Steering pull. Tracking or something else?

[Nodster]

Hey

I've had the car out a few times when the weather has allowed, and I've noticed the steering wheel has started to pull on its own (not violently) but enough to take notice when holding it in both hands. It makes driving a bit tiresome constantly having to make micro adjustments. I don't recall the car behaving like this before. 9/10 it prefers to tug the wheel slightly left. Would adding any sort of additional lower front bracing help here?

I will at the weekend go and check tyre pressures and wheel torque. I might also check the front top strut brace torque as well. I haven't tested letting go of the wheel and seeing if I start to go left or right. It feels more like just random tramlining.

I was thinking it might just likely be tracking? God knows with all the pot holes and bumps it may have pulled it out slightly. But I wanted to see what people think?

I've also felt a few times that the feedback in the wheel generally is a bit wooly and vague. I think I have it set in "sport". Is there anything that can be done to sharpen up the steering? I have a small deadspot in the steering, in that, i can move the wheel left and right just a tad from centre, without impacting the direction of travel. Is that normal?

Car has covered just over 20K miles.

Thanks.

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[313_S550]

I had oem pp1 wheels with the 255 pzeros and experienced minimal tracking. Once I switched to 19x10's with 275 Toyo Proxes Sport I began to feel a lot more tracking however the roads in my area are pretty shit. My tires are both at 33 PSI.

 

[Nodster]

I was just reading tirerack.com's tramlining article here. I wonder if it is just something I'm noticing more as the tyres wear. They only came with 7mm new and not the usual 8-9mm. I think I'll get the pressure and alignment checked along with the wheel and strut torques. Would be interested in people's experience though as to what is normal. Especially with improving steering response / stiffening up the front end.

 

[Nodster]

I had oem pp1 wheels with the 255 pzeros and experienced minimal tracking. Once I switched to 19x11's with 275 Toyo Proxes Sport I began to feel a lot more tracking however the roads in my area are pretty shit. My tires are both at 33 PSI.

Thanks, that sounds like what the tirerack article mentions. Wider and gripier tyres = more likely to tramline. The roads here have gotten a lot worse due to budget cuts. No money to get them fixed.

 

[cerbomark]

check that alignment first, the trammeling can be adjusted out if someone knows what they are doing. Find alignment shop that knows their stuff.

 

[NightmareMoon]

99% of the time you just need an alignment. They don’t last forever.

Potholes and routine stuff causes the alignment to go off eventually. If you never had it checked, thats a very safe bet.

 

[Nodster]

Quick update. Haven't had time this weekend to get the alignment checked. But did check a few things. Wheel nuts are fine, torque is correct. Tyre pressures were a little low due to colder temps at the moment, down to 31 PSI. So I put those back to 33 PSI. And the strut brace nuts were loose and did need tightening back down. Not much, maybes 1/4 turn to nip them all back up. I had never checked it since fitting, maybes 6-9 monthsa go. Fingers crossed that, plus an alignment, will sort things out.

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