One wheel further back

CruiseGTi-R

CruiseGTi-R

Member
ok folks, this is either a disaster or just a replace-a-part.

I’ve been having headaches over getting my wheels aligned and last night finally got it near being about right. Car doesn’t pull, steering wheel is straight, cambers the same left to right, toe about straight (all done WITHOUT spending £80 for laser-align, but that’s another thread…)

I posted just recently about steering being heavy. Ram5ay suggested I check castor angles, or at least measure how far back the front wheel is from points on the chassis. I didn’t get as far as a tape measure before noticing that the passenger side front wheel is further back (back towards the rear of the car) than the drivers side front. With a bit of deft tape-measuring we gauged it to be about 10-15mm further back than the drivers side wheel.

So its had a shunt perhaps or somehow the castor is well out or suspension components have slipped back etc. These are my reactions but I don’t know where to start to sort it out.

I did measure a point on the chassis structure back to the rear wheel on both sides and this came out the same, so I’m hoping the chassis is ok-ish and that its just the dangly bits of the suspension/hub or something thats out of whack that can be replaced. Looking at the car from a distance it looks straight and true. I’m pretty sure that’s why my steering is so hard, cos effectively the castor is bang out. Any ideas on what the hell to start with, any common places where movement could have occurred..….?
 
O

Odin

Guest
Are the rear tie bars bent, or the toe bolt may of come loose.



rob
 
O

Odin

Guest
Sorry just read it again and it's the front your on about :oops: , Could be a bent wishbone or f.o.o.ked bushes i suppose, have you checked the wishbone mounting points?.

Does the wheel move about?, Say if you jack the front up can you move it backwards and forwards?.

i'd take it to a good tyre place and get them to have a good look over everything.

could be a bent chassis.

Has it ever been pranged?.

rob
 
CruiseGTi-R

CruiseGTi-R

Member
I'm sticking in anti-lift/castor bushes asap to see if it squares it up. Bushes actually look ok (look as black OE items), but they are oddly slightly different side to side (one seems to be a bit thicker and has no 'back' to it (you can poke your finger inside it), the other is covered over at the back, weird why they are different.

Hard to say if car has had a knock or not, I'm just assuming it has, quite rough underneath, numerous clonks to underside, but nothing hugely obvious.

Wheel is solid, doesn't move.

Do 'adjustable' castor bolts exist? I could use these to compensate and bring the wheel/wishbone forward, would this be poss?
 
O

Odin

Guest
The white line kit moves the wishbones but both the same and is not adjustable :wink: .



rob
 
CruiseGTi-R

CruiseGTi-R

Member
So assuming I change the castor bushes and they're still the same, what else could be wrong. Bent wishbone maybe (look ok though)? Other than that I can only assume the chassis is a bit compressed on that side.
 
J

justin666

Guest
I had this exact same problem when i brought my car.. It was just the bottom suspension arm that was bent. It actually had a slight kink in the rear part of the wishbone which to look at it you never would have noticed. It was only when i lined up the old and new one that I could see where the slight bend was.

Got a new one from Nissan and problem solved. Just looked through my reciepts and it cost £131 quid all in.

Hope that helps..

J..
 
J

justin666

Guest
CruiseGTi-R said:
Was it noticeably bent, or was it only obvious when you took the old arm off?
Click to expand...
Only noticed it once the arm was off and compared it to the knew one. To look at it on the car there was no sign of any damage apart from the wheel sittin back in the arch.

J..
 
CruiseGTi-R

CruiseGTi-R

Member
Cool, hopefully mines similar, cheers. I'm going to change the castor bushes and other arms bushes (rallynuts?) and compare the arms. Cheers lads.

Well worth the money this forum.
 
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