MatraSport Forum

Guys,

Yesterday during my test drive I noticed that the car pulls a bit to the right. Not very much, but enough to have to counter it on the steering wheel. The pulling was there also during the brakes.
The first thing I'd have a look at is obviously tyre pressures - however if it still pulls to the right next week when I pick it up and the tyre pressures are OK... What else could be wrong? Maybe the tracking just needs an adjustment..?

What do you think? Should I be worried? :)

I would always be worried by such a thing and require the problem to be at least diagnosed before you get the car. It could be as simple as tyre pressure, but it could also be much more serious.

With the wide rims your car has, it doesn't take much misalignment to pull to one side.

If you want to accept the car as it is (even with this problem), I suggest you first check the obvious: Tyre wear & pressure, and then has tracking adjusted. Is the steering wheel pointing right up when you are going straight on?

- Anders

Thanks for that Anders. I probably will accept the car as it is. I'd rather fix things myself (and know it's done to my liking) than delay and hassle (the car is 70 miles away as it is). It doesn't pull a lot and it doesn't vibrate. Obviously I want it to go absolutely straight.
If the tyres are up to pressure I'll porbably take it to my local garage and have them look at it.

I can't remember, but I think the steering wheel was pretty straight (I guess I was mostly focused on vibrations, odd sounds etc).

Thanks again. :)

tracking misalignments can happen in many ways, but in most cases they can be eradicated by a simple adjustment - provided you have the correct tools.

My J63, however had to undergo a slightly more elaborous adjustment to get the left front suspension straight, - I think the previoius oner had run over a major pothole, making the whole suspensions go pearshaped.

Once the backward running arm had been freed up, it was a minor matter of turning a rod a few turns, and reassemble - and we got it spot on.

However, the "we" were a professional, with me as onlooker :)

I have btw explained that adjustment here:
http://www.matrasport.dk/forum/index.php?topic=205.msg983#msg983

It mainly caused tyre wear, but the previous owner said something about having the car track-adjusted everytime he changed wheels or tyres, - which caused me to look deeper into the rather obvious tyre-wear problem.

Thanks for that Lennart. Very nice to have the picture too (in the other thread).
Just one question to you: Did you just notice it by the tyre wear or did you also feel the car pulling to one particular side?

Thanks again! :)  8)

As I recall there was a little pulling to the right, but the previous had had it adjusted to remove that effect - however, with the tyre-wear as result.

I took one look at the tyres, and drove straight to the professional - and since then I never had any problems with neither tyre-wear nor keeping the car on course :-)

/Lennart

Excellent - I'm not very worried now. Thanks very much, Lennart! Can't wait for next Sat :)

Having driven the car now for a little while and adjusted the tyre pressures. The car still pulls to the left a bit. It feels like sometimes it's more and sometimes it's less, but that's probably due to the road etc.
The front does have two different tyres on them (must verify that they're the same size too  ::) )

The steering wheel is pointing to the left too, but i correct it to point more or less straight ahead, and then the car goes straight ahead.

I'm going to keep a good eye on the tyre-wear and see if that might reveal something. :)

2 different types of tyre on the front will definitely lead to pulling to one side!

If they are at all worn, get them replaced with 2 new ones of the same type.

The rear ones are the same, so I might swap fronts to rears, but yes, I agree... nothing I'd do, but apparently this isn't very uncommon in UK...

... Sadly it might also indicate that one of the tyres will have very bad wear at the front (rather than having been replaced due to a puncture, it has been replaced due to strange tyre wear)....  :-[

 ;D Well maybe we can come to some arrangement as my Race pulls to the left. Maybe we could swap nearside wheels.   ;D

Joking aside the tyre wear is in need of addressing as the front tyres are starting to wear on the outside edges at only 30,000 Miles. so I'm looking to change the front tyres soon and see if it improves. Also I note that on the Mot this year the front discs were failed on severe scoring on the inside edges. The rear discs were on an advisable note for the same reason, hence why I'm having to change them all round.
I did find that the design of the pads in the front callipers an extremely tight fit allowing no free-play at all. possibly a reason for the premature wear. On replacing the new pads I've ensured a little play with the aid of a file on the Leading and trailing edges of the pads along with a smearing of high temperature copper grease. They do seem a lot better with no squeeling brakes.

I always used HT Copper Grease on brake components until I had a BMW and discovered "Plastilube".

It's a synthetic ultra high temperature paste designed specifically for moving brake parts and the back face of disc pads.... really is excellent.... and comes in little foil sachets.
The part number is 22.9.407.103 and it's about 60 pence a sachet here in the UK and one usually is enough for two calipers

I also find it ideal for such as the door stay slides...... one application seems to last for years.

Martin