Hello Again! Skittish Steering MK3

Hello Everyone.

 

Just joined the club having bought a really nice black Mk3 Sport about 6 months ago.

 

I’m very pleased with the car except for its tendency to ‘bump steer’ over anything other than perfectly smooth tarmac.

As most of the roads here in NE scotland have at least some minor imperfections (to put it mildly) I find myself constantly correcting the steering wheel to compensate for the slight changes in direction caused by small bumps/repairs in the road. I have read this is peculiar to the Sport version, caused by the Bilstein shocks and/or the wide wheels/low profile tyres. If anyone has any advice on where to start correcting this problem, I’d be extremely grateful

 

Thanks Very Much

 

Tim T

The most obvious suggestion is to lower the suspension and have the suspension set up correctly.
I experienced similar problems when I changed from MK2 to MK3 sport, particularly on motorways at 70ish. There was also a tendency for roll oversteer at the back end.
All this was improved by lowered springs, but it took the wheel alignment, using settings obtained from WIM, to finally correct the problem and give confidence to use the car fully. I don’t know where you will find the necessary services in your part of the world, but whilst in ATS the other day for a slow puncture repair I found they do computerised settings on all 4 wheels for under £40.
Best of luck!
Jim

Dear Mad Jim,

Thanks for your prompt reply. I hope you will pardon my ignorance, but what is WIM?

TT

 He means “Wheels In Motion”
http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/
Regarded as the font of all knowledge for (MX5) suspension / steering / wheel alignment
My be a bit more than a day our for you from NE Scotland but they may know of a place near to you.  I doubt chain tyre places (ATS etc) will be the best places to start looking.  It’s a lot more than having the tracking done.

 Do a search on the forum for “WIM” or “alignment”.  This may be a good place to start looking.
 
 
 
 

I’m going to move this thread to a more appropriate place where you may get more advice. Oh, and welcome to the forum