Hideous Understeer...

[MR_PEA]

i have recently fitted some compbrake solid strut tops, and currently have some Konis and Eibach springs fitted.. the front geometry settings are 0 toe and 2deg of neg camber.
now when cornernering quite hard to the left i get understeer..
the car has done 95tho kms (or about 60thou miles), im kinda leaning towards the replacing the bushes..
any one else had this before.. because i have never really experienced under steer this bad in my clio up until now..

also are there any aftermarket alternatives to the powerfelx bushes?

 

[rob_clio197rs]

are the rings on the top mounts tight? sometimes they have a tendancy to work loose on the compbrakes. also they are not a perfect fit through the body there is a gap all the way around the mount, if they are not tight enough this will cause the mounts to move and can alter geometry as you drive/corner.
I have the compbrake mounts and im not happy with them, they will be getting changed soon to k-tecs solid mounts.

 

[Ollie82.]

So you have Koni shocks and Eibach springs? Adjustable damping at all?

Some things you have to consider. Obvious things first such as tyres and pressures, and then things like stiffness front and back.
If the front is miles firmer than the rear than you will have acres of understeer.
This may be exaggerated if you have a full powerflex bush set up on the front, along with the solid top mounts i.e nothing is giving.

 

[MR_PEA]

hmm ill have a play with the tyre pressurs and ill drop the firmness of the fronts down a bit and see how i go..
as for the strut tops they are done up tight.. as for the fitment.. i dident fit em, so i cant comment on the quality of the fitment..
as for the powerflex bushes i just have the stock units fitted and they have been there from new.
ill give that a go and post a comment back later in the week.
Cheers.

 

[rob_clio197rs]

So you have Koni shocks and Eibach springs? Adjustable damping at all?

Some things you have to consider. Obvious things first such as tyres and pressures, and then things like stiffness front and back.
If the front is miles firmer than the rear than you will have acres of understeer.
This may be exaggerated if you have a full powerflex bush set up on the front, along with the solid top mounts i.e nothing is giving.

he said he has just had compbrake top mounts fitted...........and now he gets this...."because i have never really experienced under steer this bad in my clio up until now.."!

fil_b on here has this same set up apart from the top mounts and he doesnt have any understeering problems, he may have the dampening set up different to him and tyre pressures but the problems only come after fitting the mounts! this is why i only commented on the problem which can come with these mounts.

 

[MR_PEA]

really..... i would of thought that the solid mounts would of increased the handeling not decrease it.. any ideas to remedy it? should i consider going back to stock?
thanks for the input. i thought that i was going mad when i got my car back and it was understeering. beforehand it used to handle beautifully but the strut tops were shot so i thought replacing them with solid mounts would make a decent difference.

ill have a play with what i have now and post the results..

 

[Huffski]

My car is running 1.4 neg camber and is slightly toeing in (cant remeber the figure) when running neg camber you should have the wheels slightly toeing in so the tyres wear correctly. Spend the money getting it set up properly get it put on an elignment rig that has recently been calibrated

 

[caister]

If you have koni shocks then adjust them so that the rears are stiffer than the fronts. This will reduce under-steer and depending on the difference between the two will start to promote over-steer

 

[MR_PEA]

^^ yep your bang on the money there mate... before i had the mounts the fronts were wound up a little more then the rears.. now with these mounts i have to wind up the rears more.. i have found that 1.5 turns on the rear and .5 turns on the front seems to make it turn like it should..

thanks for the info..

 

[caister]

No problem. I've got mine set to 0.5 on the rear and none on the front. Will have to have a play with the settings one day!