Fiesta 171D 1.0l EcoBoost steering

NickNickleby

Hi folks!

You might remember I had an old Fiesta 1.25 which I felt was a bit of a guzzler. Anyway, I replaced it a few weeks ago for a Fiesta 1.0 EcoBoost, and by golly :pac: what an improvement. A fantastic car to drive as well.

However, I noticed recently (as a very infrequent user of the car) that it appears to drift to the right. Now, how I first detected it was in a constant downward pressure on the right hand side of the steering wheel. So, I'd release my grip to see what would happen - drift!

I sorted out the tyre pressures, they were fine, so no improvement. Then I took it out on various surfaces to get an idea of what kind of drift it was. I determined that the drift was definitely to the right, even to the point of overcoming the camber of the road. I noticed that it would (at 50kph) very gradually cross the centre line, but the instant the centre line was crossed the drift would rapidly increase requiring me to quickly grab the wheel again :eek: . Driving at 30kph reduced the speed of the drift.
I did this over the course of a few days, and as luck would have it, one of the tyres was punctured through the sidewall requiring a replacement. On the basis that the tyres are 4 years old and starting to perish, I decided to replace both front tyres. It was also my hope that this would cure the drift. Well, it didn't.
So back to the main dealer, to have it looked under warranty (we have it 6 weeks). He told me that the electronically controlled steering will eventually right itself after the new tyres are 'recognised' . He reckons this could take a couple of weeks if our weekly mileage is low - and it is. Or, he could take it in someday by appointment as it would take a half day to manually reset the alignment. So, I said I'd give a good few outings over the next fortnight and see how it goes.

I'd welcome any observations.

Paddy@CIRL

Tracking could be out, worth doing to rule it out as it's inexpensive and doesn't take very long.

bazz26

Sounds like your wheel tracking/alignment is out. Any decent tyre centre will have the equipment to check it.

NickNickleby

Hi Paddy, and thanks for the quick reply.

Yeah, i had considered this, but I actually thought that if that WAS the problem, the main dealer would have just gone and done that (and I'm quite prepared to be told its not covered, being normal wear - and -tear). But it was never mentioned.

I think you've actually touched on a concern I had - can this electronic wizardry be harmed by getting the tracking done?

I see Tyreland do tracking, but I'm unsure as to whether or not I should let them. At least with a main dealer it'll be done properly.

NickNickleby

Hi bazz, and thanks for your input.

As above, I'm wondering should I wait to see will it fix itself, as per the main dealer's advice, and also can tracking job interfere with the 'automatic' process?

colm_mcm

Is the car new out of the box?

NickNickleby

colm_mcm wrote: »

Is the car new out of the box?

Hi Colm,

No, its a 171 D. Low mileage - about 34.5k km.

colm_mcm

It’s not going to fix itself anyway. I’d expect the alignment has been knocked out in its past.

Be firm with the dealer, misaligned wheels will wear your tyres out quicker, push for 4 wheel alignment and inspection of front suspension.

NickNickleby

colm_mcm wrote: »

It’s not going to fix itself anyway. I’d expect the alignment has been knocked out in its past.

Be firm with the dealer, misaligned wheels will wear your tyres out quicker, push for 4 wheel alignment and inspection of front suspension.

Thanks Colm for the input.
Is "automatic correction" via some sort of electronic wizardry a thing these days? The dealer was very nonchalant, like it was a given these days. This is a BIG main dealer. Hardly the type to fob one off, surely.

Cheers.

colm_mcm

If it was a thing then your car wouldn’t be wandering

You are being fobbed off.

bazz26

Wheel alignment does not auto fix itself so if they told you it would then they were talking rubbish to get you out the door quickly. Never take anything a dealer says as gospel no matter what brand name is over their door.

Panjandrums

Is it the old model or the new model?

NickNickleby

Oh dear, lads.

So, it would seem that the car won't magically realign itself. To be honest, I'm a little miffed at the moment. I mean to say, if the guy was barefaced lying to me, surely he'd know that within a fortnight I'm going to be back, so what has he gained??

Is there any shred of truth to his position (I'm trying to not look like a complete gobsh!te, so hoping for some shred of feasability :pac::pac::pac:).

eg, I know the car can detect punctures via something to do with no of revolutions per wheel per distance, so it has some sort of 'intelligence' in it - got that from the owners manual. Which makes the notion of relearning the wheels after fitting new tyres, well somewhat plausible .

do you know what... the more I type the more I'm starting to realise how IMplausible this all sounds. Right , its going back.


Hi Panjandrums
Its a 171D, 1.0 Titanium Fiesta.

Nonoperational

No. There is no possible way for it to fix itself.