Steering.....

[AMP]

Had my mate check for play in the steering up on his lift yesterday and all seemed fine. Thought I best make sure all was good before I take it to get the tracking done elsewhere. My question is the characteristic of these thro the steering wheel. It feels kinda twitchy like there's excessive play in a joint somewhere, a cm or so left and right if that makes sense. Bit like my Herald!!! Tyre pressure's spot on, perhaps the wheels are facing different direction??

Any thoughts guys?

[skyship007]

The direction of rotation is clearly marked on all major brand tyres by an arrow with the word rotation inside.
If you can't find the marks, the side walls are kaput OR the wheels are on backwards.

How far off center is the steering wheel and does it pull to one side ??
If it does, I would not drive it except on a Sunday morning at slow speeds etc.

Which make of tyres have you got fitted, cos very cheap Superslide specials have thin side walls and that results in a rather jerky ride and poor handling. Soft compounds (Some bad tyres are made of dumped winter tyre compound from the near East) wear quickly when it gets hot and go out of balance as a result.

NOTE: There are no real wheel play limits for the MOT test, as you need to find out who made the joint or bearing and its design spec. I asked a TUV chap about this last week and he said, "If it moves, don't drive it" and "If it doesn't move, but should, fail it"!

[AMP]

Sorry perhaps I didn't explain myself too well. Tyres are fine, I meant if the tracking was out could this cause the problem? It had new Firestones fitted just before I bought it.

It only feels like a bit of play thro the steering wheel the first few degrees left and right then all feels fine after that.

Wheel is slightly off centre, makes me feel like I'm steering left in a straight line!!! lol

[skyship007]

Originally Posted by AMP

Sorry perhaps I didn't explain myself too well. Tyres are fine, I meant if the tracking was out could this cause the problem? It had new Firestones fitted just before I bought it.

It only feels like a bit of play thro the steering wheel the first few degrees left and right then all feels fine after that.

Wheel is slightly off centre, makes me feel like I'm steering left in a straight line!!! lol

Sounds like the tracking is out, although I've no idea why folks buy Firestone anything. I would not take a set of their tyres even if they were free, as I can't seem to find them listed for anything sensible:

Top Max Performance Tyres
Bridgestone Adrenalin
Vredestein Ultrac Vorti
Nokian zLine
Michelin Pilot Super Sport
Michelin Pilot Sport
Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric
Vredestein Ultrac
Nokian Z
Michelin Pilot Sport
Continental SportContact (My summer tyres)

Top Winter Tyres(You can use them all year)
Michelin Pilot Alpin 4
Goodyear UltraGrip Ice Plus
Toyo SNOWPROX S 952
Nokian WR A3
Goodyear UltraGrip Performance
Dunlop SP WinterSport 4D (My winter tyres)
Yokohama W drive V905
Goodyear UltraGrip 6
Continental WinterContact TS 830
Pirelli Winter Sottozero 3

Top Tyre Brands
Bridgestone Tyres
Continental Tyres
Dunlop Tyres
Goodyear Tyres
Hankook Tyres
Michelin Tyres
Nokian Tyres
Pirelli Tyres
Uniroyal Tyres
Vredestein Tyres

Note: There is very little difference within each group, it's just the missing names that are worthy of note!

PS: Bridgestone has nothing to do with Firestone!

[clarkey1984]

My 99 2.0 has play in the steering, can't remember when or where I read it but from what I remember seeing it seems to be a quirk of these apparently, many are like that.

[kieran40]

Track rod ball joints amp mine was twitchy and it also got an advisory in one of them, new ones fitted and twitching is gone could be youre droplinks aswell mate they don't last long on britains roads.

[AMP]

My list grows longer!!! lol

Thanks chaps

[kieran40]

Originally Posted by AMP

My list grows longer!!! lol

Thanks chaps

May not be those things but mine was twitching about at higher speeds everytime it hit a rut it felt like it was going to leave the road fine now mate

Easy cheap fix amp if youre a capable bloke both jobs can be done cheap enough I think my track rods were about 13+ the vat each drop links about 20-30 a pair from euro car parts or gsf.