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Car wandering all over road?


saiper

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I took the car out the other day on the motorway, first time since I bought it....I noticed when driving at speeds 60+ that the car has a very wandering, floaty uneasy feel to it. Although this doesnt happen all the time, it is quite worrying when it does. It almost feels like I have to fight to keep the car in a straight line sometimes.

I'm trying to eliminate all possible causes, but being a novice when it comes to mechanical thingies, I'm stumped. Would mixing tyre brands cause this? I also noticed this morning that the steering wheel has fallen out of alignment, albeit slightly. I'm hoping this isn't something serious...Any help, greatly appreciated:)

 

 

Cheers

J:)

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I had exactly the same issue. Took it into Lockwood and Greenwood and they fixed it up. Tracking / alignment and tyre pressures needed sorting out. In the case of my car, there were elements which were seized up so it'd clearly not been looked at for sometime.

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Cheers for the info. I'll look at getting a professional to sort the alignment, tracking and pressure. Hopefully that will be the end of it. Any reccomendations for north east based garages? I'd take it to Nissan, but they are a bunch of knuts.

 

 

J.

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Yep, deffo go for tracking and tyre pressure and condition first - was feeling very weird round roundabouts and it was the rear tracking that was quite badly out! Got that fixed and all is well. My right side toe adjustment bolt was seized so needed a new one of them (£15 from zmanalex) but once that was fitted, all was well again.

 

Shame i didnt check the tracking before as the fronts were so worn on the inner edge they're nearly down to canvasm, even though the rest of the tyre still has 4mm of tread :doh:

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Mine did this when the front tyres were getting near their limit. I was amazed at the difference new tyres made on it. Defo check the alignment though - the fact you mention the steering wheel seems to no longer be in the right position points towards something having changes in the allignment - or a bump with a kerb has knocked it out.

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Mine does this also but I thought i was just being blonde. Have noticed it has different makes of tyres on the front but I did put new tyres on the back so its of to the tyre place for new front 1's as well and to check the alignment again

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For four wheel alignment try Tyrespot in Darlington. ( manager John ) . excellent service and total cost about £ 70 .

Had mine done when fitting new tyres last year and they were well out at the rear.

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For four wheel alignment try Tyrespot in Darlington. ( manager John ) . excellent service and total cost about £ 70 .

Had mine done when fitting new tyres last year and they were well out at the rear.

 

Perfect. I'm 15mins out of darlo. Hopefully I can get it all sorted. Will update.

 

Cheers:)

James.

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I had a very similar problem, changing the compression rod bushes and an alignment fixed it.

 

I found the car would wander and then feeling like slumping to the left.

 

To inspect the bushes jack up the front end of the car and unbolt the brace, if there are any tears they need to be replaced. I would recommend inspecting the ball joints as well. If the ball joints are fine you can can just replace the bushes otherwise you need to replace the arms.

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Just got back from tyrespot. Car sorted:) Alignment was out by a huge amount. The car drives superbly now. Only slight issue is that the steering wheel wont sit straight, it is still off to the left slightly. They tried to correct it, but couldn't.

 

 

J.

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Just got back from tyrespot. Car sorted:) Alignment was out by a huge amount. The car drives superbly now. Only slight issue is that the steering wheel wont sit straight, it is still off to the left slightly. They tried to correct it, but couldn't.

They really should know better...! It's the camber of the road in the UK most likely causing this 'issue'. They all slope away to the edges so they drain properly, but this means that you need to turn the wheel fractionally to account for it. Find an empty piece of road and try driving on the wrong side: My guess it that it'll go away to the other side ;)

 

Of course, they may just not have set the car up correctly, but I'd try this first.

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