Okay, I got my car back today after having a number of its issues seen to (see my assorted threads). One of these was its leftward drift. It's had a new rear subframe, and following KDS-ing after that, new front shocks. I'm told that the KDS after that showed the car to be "true", and it would now only pull to the camber.
Hooray!
So I've been on a good long (80 mile) drive to find out. And I wasn't convinced; nor was the young lady I happened to have in the passenger seat ("it feels like the steering wheel pushes"). So after trying to find some adverse cambers and driving in opposing directions along assorted roads I decided that what I really needed was an environment where I had a large expanse of flat tarmac available to me. Unfortunately the runway of East Midlands Airport isn't available as a testing environment, so I was forced to resort to the next best thing - the car park of a service station on the M1. Now, I accept that nowhere is goingto be Billiard Table flat, but this car park is fairly close...
I tried driving one way, and then the other up an aisle. Most trips exhibit a left pull; even against what I perceive to be a slight right camber. But the circumstances are not controlled - I'm starting at different ends of the aisle. So I hit upon this idea:
Start from the same place. Take one run forward; and then the next backward. If the car sticks with the camber, the backward trip should exhibit the same deviation as the forward trip - should it not?
Unfortunately, both forwards and backwards trips deviated to the left side of the vehicle. The reverse trip, in the eyes of the "impartial observer"(!) was even worse... Now I've repeated this a couple of times across different aspects of the car park (north-south and east-west axis). Always to the left.
So... before I start really rattling cages, are there any faults in my logic or testing regime (as far as I can control across a car park at 11pm on a friday night)?
Any other thoughts, comments?
Hooray!
So I've been on a good long (80 mile) drive to find out. And I wasn't convinced; nor was the young lady I happened to have in the passenger seat ("it feels like the steering wheel pushes"). So after trying to find some adverse cambers and driving in opposing directions along assorted roads I decided that what I really needed was an environment where I had a large expanse of flat tarmac available to me. Unfortunately the runway of East Midlands Airport isn't available as a testing environment, so I was forced to resort to the next best thing - the car park of a service station on the M1. Now, I accept that nowhere is goingto be Billiard Table flat, but this car park is fairly close...
I tried driving one way, and then the other up an aisle. Most trips exhibit a left pull; even against what I perceive to be a slight right camber. But the circumstances are not controlled - I'm starting at different ends of the aisle. So I hit upon this idea:
Start from the same place. Take one run forward; and then the next backward. If the car sticks with the camber, the backward trip should exhibit the same deviation as the forward trip - should it not?
Unfortunately, both forwards and backwards trips deviated to the left side of the vehicle. The reverse trip, in the eyes of the "impartial observer"(!) was even worse... Now I've repeated this a couple of times across different aspects of the car park (north-south and east-west axis). Always to the left.
So... before I start really rattling cages, are there any faults in my logic or testing regime (as far as I can control across a car park at 11pm on a friday night)?
Any other thoughts, comments?