Gen 6 N/s Front Pulling And Wandering Independently.

[mujaddid]

Hi All, PLEASE HELP!!! :o

I'm pretty sure Ive posted regarding this a while back but here goes...... Gen 6 UK GT face lift with 52K, FSH etc dare I say mint.

The car pulls slightly to the left under normal driving conditions and whilst holding the steering lightly you can feel a constant pull to the left this dosn't occur whilst braking. Ah and at times depending on road surface unevenness, it feels as if the wheel is wondering independently to the drivers front wheel.

What Ive had done so far:

*Tyres swapped from back to front -crossed over.

*Balanced from several independent garages.

* Professional 4 wheel laser alignment

* prior to this front drop links changed.

* Have had it checked for play and no one seems to think so.

* Calipers checked for any binding/sticking - nothing...................

Q: Is there a known perishable bush causing this, is it a know issue as ive heard all celica's pull slightly to one side, could it potentially be a problem in the shocker/spring or even the top mount?

[GT4 James]

Hi All, PLEASE HELP!!! :o

I'm pretty sure Ive posted regarding this a while back but here goes...... Gen 6 UK GT face lift with 52K, FSH etc dare I say mint.

The car pulls slightly to the left under normal driving conditions and whilst holding the steering lightly you can feel a constant pull to the left this dosn't occur whilst braking. Ah and at times depending on road surface unevenness, it feels as if the wheel is wondering independently to the drivers front wheel.

What Ive had done so far:

*Tyres swapped from back to front -crossed over.

*Balanced from several independent garages.

* Professional 4 wheel laser alignment

* prior to this front drop links changed.

* Have had it checked for play and no one seems to think so.

* Calipers checked for any binding/sticking - nothing...................

Q: Is there a known perishable bush causing this, is it a know issue as ive heard all celica's pull slightly to one side, could it potentially be a problem in the shocker/spring or even the top mount?

Hi there mate, is this gt4 or not? Asking as they have very different suspension setups. Also when you say "professional" 4 wheel laser alignment do you know what equipment was used, I work with a geometry machine on adaily basis and "laser aligners" are fairly old hat now and when most people say 4 wheel laser aligners the geometry setup on the rear of the vehicle is rarely taken into consideration, which if there is a problem with it doing a front toe in/out setup is fairly pointless as the rear wheels are used as fixed points to offset the front wheels from. Generally when we have an issue with a car pulling we have a pretty simple checklist

*check tyre pressures

*check differences in tread depths (this can have a big effect)

*swap tyres side to side (bias on certain tyres)

*check for suspension play (with gt-four generally front lower arm bushes along with figur of eight links need replacing around the 60k mark)

*complete geometry setup including adjusting rear angles (toe camber etc if adjustable....i know on gt4 rear toe is adjustable camber isnt...not sure about normal celica ie gt, although if it is get it adjusted)

Failing all these then there is normally an underlying issue with the car

Also dont let people fool you into balancing wheels, this is extremely unlikly to be causing the car to pull mate, when balancing is out the car vibrates, normally through the floor (rear wheels balance is out) or steering wheel vibrates (front wheel balance is out)

Where abouts are you mate? Look into geometry setups, they aren't majorly expensive, we charge roughly £30 an adjustment (ie front and rear toe £30 x 2 £60 ish yeah)

Let me know how you get on, ill also check on my machine at work to see if normal mcpherson style celica setups have adjustable rear toes. Dont panic mate its always solveable! B)

[mujaddid]

Hi

Thanks for the reply, it is the bog standard GT with McPherson setup and the alignment was all 4 starting with rear adjustment, have had experience with the various set-ups in the past...MR2's , corolla GT's etc.

I believe most if not all of your suggestions are covered off as this issue has plagued me fro 6+ months.

Tyre treads are all good with the rears not having covered more than 5K, im tempted to give it to a Toyota dealership but know what they'll say.

I might just swing it around to a local MOT station to see if they can detect any play, the thing im having difficulty in describing is the feel I get from the steering wheel "you can noticeable feel the left (passenger) side wheel wander at times and feels heavier on a straight line which again points to suspension...

Im down in the SE nears Windsor if that helps.

Thanks

Adam

[mujaddid]

Could this be the front sway(anti roll) bar, the outer bushing does look kind of nackered and cracking but not split from what I can see.

TIA

[mujaddid]

UPDATE:

Had this inspected at an independent garage again......

Turns out that the slight knocking sound and issues are due to drivers side wishbone bushing on its way out. loads of play apprantly.

Any advise on where best to source them and if I can just get the bushing replaced?

TIA

[GT4 BOOSTER]

wishbone arms are really expensive , if i remember something in the region of £200 at the stealers . up to you but id source a 1999 crash damaged celica and take it from that .

[mujaddid]

Hi,

Just had a quote for £280 for the pair from Mr Steal himself

As I intend to keep the baby for a bit longer ive decided to order these and have a good friend take of existing arms and have them replaced using a press/vice.

Ebay Link

These should cover all bushes in the arms? Friend will also be swapping out the ball joints and new link rods were changed around 8K ago.....

[mujaddid]

GT4 Booster,

Do you think the bushes will suffice? If I recall from the last time the wishbone was removed, it only has the front and rear bushing, third link is without bushing used to hold the ball joint?

TIA

Adam