Alignment issues

[okisub]

So our 103kw TDI wagon went in for its 1000km check-up last week.
Our only issues were a rattle somewhere near the glovebox and when driving with the steering wheel straight the car would slowly veer right.

A new glovebox lid(which was to be replaced anyway due to the pen clip being broken on delivery) and a wheel alignment later and I have a passat that now veers to the LEFT when the steering wheels is held straight!

Now I mentioned to it when the original saleman called me today about an unrelated thing and he blew it off as 'you can set the steering as you like it' and 'its the varying camber of the road' which I don't believe as I've even tried driving on the wrong side and it still does it and all of our other cars track straight.

Then we got the old follow-up call from the dealership regarding the service -I repeated the story and now they are having another go at it in a couple days...


So after that epic tale my question is: does your Passat follow the camber of the road more than other cars you have driven? or is it all in my head?

[Rocket36]

Short answer, I think so. Long answer... I took my car back to the aligner that did it THREE times before I simply accepted the wheel was a few mm out (ie not completely straigh when in a straight lone on straight road). The aligner told me the new steering technology in the Passat is a PITA to get the wheel perfect. Something to do with it being electromagnetic or something.

[tryingavw]

Short answer, I think so. Long answer... I took my car back to the aligner that did it THREE times before I simply accepted the wheel was a few mm out (ie not completely straigh when in a straight lone on straight road). The aligner told me the new steering technology in the Passat is a PITA to get the wheel perfect. Something to do with it being electromagnetic or something.

just took the 125 today to fix a puncture & rotate the tyres+ check alignment. they said the alignment was a bit out. not sure if i 100% believe them- maybe they a wanted to give me value? the car has done 9000 klm. for what its worth the guy at beaurepairs reckons check them every 10,000.

at $90 i figured the alignment is a cheaper option than possible scrubbed pirellis!

anyway before and after it tracks fine- i would stick on their case until you're happy.

[gregozedobe]

There seem to be three different "alignment" issues mentioned here:

1 Car follows camber of road ie when camber is falling away to the left many cars slowly drift to the left, so you have to maintain very slight pressure to the right to counteract this tendency. This is quite normal, but shouldn't be so strong that if you take your hands of the wheel the car immediately heads off the side of the road. Not to be confused with tramlining (car steering noticeably affected by undulations, ridges etc in the road surface), or pulling to one side when braking.

2 Car pulls to one side (regardless of road camber). This is an issue with the steering geometry which is usually fixed by adjusting toe in/out on each front wheel (or back wheels if the car is "crabbing").

3 Steering wheel is not centred properly. In older cars this was pretty simple to fix, using the splines on the steering column for a coarse adjustment, and a fine adjustment by equal but opposite adjustments of the toe in/toe out on both of the front wheels (so the overall alignment is not changed).

Different brands of tyres, size of tyres, size of rims and rim offset can noticeably affect how a car steers, and generally the wider the tyre and rim the more noticeable the first issue is.

Fixing the third issue on some newer cars can be more difficult as they have a sensor/s for steering wheel position and the power assist control unit gets involved.

Some people are more sensitive than others to these steering issues (and the related one of the steering wheel and or pedals being offset to the seating position).

It might be useful to take a dealer demo car (with same sized wheels) for a drive to see if it drives differently (if it is good then they should be able to make your car drive the same as theirs).

[passatpout]

Mine was out of alignment with a distinct, but slight, pull to the left on delivery. Front wheel alignment corrected that.

At the 30,000km service 6 weeks ago, it had a 4-wheel alignment and on-car balance, and it's running sweet now with no issues, which includes a round trip from Melbourne to Newcastle the day after the service. Spoke to the tyre guys, they never mentioned that it was hard to align, they just did it.

[okisub]

There seem to be three different "alignment" issues mentioned here:
... a bunch of stuff...

Pretty sure its just the steering wheel not being centred properly in my case but then I'm no mechanic... although I do know it's just not right for a brand new car.
It was mentioned that the guy that aligned mine was on his 1st week on the job after leaving Pedders(not sure if that's a good or bad thing ) so that could have something to do with it as well.


I just hope it all gets sorted out without any fuss tomorrow.

[okisub]

Spoke to the tyre guys,...

That's another thing that I find makes things difficult too, you seem to be speaking through about 3 people (receptionist -> service manager -> tech) at a dealership, its like chinese whispers! I got a call back after discussing my issue and the service manager was saying I said it had severe veering etc, way exagerated from my initial 'the wheel is a little bit off centre when driving straight'.

We'll see.