Torque Steer on T8

[Director76]

Originally Posted by Roosterb

So the T8 doesn’t have a Haldex unit figuring this out?

A T8 is a powerful front wheel drive car, and a low powered rear wheel drive car that happen to co-occupy the same chassis!

[DocAce]

Originally Posted by Director76

A T8 is a powerful front wheel drive car, and a low powered rear wheel drive car that happen to co-occupy the same chassis!

Ooops, misread that the first time. Any way of deleting my reply?

[Director76]

Originally Posted by DocAce

Ooops, misread that the first time. Any way of deleting my reply?

Oh...did I miss a good reply then...were you taking the P?

[Philip Fisher]

Originally Posted by Roosterb

So the T8 doesn’t have a Haldex unit figuring this out?

No. There is no mechanical drive connection between front and rear.

[DocAce]

Originally Posted by Director76

Oh...did I miss a good reply then...were you taking the P?

Nah - just repeating what you had already said actually

[stevew321]

Originally Posted by Milliner

I've had my T8 for nearly 4 years, and have signed up for another 12 months given my low miles (and a new model in the pipeline...) and frankly, because I can't find anything to compete for my needs.

I must admit over all this time I have found torque steer is noticeable when you put your foot down.However, I find that you really do need to choose your driving mode, or custom your own.

Hybrid mode is fine for gentle commutes but when you put your foot down, the two drive chains (especially the autobox) get in a muddle on mine and the ICE dominates with a sudden great slug of power/torque. It's not refined. In power mode, everything is much better in my experience for some spirited driving and torque steer is much reduced. Handling, power delivery delivery and response is much more 'sorted', as you'd expect.

Given I drive 7 miles to my office at a max 40mph though I use Pure a lot of the time too and I love it. Like driving a cloud.

I have been doing a bit of experimentation and I agree that preselecting power as a drive mode improves things. My bad experience did occur when in hybrid mode running on electric and flooring it so the car had to deal with waking the engine up, finding the right gear etc. Since trying the same manoeuvre in power I’ve notice a significant improvement, though I’m still occasionally detect a slight pull at the steering wheel. Unfortunately, I think this twin engine arrangement, whilst allowing for packaging of the battery in the transmission tunnel, will always struggle against 4x4 systems that aim to take all power and shuffle it around according to traction/ load etc.

Having said all do this, I too cannot find a better car to suit my needs as I only need a midsized SUV and most of the competition at the same size suffer from offset pedals due to the longitudinally mounted engines. The only other car I would look at would be the BMW X5 45e which is in the next size class up and is therefore big enough to have the pedals in the right place. Downside is the aggressive image and larger footprint than I need (and cost).

I’m looking forward to when they bring out the fully electric XC60 that will bring with it a much more even power distribution as well as all the other advantages.

[jarm]

I'd appreciate any feedback. Is it torque steer I'm feeling, is it normal or is there something wrong with the axle or suspension? I have a MY20 T8 Polestar with air suspension.

When I floor it I can feel steering wheel being pulled to the right. It happens in Dynamic and Polestar modes and when flooring it. It doesn't happen in AWD mode or when moderately accelerating.
I can feel the steering being pulled, but it's nothing I would describe dangerous. Tried to accelerate without holdign the wheel (disabled lane assist also) and then in Polestar mode, it goes in a fairly straight line up to 50-60mph and then pulls to the right.

Is it torque steer and what's your experience? I'm not sure if it has been like that from the beginning or is it something new after I had wheel alignment done.


Had a wheel alignment done, as felt the car wandered a little to the right. I had my local dealer do the alignment. To my surprise first alignment is done for free.
Dealer did the alignment and said both axles were misaligned. He adjusted them and said everything is in spec now.

Took the car and immediately noticed wheel is not straight and car wanders quite severely to the right. Before the alignment I wasn't even quite sure it is actually wandering to the right or I'm imagining it. But after the alignment it pulls to the right, no slight wandering.
Called the dealer and they promised to take a look next week and do a test drive.

With other cars I have used one local independent tire / wheel alignment shop and tought I'll let them have a go. So they did the alignment and immediately said both axels were misaligned. It took them maybe 20 minutes to do the adjustment. For dealer it took almost an hour.
Took the car and now steering is straight again and no pulling or wandering to the right. Drives straight when rolling in neutral, cruising or moderately accelerating. Except when flooring it, then pulls to the right.

So now I'm not sure is there still something wrong with the alignment or is it just torque steer I'm feeling and it's normal for T8.

Thanks

[Cull06]

It is a car known for torque steer in T8 guise. let’s be honest the car wasn’t designed for flooring it! Saying that, when I do floor it, yes there’s a fair amount of torque steer but it is controllable if I fight to keep it in a straight line. If you can’t even do that on yours then could well still be an issue there.

[Discoman]

I did not consider the T8 as I saw it as an overpriced company car tax dodge but given it's design I guess it's inevitable that you will get torque steer with a 300bhp FWD engine doing much of the work. This will be fixed when they have two or four electric motors front and back that can talk to each other and modulate power better. Roll on the next generation.

On the flip side looking at my car, Haldex is not brilliant and even this still has some torque steer before it switches the rear on but it is a big improvement on early versions from two decades back which could be really dangerous in the snow as they shuffled the power too aggressively to the back.

[jarm]

Thanks. I think it's normal then. When flooring it I can easily counter the pull to right. It's most pronounced around 50-60 mph, but no way hard to correct. I just feel it's there.

Also spoke with the dealer tech this morning, the one who did the first alignment, and he said that sometimes it takes two to three adjustments to get wheels aligned. For torque steer he said earlier MY were worse. Volvo changed something in steering and suspension for MY20 and it's actually better now.

But thanks again, your comment confirms the torque steer I'm feeling is not specific to my car but to all T8s.