Newbie looking for suspension advice pls!

F

Farway

Hi.
My first Almera GTI although I know the SR20 engine fairly well. Nice toy to have but its doing my head in at the moment. I bought two new lower wishbones, changed them out for the mot and the thing handles like a pig since!! It feels as-if the camber is out, as-if the top half of the wheel is leaning outwards and the bottom inwards. So I immediately thought there has to bee some adjustment on the wishbones that will sort the camber so I re-fitted both this time but I first tightened the tapered bush section through the wheel hub properly then positioned fixed the it two the car to ensure evwerything is where it need to be, result was better but still weaving across the road. Torque steer is HORRID, it actually scares me it's that un-controllable. I would fit the old wishbones back in but the scrappy has done away with them..... Second issue I seem to have is, the car only seems to pull on the left wheel and nothing on the right. In damp conditions it whellspins its bollox off and always in the left wheel. Something to mention, when I removed the wishobones, I did pulled the drive shaft out of the gearbox whilst busy with the wishbones but pushed that back in place. Is is possible I got that wrong somehow ?? Some help would be appreciated. I dont see myself as a complete mechanical idiot but this has me going.
Thanks
 
one thing that comes to mind is that i recall reading somewhere that are different length wishbones available,so did you compare old to new? also something about trouble with cv shaft length with lowered suspension.i'll try and look this up if no-one else has an idea.

the wheel thing could be a wheel alignment issue.got camber pins/coilovers?cause you can adjust these,to get your wheel straight again.left front should be 1/4 degree negative to 1 1/4 degree negative.at neg 1 degree you will see the wheel taper in at the top with the naked eye.it should NOT be positive.toe in 1-2mm.your car is probably pulling like a 16yo boy..lol

this positive camber could be whats making the lhf wheel spin,although you probably haven't got a lsd, and only 1 will.the cv's should have a sirclip on the gearbox end of the shaft,and that clip should "click in" to the gearbox seals when you reattached them.sometimes these seals will leak if there busted,but the shaft should always be working.

hope this helps...
 
sss4me said:
one thing that comes to mind is that i recall reading somewhere that are different length wishbones available,so did you compare old to new? also something about trouble with cv shaft length with lowered suspension.i'll try and look this up if no-one else has an idea.

the wheel thing could be a wheel alignment issue.got camber pins/coilovers?cause you can adjust these,to get your wheel straight again.left front should be 1/4 degree negative to 1 1/4 degree negative.at neg 1 degree you will see the wheel taper in at the top with the naked eye.it should NOT be positive.toe in 1-2mm.your car is probably pulling like a 16yo boy..lol

this positive camber could be whats making the lhf wheel spin,although you probably haven't got a lsd, and only 1 will.the cv's should have a sirclip on the gearbox end of the shaft,and that clip should "click in" to the gearbox seals when you reattached them.sometimes these seals will leak if there busted,but the shaft should always be working.

hope this helps...
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Thanks for the prompt reply. Just looked at euro carparts website, cross refrenced the GTI left and right wishbone agianst a 1.6 and 1.4 almera of the same year and they come back with the same part no... I'll have to seriously look into this as it could my problem...
Suspension is stock, wheels, stock. Nothing done to car other cleaned it. I think youre onto something with the cv not having clipped back in. F@#k is a dirty job cv's but I think i'll have to have a dig around the weekend, thanks ever so much for that!
 
Did you get an alignment after fitting wishbones? The large bolt iirc is quite a sloppy fit so plenty of alignment movement there
 
As above, it is DEFINATELY an alignment issue. Your toe will be miles out as new wishbones will change the castor and by default the toe.
 
its possible the replacement wishbones you have bought are infact shorter than required, it has been an issue identified recently.

that would be pulling the bottom of your wheels in.
 
Sam said:
its possible the replacement wishbones you have bought are infact shorter than required, it has been an issue identified recently.

that would be pulling the bottom of your wheels in.
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Thanks all for the help. My missus had it for its mot last week and the garage did show her the allignment is out.... so much so you can see it with the naked eye thats how bad it is... so priorities will be re-insert cv joints, with boots off and then garage for wheel allignment. Will report back. thanks again;)
 
unless there is an issue with the CV joints dont rush to change them as there are currently no off the shelf CV's that will fit the Almera GTi drive shafts.

get an alignment done ASAP and if its no better Im willing to bet your wishbones are too short.
 
Sam said:
unless there is an issue with the CV joints dont rush to change them as there are currently no off the shelf CV's that will fit the Almera GTi drive shafts.

get an alignment done ASAP and if its no better Im willing to bet your wishbones are too short.
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Thanks Sam.
Will just make sure the cv's have gone back in and engaged propely in the gearbox.. will give me the opportunity to ensure theyr'e properly greased..... (such a dirty job!!)

Just to "run something past you"..... If I jack tke one front wheel in the air and keep the other on the ground and let the car run whilst in gear, it should rotate that wheel (in the air) and visa versa with the other?? This should tell me whether or not the gearbox transfers power to both wheels as one of my issues I have is the fact that only the left wheel seems to be pulling all the time and not sharing any load with the right??
 
shaggy_master said:
Your car has an OPEN diff..
It will always spin the passenger wheel, as your weight is over the driver's wheel..
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Bollox, thats the good news then I suppose?? It means a few things, 1) I'm stuffed if it snows, 2) I'm nearly stuffed when its damp/wet/moist 3) I'll only have around 10 days this year when the roads have been/might be dry!!

Sorry for sounding daft about this but I previously had a diesel volvo with traction control and all the bell's and whistles to get it going like sh1t off a shovel from standstill to where-ever so going back to basics has been a hard thing to get my head around.... it is also an indication that is not the car but me, (no surprise there) and the wheel allignment is in desperate need of doing , which again, is something that will take no more than an hour to do..

Cheers guys...
 
I'd maybe think of changing the tyres, or brand, or your driving style if you have such problem with traction. My car ran for many years with an open diff with little issues.

Get an alignment ASAP anyway.
Maybe some genuine second hand wishbones and fit some poly bushes?
 
Feedback :
As per suggested, take the bloody thing for the alignment before doing anything....I did and she's perfect!! Wheels were pointing in so much, it did not even register when initially checking it so really, I was "pushing" one wheel over the other hence the stupidly light steering and constant traction issue.
Cheers guys. All thats left to do is clean the throttle body as the previous owner never changed a buggered air filter and the owner before that, saturated the filter in oil so guess what it looks like inside....
 
The oil residue is more than likely coming from the breather hose rocker>intake pipe not a dirty filter.

-Phone-
 
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