steering geometry settings

[matt the cat]

anyone know the tracking settings for the trophy

thanks all

 

[George K]

About 15 minutes toe-out at the front per dealer documents. I have measured mine at 10' out front and 20' in at the rear.

I am advised by GDI that they consider 20' front toe-out is optimum

 

[matt the cat]

what it is george my steering wheel is slightly off centre - i mean slightly, but its really annoying.

The car is perfectly tracked ie it dosent pull either way, can let go of the wheel and it will drive straight forever, its just the steering wheel. i dont want renault turds messing with it and want to take it to a specialist.

So am i right in thinking that all i have to do is let them set the steering wheel dead straight and then tell them to set the front wheels to 15 minutes toe out?

do you recommend this or do i just accept it and stop being a perfectionist?

cheers

 

[corneyman]

My steering is exactly the same, car tracks fine but the wheel is tilted a bit. Most of my miles are on the motorway so it gets irritating. Thought I was being a bit sad but I know why you'd want to get it sorted. I had this on my WRX and the dealer did something to the track rods (?) which seemed to sort it, I'm no expert, though. Took my Trophy in for an oil change at 1,000 miles. I mentioned it but the dealers didn't reckon it was a warranty thing(!) so I'd have to pay £70 for a four wheel alignment check. Don't fancy having to pay but I'm starting to think it maybe a good idea.

 

[strike]

What? You'd have to pay? What crap! If they can't put a steering wheel on straight who's fault is that??? You buy a new car, you want it made right... right?

 

[George K]

I would partly agree with Strike in that it is not acceptable on a new performance car. However I suspect that it is not as simple as the steering whele not being on straight, but what it probably means is that the track rods are not the same length on each side, which will lead to different bump steer characteristics on each side - this will always aggravate tram-lining and weaving under braking - so it is worth getting it sorted properly. If the dealer won't/can't do it, try to agree that they will pay for or at least make a contribution towards a specialist doing it.

As an aside this does seem to be quite a common problem on other cars as well - the worst is when the track rods are out of kilter and someone has remounted the steering wheel to hide the problem. It can be so obvious that the numbers of turns to LH and RH lock are noticeably different. Past examples have included several TVR's and even a top class rebuild on a Daytona (sadly not mine!)

 

[matt the cat]

just been to a 4 wheel aliignment specialist. They used a state of the art ' hunter' machine. It looked fantastic. the left from was set at -9 minutes and the right front was on -13 minutes. anyway they set it up with -12 mins each side all the rest was fine. now has wheel perfect, but cost £25. money well spent, rather than tossing about leaving it with the renault turds.

Yay oh yay what a successsful day

 

[corneyman]

Where did you go to get the geometry sorted? What were the settings used? Think its time I got it sorted.

 

[George K]

Did they check that the track rods are equal in length?

 

[matt the cat]

corneyman - Wheel alignment and ball joint centre ltd. Liverpool 0151 933 5111

George K - yes they checked them and were ok

Thanks all for the input