Hello All

As you may have seen in some of my previous threads, I had a problem with the steering wheel not being straight whilst driving down a straight road. Anyway I finally had this corrected by having a wheel alignment and then the technician centered my steering wheel by lengthening one track rod and shortening the other side by the same amount which keeps to tracking the same. 

Anyway all was good until we took a 2 week holiday in France and covered 2000 miles, Basically when driving in France on the right hand side of the road I had to keep the steering wheel off centre slightly down on the left to make the car drive straight down a straight road. On some roads the steering was considerably off center. When I returned to the UK the steering was straight again. I had this problem on a polo I had previously but after a wheel alignment it corrected it and the steering was perfectly straight in the UK and in France??????

What causes my steering to be off center when driving in France only??


All help much appreciated, I dont want to get it re aligned particularly unless this can be rectified? 

Thanks in advance.

This answer is not definitive, but I would think that it was probably due to the road camber being the other way when driving on the right hand side, although I have never come across this previously.

Now that you have put some mileage on since having the tracking reset, it would pay to make the ultimate check on the tracking being correct - This doesn't cost anything and only takes a few minutes.

Assuming that there are no other problems, when the tracking is correct, tyre wear should be even across the tread - Run the palm of your hand across the tread in one direction, noting how the tread feels. Now run your hand the other way across the tread - it should feel exactly the same.

If the tracking is 'out', when you run your hand in one direction, it will be like stoking a dog from his head to his tail (his hair laying down) - When you run your hand in the other direction, it will be like stoking him from his tail to his head (his hair will stand up)

If you are able to feel a difference, then your tracking needs resetting again.

NOTE: This check only works after running the car for a fair distance after having the tracking reset.

 

Regards

Hi, Thank you for your reply. 

 

I will certainly give that ago and see how I get on. I have taken previous cars abroad though and have never experienced this on other cars? The previous cars have driven with the wheel straight in both countries??