******! Car not driving well

[Oranoco]

Thought the wayward handling was down to the rubber being shot. The old Conti's had worn very evenly and I bit the bullet and put 4 new Toyo Proxes T1-R's on the old girl, nice and grippy but the old girl is still handling very wayward and doesn't seem to want to go in a straight line. Lifting off the throttle at motorway speeds makes the car pull to the side Also getting a horrid vibration at about 80 through the steering. Feels like something knocking but for the life of me can't track it' It's like a bush has totally gone but I've had the wheels off and inspected everything and can't see anything

Ideas before I chop it in and buy a Vectra?

 

[Broken Byzan]

Axle bushes mate, i tried everything else before i got to mine. It was them that cured it, after many arms and suspension changes

 

[Oranoco]

Which ones are these? Mines FWD not Quattro if this makes any difference?

 

[aragorn]

Only FWD's have them.

Its the two large bushes that hold the torsion beam onto the shell. I've just baught some new ones for ours, as they're clearly nackered. £11+vat each from allgermanparts.

We had an engine in the back of it coming up the motorway yestarday, and it was pretty horrible, you could feel the rear end moving around a LOT, and with the high winds, there were a few times when it was snaking a bit even with the steering held dead streight, presumably as the weight transfer causes the bushes to move.

Pulling to one side when lifting off the power also might be a sticky brake caliper...

 

[Oranoco]

I'll swap them out for £11 a piece but it doesn't feel like it's the back of the car causing me a problem.

 

[aragorn]

I'd check the brakes over carefully, make sure they arent binding, as that will cause it to pull around oddly as you come on and off the power.

Presumably the arms on the front are new? what about track rod ends? Any play in the rack?

Ours had a really nasty vibration around 85 getting worse as you went faster, by 90 it was scary, and it was the balljoints on the front arms. I'd only changed them about 4 months previously too, just used cheap crap.

 

[Matt82]

a speed related vibration, id expect that to be balancing

the rest has to be bushes

 

[Oranoco]

Deffo not balancing of the wheels. Took the car into the local KwikFit who checked the balancing and confirmed it's spot on. Think I'm going to strip the front off on Saturday and examine it piece by piece. It's spoiling an otherwise fabulous car

 

[aragorn]

jack it up with the wheels still on and "wiggle" them in all directions.

You get more leverage doing it that way rather than stripping it down and prodding at the individual parts.

You say you've changed the arms previously, what make did you fit?

 

[Oranoco]

Lemforder. Th eonly two arms that are original are the two uppers on the passenger side but I'm certain the issue is at the drivers side. Think I'll duck over to my mate and get him to pop it on the ramps and give everything some abuse and see what moves

 

[aragorn]

It was the top arms that died first on my cheapo kit, caused my horrible vibration and killed two front tyres. If you jacked the car up and tried to steer the wheel with your hand (ie 3 and 9oclock) the play in the balljoints was huge. Clearly they were flapping around while driving along.

I'd change em, because even if they look ok, the bushes WILL be shot if they're original, and the top arms are cheap.