Hi all, I have a strange problem with the steering on my mk 1. Things usually start off fine but after a few miles I find the steering wheel will be favouring to the right. I would say around ten to fifteen degrees off centre. The actual steering feels fine, there is no slop in the wheel and it goes where I point it, the wheel just keeps wandering off centre. I do realise that road camber will have a similar effect depending on the road, but this is more than that, it definitely moves. I have recently fitted rota 15" 6.5 J’s and the offset is a lot different to the originals, could this be causing the problem? Should I have the four wheel alignment checked? Any ideas gratefully received.
Your steering wheel should be properly set with both front wheels pointing straight ahead.
If you are driving on a flat level surface(carpark?), with steering allowed to do its own thing, the wheel should sit central and the car continue straight ahead without adjustment.
10 - 15 degrees is a long way off centre so that is either down to road camber of a problem perhaps a binding brake. As road camber would pull the car and steering wheel to the left I would say your problem is a binding offside front brake that gets worse as the disc expands with heat. Pull over and see if it is hot but beware it will likely be seriously hot.
It got hot enough that I could tell by the fact the centre of the alloy wheel was warm. Like a muppet I decided to prod the disc anyway, took a while before I had a fingerprint on that finger again!
if it helps anyone, I checked out the brakes but couldn’t find any fault with them. I then decided to start at the beginning and get the geometry checked out. I toyed with the idea of driving the car to WIM as their reputation is legendary, but, living in Brighton, I just couldn’t spare the time to get there and back. I thought there must be somewhere local that can do a good job. After doing a bit of research I took the car to a place called (uninspiringly) Discount Tyre Direct in Worthing. These guys have the Hunter Elite system and a very competent operator and it didn’t take long to see that all four wheels were indeed out of adjustment. The front right out in caster and toe, the rear right out in camber and toe. On the left the front was out in caster and the rear in camber. No wonder I was having problems, the car was effectively lop sided! It took about an hour and a half and £227.70 to put it right but the difference is amazing. The issues I was experiencing have gone and the car feels perfectly balanced and handles beautifully. I don’t know if the price is good or not but I feel it was money well spent and I would have no hesitation in recommending this place to anyone living in the Brighton area not only for wheel alignment but they also have a great selection of tyres.
Personally I would hesitate before having a complicated car like the MX5 set up at a tyre fitters.
Do they check all the joints beforehand, after all what’s the point of setting toe & castor if a track rod end is gone.
Regarding cost, that’s a tricky one. MiXi goes in for alignment tomorrow 8.00am, fast road set up, and the quote was;
“£100, but if alignment bolts are seized or shear and need replacing then this will rise to £200”, so possibly somewhere between the two?
I had the top wishbones off to weld the chassis rails over Xmas and they came undone easily so here’s hoping. I replaced the drop links at the same time.
The work is being done by a place that prepares some of the cars for the MX5 race series and he has won the championship himself.
If so, then I’m aware of what you say, but it’s also fair to assume that if for instance its a car from the coast and the bolts that you attempt to undo
are seized then its also fair to assume that all bolts on the car will be in a similar condition.
If however the car looks like a garaged car and the first half a dozen bolts come undone one assumes the rest will do likewise.
The original poster advised the fix took three hours to do.
The cost of an operator and alignment gear is approx £80 an hour as the machine has to be paid back to cover the high capital cost. That assumes a labour only rate of £35 to £40 an hour according to figures produced by the garage trade.
It is also probable that oxy acetylene was also used to loosen off some bolts etc we have all met stuck bolts underneath some cars and others without problems.
Therefore the £270 or so including VAT is reasonable for three hours work.
For those that consider the cost excessive can you please advise your calcs of the cost to cover the alignment kit.
I was also alarmed that Paul G advised he would not want a “Tyre Fitter” to do the job.
The reality is that the vast majority of the time is spent on changing tyres and in some cases exhausts a garage / tyre centre cannot live on alignment alone in the majority of cases.
I know of no factual evidence that shows tyre fitters with the proper training by the alignment kit manufacturer cannot operate the alignment equipment properly.
I’ve never before seen anyone offering wheel alignment at an hourly rate. It’s usually a basic cost for alignment, then extra for each camber that needs adjustment. My local place charge £50 for the basic and £15 for each camber adjustment. The local ford garage who have a hunter charge £80 regardless of what needs doing. I have a London Taxi which has caused problems in the past with track rods being seized but I’ve never been asked to pay more than the set price. I’ve even had someone struggle for over an hour with the oxy-acetylene and various pipe wrenches before giving up and not charging a penny.
£270 would suggest some parts needed replacing because that is an eye watering figure for a straight forward alignment regardless of how long it took.
Hi, after my initial euphoria thinking the steering problem had been fixed it soon transpired that the problem was in fact still there! My next move was to take the car to Rivervale in Portslade to have the steering generally checked out. To recap, sometimes when driving straight ahead the steering wheel would favour the right, sometimes it would favour the left and sometimes it would be bang on perfect. Rivervale used to be a Mazda franchise and I have had some great service from them in the past, although they are no longer linked with Mazda they do still have a Mazda trained master mechanic so I trusted them to check over the steering and suspension. Typically when I took it there the steering wheel was behaving perfectly, as it did after having the alignment done. They duly checked it over an found nothing wrong. At this point I thought there is only two options left, either the pump or the rack. The pump being the cheapest option I obtained a recon unit and fitted it. The problem remained. OK, I thought, I’ll just have to dig deep and get a recon rack. With one last throw of the dice prior to parting with more money I got my wife in the driving seat and got her to move the steering wheel while I shone a light at the rack. Hey presto! Straight away I could see the rack itself was moving from left to right as the wheel was turned. Once under the car I was able to undo the rack mounting bolts with just my fingers they were that loose. I bought some new poly bushes although the originals were in pretty good shape considering they were 21 years old, and torqued them down. I have driven 150 miles or so since then and am happy to report problem finally solved. I have no doubt the tire shop did a good job of the alignment but yes very expensive, and also should they have noticed the rack was loose?. To be fair I didn’t mention to them I was having any problems just I wanted the alignment done. Rivervale though obviously did not do a very good job of checking over the steering and suspension and I will be having words with them. So if you ever experience steering wheel centering problems you know where to look, its surprising that through all the forums and web sites I waded through, a loose steering rack was never mentioned as a possible cause but of course thinking about it now it’s obvious!