Wandering Steering

[Guest br1gg5y]

Help me, I am losing my mojo with this car!!!!!! Put your foot on the gas and the car goes to the left, take your foot off, and it goes to the right. New lower wish bones have been fitted, and the tracking done, and new tyres.Itwas good for a few days, but the issue has returned. damn dangerous in the wet.

 

No apparent play in the track rod ends. Tested by having the car on the ground full lock on so I can view the track rod end. With the engine turned off, asked the wife to wriggle the steering wheel. No visible play in the track rod ends.

 

Is this a common fault, can has done 100k and appears to be on original bushes, etc. Are there any usual suspects with MK6's when this issue appears?

[Guest RelaxedDiver]

yes mate, my bushes are shot aswell

have you checked the bolts are tight and not come loose? but it does tend to be worn bushes

 

Rd

[Guest br1gg5y]

yes mate, my bushes are shot aswell

have you checked the bolts are tight and not come loose? but it does tend to be worn bushes

 

Rd

I will be checking the lower wish bone bolts are still tight tonight. Which bushes should i examine, drop links, rollbar, engine mounts.

Edited June 8, 2010 by br1gg5y

[Guest Cabbytech]

I had a similar problem with our mk6, and it was a nightmare driving on the motorway, swaying to the left and then to the right when accelerating and deaccelerating, i fitted new wishbones, then had tracking done, and then done again and yet again. Then i fitted new shockers which helped a lot, The wishbones were only on 3 month and i discovered that the rubber bushes had split again, so i changed them again and then found a great little place that tracked the car and did the geometry properly using 4 wheel alignment, even the steering wheel was bang straight when driving in a straight line for the first time since having it tracked at 3 different garages, and its been perfect since, that was in feb this year. So i would recheck that the bushes haven't split again and get it 4 wheel aligned, o and check your tyre pressures that can cause the car to seesaw on the road too, hope this helps, one other thing, if your car seems to make clunking noises when going over bumps or uneven road surfaces, then change the inboard antirollbar rubbers, i have just bought some polybush ones at santa pod for mine lol.

[Guest br1gg5y]

After the wife said the car was all over the place in the rain this morning. I re examined the tyre tread, it has destroyed 2 tyres in 10 days. YES 10 DAYS. Less than 300 miles FFS. So I have fitted new track rod ends. Just in case they were slack. They didn't seem to bad when on the car, no real play. But once removed the near side track rod end did seem well worn.

 

I have checked all the bolts and nothing is loose.

 

It was tracked twice at ATS, 12 degrees toe out on the near side, 6 degrees toe out on the off side.

then once the car traveled in a straight line, with no squealing tyres (which it was doing when going in a straight line prior to having the tracking done)I had 2 new tyres fitted on the 28th of May. Also at ATS "just in case" there were any issues.

Edited June 8, 2010 by br1gg5y

[Guest Cabbytech]

If its ripped your tyres that quick, then the tracking is well out still, when i first had my tracking done and redone etc, the tyres lasted about 3000 miles, i found a rallye specialist who redid my tracking and geometry and its spot on now, mine was about 1.5 deg out on both sides. and he said that was a lot. Tyre wear is minimal now, deffo have the tracking done again now you have changed the track rod ends, but check those wishbones again first, mine was also worse in the wet but absolutely fine now.

[Guest br1gg5y]

turns out the 1 month old (fitted as a new part), wishbone bushes are knackered. Must be a faulty part there is 10 mm play in the front inboard bush. There is slight play in the steering rack on the off side. But need to remove the wishbones as possible culprits first. ATS won't replace tyres as the issue is with a part they did not supply nor fit.

[Guest Cabbytech]

Its always a grey area, and they will always find a way to get out of it, but at least you have found the problem, its the mk6 escorts weak point, and the larger the tyres the more prone the bushes are to splitting. Get the tracking done again straight away as well to keep extra pressure off the wishbone rubbers.

[Guest br1gg5y]

taken the wish bones off in the rain, they actually appear fine. Although there is quite a bit of play when you insert a bolt through the wishbone. As if the bore of the metal "sleave" for the wishbone is 2mm larger diametre than the bolts on the car. ALos none of the bolts were "lose". I needed to use my long solid wrench bar to loosen each nut before moving to my standard wrench. But they were not torqued up to spec as per the haynes manual. But in my minds eye it should not rely on the tightness of the nut and bolt to hold the wish bone in place. As long as the nut and bolts are done up. The wishbone should have no where to go.

[Guest shaun]

wishbones are really common on mk6 they say replace the bolts aswell and get tracking done every time you put new wishbones on.....

the other way you can do this is by putting poly bushes in the arm the front and rear bushes.....

hope you sort this out

[Guest br1gg5y]

wishbones are really common on mk6 they say replace the bolts aswell and get tracking done every time you put new wishbones on.....

the other way you can do this is by putting poly bushes in the arm the front and rear bushes.....

hope you sort this out

 

Never did return to say thank you. It was indeed the bolts. the replacement wishbones and original bolts did not go together without a lot of slack / play in the sleaves where the bolts went through the wish bones.

 

New bolts and wishbones from same supplier sorted the problem and it has been fine since. (well the steering has)

[Rodney]

Had exactly this problem on my Mk6 a while after having new wishbones fitted for MoT. Went to a new small enthusiastic garage and explained the problem to them. They immediatly asked if I'd had new w/b fitted and looking at them and said they are remanufatured items. Fitted genuine Ford parts and problem solved. Evidently remanufactured can be cast from actual w/b rather than a pattern and hence loss of quality control. Rather late but hope this helps.