I've recently bought a Fabia mk 2 1.6tdi  year 2014, i've noticed that if i let go of the steering wheel briefly it wanders slightly to the nearside, i previously owned a VW Golf 2015 1.6tdi & it didn't do so,i've had the tracking done  & wheels balanced,but this still occurs,also i get a slight vibration through the steering wheel at lower speeds,i've had the car in for warranty work recently & the dealer just fobbed me off with it needs four wheel alignment & the tyre bay where i got the tracking done says the vibration could be due to the  tyres being out of shape?  never heard of that before, has anyone experienced similar issues

Tyres can go out of shape. Has the car been stood for a long time before you bought it?

 

They can also wear strangely if a beat is set up between the tyre tread block size / spacing and the car. A work colleague had a pair or Vredestein on a Ford Focus where every other edge block wore more.

 

Are they a known major brand or some cheap far eastern import. If the latter the rubber thickness tread area and / or side wall may well not be consistent.

 

Are they the same brand front and rear and similar or significantly different tread depth? If different try swapping front to rear.

 

Does the tread pattern have a bias which might account for the wander? I had this once. Fortunately just two of these tyres were fitted and once on the rear the wander disappeared.

 

Edited 2 March, 20179 yr by delta925

Welcome,

do a little google 

briskoda monte carlo pulling to the left

or 

fabia vrs pulling to the left

or maybe fabia pulling to the left

 

There are some that are tyre related, 205/40 R 17s, and some alignment out from new and from later, and then some from damage on the road kerb.

So things need checked, visually, by a trained technician for alignment, and tyres can be wrong, including run out stripes when tyres fitted.

As above ^^^^
Very common....Im on my 3rd mk2 fabia and all 3 have done it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 hours ago, delta925 said:

Tyres can go out of shape. Has the car been stood for a long time before you bought it?

 

They can also wear strangely if a beat is set up between the tyre tread block size / spacing and the car. A work colleague had a pair or Vredestein on a Ford Focus where every other edge block wore more.

 

Are they a known major brand or some cheap far eastern import. If the latter the rubber thickness tread area and / or side wall may well not be consistent.

 

Are they the same brand front and rear and similar or significantly different tread depth? If different try swapping front to rear.

 

Does the tread pattern have a bias which might account for the wander? I had this once. Fortunately just two of these tyres were fitted and once on the rear the wander disappeared.

 

The tyres are vredstein winter tyres & look new,he had a set of skoda wheels with normal tyres for sale & stated that 2 of the tyres were well worn,the car had covered 72,000 miles,I have a file with receipts for service etc for the car last service at 65,000 in sept 2016 & there's one for tyre fitting from June 2016, the seller lived near Aberdeen, so winter tyres were essential for the winter weather there,I don't think the car had been standing without use for a long period of time,I've got it booked in for a major service in a couple of weeks time,with a reputable local garage,so I could ask them to look over the suspension & steering whilst it's there

Edited 2 March, 20179 yr by batemansxxxb

Hello Graham,

Is this wander caused by failing console bushes at the front inboard-end of the big lower suspension arm?  I had a weird bump-steer effect with my Mk 1 Fabia, tyre place said it would be these before they lifted it on the hoist, sure enough, bushes breaking-up (there's a lot of air gaps and some rubber on the standard items), on the Roomster I got them replaced with Mehle bushes which are more rubber and less air-gaps than standard, sharpened up the steering, but I get horrible chatter noises over the many broken/breaking-up surfaces so common now in towns.

 

Also had the dogbone mount bushes replaced (they link the antiroll bar to those big bottom suspension arms), blissful improvement for a week, then chatter returned. The Roomster front end is all Mk2 Fabia running gear, appears very similar to Mk1 Fabia.

 

The other vital thing is to ensure both front tyres are exactly matched pressure-wise. I have a maddening slow puncture in the Offside Front, have to redo tyres weekly or becomes noticeably wandery. Has yours a slow puncture in the NSF tyre? I now keep my Michelin footpump (with inbuilt pressure gauge), plus a square of thin ply to use it on, in the boot at all times.

HTH

Richard

Mine wanders off to the left as well. Driving in Lincolnshire i have had the opportunity to experiment on long straight empty roads and if I drive in the middle the car is perfect. Drive on the right hand side of the road and it drifts off to the right.  I've recently changed my front Avon Z5's for Kumho Ectsa's which made no difference to the drifting issue but has, hurray, cured the awful tramlining completely.

 

Phil

I have had the same problem on my 2010 vrs mk2, garage found that the brake liner was not making contact with the disk and metal backplate of the brake pad as it should do, new set of brake pads later and it is so much better, had the 4 wheel laser alignment done too to check out suspension, track rods, wishbones, etc. Only brake liner was giving me the jip, hope it helps.

Maybe you could have a sticky brake calliper too, worth checking it out on a rolling road with brake balance meters - they use them in MOT bays :-)

Thanks for the replies, got it booked in for 74k service next week at a local garage(not prepared to pay crazy skoda prices)the garage does mot,i was going to ask them to check the suspension, to see if there was a problem 

Edited 8 March, 20179 yr by batemansxxxb
Typo

the garage will check the suspension for general things like wear, seals leaking, etc, but they will not be able to check for slight kinks, etc that you would not normally see unless the 4 wheel alignment tool was used, they will use it to measure one side of the car to the other and check for discrepancies not just wheel alignment, best to start with the easy stuff, like brakes, sticky calipers (you can check yourself - put hand on outside of alloy wheel after a good run - not a spirited one, and the wheel should be cool to the touch, if it is warm then the brakes are sticking on) and then go to more expensive items, good luck with it, post back after the garage check to let us know what they found :-) it could help others in the future... make sure you ask them to check brake balancing as the machine will show up if the brake is on when it should be off.

I had the car serviced yesterday & the technician put on the invoice that there was uneven wear to the front tyres,I'm assuming this is a result of the tracking being out previously,I'm a bit annoyed that the tyre bay where I got the tracking done didn't tell me about that,so I reckon this is why the car has the slight wander to the left

Great stuff, at least you got a result mate :-) thanks for posting back.

batemansxxxb

 

Hi there, you really ought to spend some time looking at the literally hundreds of posts on this particular issue. Regrettably it is not going to be quite so simple as a tracking issue alone.

If you are satisfied that the tracking has been done correctly - then look for tyre recommendations on this forum before you spend money and find the problem has not been addressed.

Sorry to rain on your parade, but did not want you to start spending unnecessary amounts on 'suggested cures' for this problem.

The VRS and Monte Carlo with 17" wheels are the known offenders, but I see that you have a 1.6 TDI. Is this a Monte? if not what size wheels/tyres does it have.

Edited 16 March, 20179 yr by 2ndskoda
additions