Self centering steering

[Nick PC]

After many delays I am finally getting the car ready for an SVA in two weeks. Most things seem OK to me but the nice SVA man may find some challenges for me.

Have had the car running today and cannot seem to get the steering to self centre. Have tried different tyre pressures but car still goes in the direction that the steering is set. Any suggestions for an easy fix to this?

Suspension and steering angles set up fairly loosely to manual suggestions.

[Rory's Dad]

I was worried about this too but the nice examiner at Beverley said it was fine.  Now I've had the car on the road and drive a bit more enthusiastically the self centering is evident driving fast out of a tight corner for example.

Don't worry - I'm sure it'll be fine    

Rory's Dad

[speedy jon]

i failed my sva with this problem.i think i put a small amount of toe out on the front which did the trick .the sva man said it didnt need to return to the straight ahead position but as long as it did have some sort of self centering

[speedy jon]

i forgot to add mine has sierra front uprights so what i did might not work on other setups

[stephenh]

Like they said, but also try increasing the front tyre pressures temporarily (just for the test) to reduce the rolling resistance. I believe that helps.

[Nick PC]

Thanks for the replies I will tinker a bit and ask the SVA man to drive it fast.

[marcosman]

Similar to speedy jon I added a small bit of toe out and it gave the tendency to self centre that the sva bods were looking for

[iang454]

To make the car self centre there must be castor in the front suspension. I.E. the bottom ball joint must be forward of the top ball joint when viewed from the side of the car. The angle drawn through the centre of the ball joints compared to the virtical is called the castor angle. The more castor you have the more the car will self centre but the steering will become heavy. Castor also give the driver feel through the steering wheel.

Try between 3 and 6 degrees of castor.

[stu999]

To make the car self centre there must be castor in the front suspension. I.E. the bottom ball joint must be forward of the top ball joint when viewed from the side of the car. The angle drawn through the centre of the ball joints compared to the virtical is called the castor angle. The more castor you have the more the car will self centre but the steering will become heavy. Castor also give the driver feel through the steering wheel.

Try between 3 and 6 degrees of castor.

Trouble is, on the vast majority of Westfields, castor is not adjustable...

[les]

Ditto one of the above coments-  the SVA man said it only needed to attemp to self center to pass, i did take with toe out to help a little. anyway it passed.

[John Williams (Panda) - Joint Manchester AO]

didn't even become an issue with my 1800 and the Chadderton test centre.

cheers

John