing I found this afternoon, is the steering rack has an indent, allowing centralization of the rack to eliminate unequal pressure within the rack, I was wondering wether I should use this to hold the rack central whilst I adjust the tracking, what do you think ?

 

kev

[Tony]

So did you move the tyres  side-to-side and everything was the same? Centering the rack won't make any difference because it's true center is set to the rear thrust angle.

[kblackburn]

Hi Tony,

yes side to side swap, still the same, I know it would pull to the side with the lowest caster, but would such a small amount cause this ?. I have the rear numbers and camber should be  -1*20' per side and rear toe 10' per wheel. numbers fromthe car -1*14' camber n/s and 1*11' o/s with rear toe at 0.13' n/s and o/s at 0.15' so total toe at 0.28' and thrust angle of -0.01'.

I should be ableto have use of the equipment again on saturday morning, so will try to get them as close as possible to factory settings.

 

kev

[Tony]

In the real world the angles are almost symmetrical so i think your chasing your tail geometrically. Saying that as a final exclusion what was the end position for the SAI? 

Next move in my book of elimination assuming the SAI is good would be to measure any difference in the body trim height.

[kblackburn]

Hi Tony,

 

thanks for the replies, Sai   n/s 3*46'

                                           o/s 3*42'

 

and included angle              n/s 3*02'

                                            o/s 3*02'

must say today, the drift did'nt seem as bad, but the steering wheel is still off a couple of degrees to the left.

 

kev

[Tony]

SAI/ Included are fine, time to move on other than the fact you haven't shown any numbers for the rear?  Next on the list assuming the rear is ok is the trim height. Measure the distance between the center of the wheel up to the center of the wheel arch and compare each side. 

[kblackburn]

Hi Tony,

 

sorry, I did list the rear numbers in an earlier post above.

 

n/s/r camber   -1*14'

o/s/r camber   -1*11'

 

o/s/r toe          0*13'

n/s/r toe          0*15'

 

and thrust angle -0.01'

 

cheers

 

kev

[Tony]

Numbers are good.... Back to the trim height now fella.

[kblackburn]

Hi Tony,

 

here we go, spent a couple of hours this morning.

 

camber n/s/f     -0*.49'

camber o/s/f     -0*46'

caster   n/s/f      3*07'

caster   o/s/f      3*20'

toe        n/s/f      0*10'

toe        o/s/f      0*10'

cross camber    -0*02'

cross caster     -0*12'

sai       n/s        3*29'

sai       o/s        3*12'

included angle   2*40' (n/s)

included angle   2*26' (o/s)

 

rear

 

camber      n/s     -1*18'

                 o/s      -1*18'

toe            n/s       0*09'

                 o/s       0*09'

thrust agle            0*00'

 

no steerng drift,  no pull and steering wheel straight.

 

thanks for your input and help, the other technicians at work think I'm nut's going the trouble I have, but as far as I'm concerned, the manufacter does'nt supply specifications for nothing.

 

kev

[Tony]

The chassis positions are superb, time to move on now methinks. Trim height measurements is my next port of call.

[kblackburn]

Tony,

 

trim height 5mm lower on the offside of the car, front and rear.

 

kev

[Tony]

I take it the coils have been checked for brakes?

[kblackburn]

yes, Tony everthing checked, no cracks, it's only done 15000 miles, and the steering pull has been rectified by setting te geo to as near manufactures spec as poss, given that I think our ramp, moves at different lockout heights, I did make sure I used the same height for setting the car up

 

many thanks

 

kev

[Tony]

Jack the front up, start the engine and feel the steering resistance lock on lock just in case it's a pump fluid transfer issue.

[kblackburn]

Hi Tony,

 

this is why Audi state that the steering rack should be pinned by the special tool ( detent in rack, aligned with service hole and use of tool )

Steering centring bolt -VAS 6224- must be fitted when checking wheel alignment

 

 

kev

[Tony]

Many German cars ask for that but i have never needed the tool. Reason being if the front is aligned to the rear thrust then the rack will be perfectly centered.