172 Cup Steering Issues

[scotty71]

I smacked a pot hole in the middle of a dark winter evening - it was one of those ones that the council will fix then it would reappear a couple of days later. In short, a crater on the moon would have given this a run for it's money.

Over time I felt the steering wasn't as tight and taught as it had been and put it down to slippy road surface. Now that we have had a short mild spell the problem still exists. On the twisty roads the steering has some play but it feels sort of wavy - I can feel it when powering down coming out of a corner and I tend to get understeer and torque steer. On the motorway it feels that it drifts but there are no loud sounds or humming. Thought it could be the tracking or a bearing but my car friends don't think so. The car has done just over 37k.

I was going to get a specialised telemetry test done on the car but wasn't sure whether this will highlight the fault. It is starting to bother me

[p4cks]

As with any car, a geo-realignment should do the trick. Hitting the pot-hole would probably have knocked your tracking out a bit.

[oakdale]

I've seem both the lower suspension arms and the front subframe area where they mount get bent in relatively minor wheel impacts on these.
With the wheels straight ahead, measure the distance from the wheels to the rear of the front wheel arch a rough guide as to whether this has happened.

[scotty71]

Thanks for this info guys - getting a realignment to resolve it will probably be my first point of call. If this doesn't work my worry is that it is more serious. I take it to get things straightened is quite a big job and no doubt expensive?

Cheers

[oakdale]

If any of the parts are bent, replacement is required and yes, quite expensive.
An alignment check should show up any damaged parts, but you can do a rough check by measuring the distances from the wheel to wheel arch with your fingers on both sides and comparing them.