Pulling violently to the left under hard acceleration

[Chris205]

So I've had this problem for the last few days, when giving the car lots of throttle, particularly in 1st/2nd gear it wants to drag me to the left quite violently, having to input a lot of steering to the right, making the car swerve all over the place.

I thought I'd let go of the steering wheel and see what it does, so I did, floored it in 1st, it nearly took me completely off the road, it very quickly pulled me to the left, as soon as power/torque built up at around 4k RPM it just goes nuts and wants to kill me, the same for 2nd gear.

A quick run down of the work done on the car over the last few months.

Jun - Coilovers set-up at JMS, running 16" wheels with goodyear eagle f1 tyres
Jun - Remove coilovers and go back to standard suspension, notice that both CV boots are split and spitting CV grease all over the inner wheel. Also notice passenger side track rod end is nackered, something I thought JMS would've advised me of when doing the allignment?

So I've collected a few parts, 2 x track rod ends, 2 x C.V boots.

So far I've only managed to get the passenger side track rod end sorted, as the car was now towing out too much I got the tracking done.


I've also fitted 15" wheels now with yoko parada spec 2 tyres. Also got a whiteline ARB on last night.


What's the verdict, nackered shock/spring? Tyres on the wrong way round, I couldn't see a direction indicator on them so not sure?

Could the fact only one track rod end has been renewed even though the other is fine? Could the garage have incorrectly tracked my car? My car still looks like its running a lot of camber, atleast more than I remember as standard, is there anything else on the suspension etc that could change the camber, bar the bolts in the hub/strut? Could the nackered C.V boots be causing more power to go to one driveshaft than the other?

Sorry for waffling but its got me quite worried

 

[Fred@BTM]

wheel alignment?

 

[Chris205]

What other factors would need to be considered/changed when doing wheel alignment mate? How would they go about changing camber, castor, toe etc with standard suspension. Obviously the toe has been done but could the other two be changed with standard components

 

[Fred@BTM]

you putting it back to standard?

 

[Chris205]

Pretty much, it's currently running standard dampers, springs and top mounts. I do have a pair of trophy rear shocks to go on tomorrow though and thinking of changing standard springs for eibach sportlines

 

[M4D M4X]

Right then dude a arb wouldn't affect the car's front end, prada's got a marking on the tyre to say it should be mounted on the wheel outside/inside but this also wouldn't affect it.
1st jack your car's front end up grab the bottom and top of the wheel and check (pull/push) for play also grab the left and right side of the wheel and check that for play to eliminate bearings and bushes and track rod, if thou's are fine check for a cracked spring or shocker leaking.
If you have camber bolts (top bolt in the hub) it would prob be a 15mm and 18mm not your standard 21mm so check that.

If everything as it should be, it could be down to tracking (take it to somewhere that's got a 4 wheel laser alignment)
Hope this helps

 

[Chris205]

Thanks for that mate.

I didn't think the ARB would make any difference to how it tracked on the road but thought I'd throw it in their just incase.

I've done a bit of research and the parada's are mounted correctly, going to go do the tyre pressures tomorrow.

I've got my money on a nackered spring/shock, gladly I'm changing rear shocks tomorrow so preying its that. One thing is the car seems to sit down quite a lot at the rear under hard acceleration

 

[M4D M4X]

I can't see changing the rear shock's over will cure the problem sadly as it only follows the front end. However it prob solve the sitting down low under hard acceleration.

As to previous stuff you asked did the car go for geometry setup with the old suspension? If so they might of adjusted the track rod ends to get +/-tow.

Only thing they do when tracking the car is set the car so the wheels travel straight, in some cases the manifacture design them to run -tow so when it's under acceleration it pulls to 0tow and then other cases they run +tow don't know why.
After you've changed the rear shock's take it to a garage that offers a free tracking check and see if it's out.

 

[j976rna]

Mine done the same thing and turned out to be the bottom ball joint. It would suddenly jerk to the left,it felt like the car was going to roll on the motorway