Pulling to the left

[Sambino]

My lovely new (97) Bongo pulls to the left and judders a bit on some road surfaces at speed.

I thought it would be the tracking or wheel balancing. I took it back to the dealer I bought it from and he happily had the wheels balanced under warranty, but it's still doing it. He says the next move should be swapping the tyres to the opposite side to see if it reverses the pull, which he's going to do on Saturday.

Any other possible suggestions or common problems?

I have some serious Bongoing planned for pretty much every weekend until Autumn so I'd like it fixed soon and this trial and error approach may take some time.

Many thanks

[wormey]

I brought mine from a dealer and their balancing was very far out so I had to go to a national tyre compay for a re balance. Check the tyre sizes are the same on the front and also the same on the back.

I'm running 195 front, 215 back. when the dealer put the wheels on they put 215 on one side, 195 on the other side and that caused it to pull to one side.

The judder, It is when you pull away?, is it 4x4?

Daz

[missfixit70]

Did you actually get the tracking done too? Mine's set parallel, values in the manual are between -1mm & 7mm toe in.

[Sambino]

I think he did the tracking when the wheels were balanced.

It is 4x4. The juddering is at speed, accellerating and coasting, not so much under breaking.

[mister munkey]

Worth checking for play in the wishbones too.

Could be another cause.

[bobngo]

misfixit ,why is your tracking set to parallel ? whats the advantage ??? surely that makes the steering feel "sloppy, loose etc"

[missfixit70]

Because it's within the stated range of -1 to 7mm toe in & it was recommended by several people in the trade with bongos on this very forum (& the tyre place i go to) when I first acquired my bongo nearly 3 years ago. I haven't had any uneven tyre wear or other related problems & haven't noticed it feeling sloppy or loose nor do I see why it should?

[dandywarhol]

At 4.5 deg.there's enough castor effect to tighten up the steering joints to eliminate slop, even at parallel toe.

[bobngo]

oopps sorry misfixit, i thought the range was +1-+7 mm ,i did,nt know it was from minus 1mm

also forgot the caster angle effect

i thought you had found something that would totally eliminate tyre wear forever

[dandywarhol]

...........and here's another reason for keeping close to the zero toe - European linear toe in/out is measured from the wheel rim - American from the tyre edge and Japan from the centre of the tread, so the 7mm from the tread centre will be a different figure if measured from the rim edge

Confused eh? measuring the toe in degrees will be the same for all!

[mikeonb4c]

I recall being surprised years back that my 1958 MG ZB Magnette had zero toe in. It tracked beautifully down the down, felt good on the steering (for its day!) and the Michelin ZXs were only half worn after 4 years of ownership and urban motoring

[mister munkey]

I recall being surprised years back that my 1958 MG ZB Magnette had zero toe in. It tracked beautifully down the down, felt good on the steering (for its day!)

Those golden days of solid rubber tyres are long gone now Sir.

[mikeonb4c]

I recall being surprised years back that my 1958 MG ZB Magnette had zero toe in. It tracked beautifully down the down, felt good on the steering (for its day!)

Those golden days of solid rubber tyres are long gone now Sir.

Cheeky Munkey

[missfixit70]

...........and here's another reason for keeping close to the zero toe - European linear toe in/out is measured from the wheel rim - American from the tyre edge and Japan from the centre of the tread, so the 7mm from the tread centre will be a different figure if measured from the rim edge

Confused eh? measuring the toe in degrees will be the same for all!

Fantastic illustration Dandy I didn't know there were different standards I must admit, so if the -1 to 7mm range is based on the Japanese measurement, the European measurement/adjustment needs calculating from that really? or just stick with parallel? No expert with such things, wasn't much of a concern on VLCC's & Gas Tankers

[dandywarhol]

I always set it up by degrees - I posted up a conversion on here a while back