Almera Steering Problem Not Corrected by Fixing the Tracking....

Billy Davey

First time poster in this section. Have very little knowledge about car repairs and mechanics etc. Just wondering if anyone might be able to give me some advice please?

For the last few months the steering on my 2004 Almera has been quite poor. The steering wheel naturally moves to the left all of the time and the car tends to move to the left. The car will not drive in a straight line unless you forcibly hold the wheel in position.

Last week I had new front tyres fitted to the car. I told the guys in the garage that I thought I had a problem with the tracking. He said to test the car out with the new tyres first as the old ones may have been the cause.

However, the same problem still existed. Yesterday, I went back to the same place and they checked and fixed the tracking for me. From what I could see they did front and rear. He said that the tracking had been quite bad.

Unfortunately this still hasn’t solved the problem. The steering wheel still wants to move to the left unless it’s held in position. Could there be some sort of physical problem with the wheel itself?

If anybody else could give me some advice on what other problems I could get the car checked for or what steps to take, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks

mickdw

Billy Davey wrote: »

First time poster in this section. Have very little knowledge about car repairs and mechanics etc. Just wondering if anyone might be able to give me some advice please?

For the last few months the steering on my 2004 Almera has been quite poor. The steering wheel naturally moves to the left all of the time and the car tends to move to the left. The car will not drive in a straight line unless you forcibly hold the wheel in position.

Last week I had new front tyres fitted to the car. I told the guys in the garage that I thought I had a problem with the tracking. He said to test the car out with the new tyres first as the old ones may have been the cause.

However, the same problem still existed. Yesterday, I went back to the same place and they checked and fixed the tracking for me. From what I could see they did front and rear. He said that the tracking had been quite bad.

Unfortunately this still hasn’t solved the problem. The steering wheel still wants to move to the left unless it’s held in position. Could there be some sort of physical problem with the wheel itself?

If anybody else could give me some advice on what other problems I could get the car checked for or what steps to take, I’d appreciate it.

Thanks

My money would be on bent suspension or badly worn suspension. If they had proper alignment equipment, they should be able to see if there is something bent. Alot of alignment guys are pretty dumb though.
Take it to a garage for a suspension check

Billy Davey

Cheers for the advice. I'll look into and try bring it to a place.

Could anyone recommend a suitable place to look at this type of thing?

I live in the Firhouse are of South Dublin and work in Inchicore. Somewhere near either of those locations would be handy.

Ardennes1944

my astra is the same, so was my last. always seems to want to stray left, not much, but it is noticeable

kilkenny31

To be honest most cars i've drove pull slightly to the left, this is because most roads are slightly sloped to the left to allow water to run off, if you have got the tracking sorted you should be ok. Try driving it really slowly on a flat driveway and see if it still pulls slightly. If it does it may be suspension issue.

Nissan doctor

Your almera only has adjustment for front toe so many places will just check this and nothing else. The problem is, just because a car doesn't have adjustment for other angles, doesn't they aren't off.

OP you should have proper full 4 wheel alignment done and have the front and rear toe, camber and castor checked.

Also, do you have matching brand/model of tyres on each axle?