Changing Lanes Without Indicating At Motorway Speeds

[Craigb 2]

Mine did this

 

I found it to be the rack moutning bolts that were loose.

 

Easy to check , so worth a shot

[kyepan 291]

thanks for all the replies guys, really appreciated the advice.

 

 

Worn balljoints would cause wayward handling as described, fairly easy to check too.

How would i go about checking the ball joints?

 

I found it to be the rack moutning bolts that were loose.

do they protrude through the bottom of the sub frame, next to the sub frame mounting bolts? or is that the arb bolts.

 

cheers guys

 

J

Edited February 18, 2008 by kyepan

[welshpug 1,622]

raise and support the front of the car, grab hold of the wheel and pull/push it at top and bottom, while an assistant watches the joint for horizontal movement.

 

also get a lever between the arm and something suitable and see if there's any vertical movement.

 

the steering rack is bolted to the rear of the subframe crossmember and the two bolts run horizontally through it, these should have spacers within the sufbrame's box section (hole at the bottom, near where you stick the socket to tighten the gearlinkage pivot that always seems to be loose)

Edited February 18, 2008 by welshpug

[johnsimister 10]

Just to add my 2p-worth... my 1.9 was starting to feel as if there was ice on every fast, open bend, and sometimes would pull right when accelerating and left when lifting off. Also, the steering had gone vague at the straight-ahead with an exaggerated response once all the slack had been taken up. Rear beam? Couldn't find any untoward movement at all, so the finger of suspicion pointed at the items I had dismissed before: the wishbone bushes. It couldn't be anything else.

 

Sure enough, both the small front ones were done for, even though it wasn't obvious when levering against the 'bone in situ. The centre tubes had pulled away from the rubber and everything was floppy and horrible. Yet these are wishbones less than three years and 15,000 miles old. They came from those people in Horsham who smarten up GTIs, and they were pattern parts. The original pair they sent me didn't match. One was a nice neat casting exactly like the genuine Peugeot one, the other was a heavier, rougher one and each had different hardnesses of bushes, even though both had the same supplier's label (can't remember the name, unfortunately). So I got Just GTIs to change the nasty one for a decent one and thought all would be well. So it was, but not for long.

 

A mate has had a similar problem with some 'bones from Autofive. The front bushes of those lasted just a few months.

 

Both he and I have now fitted genuine Peugeot bushes, with much heating and bashing and cursing in my case, and I've just been out in mine to sample the result. I changed the anti-roll bar bushes too, while I was at it, as I thought they could do with replacing after 21 years.

 

The car is now utterly fantastic. The steering is more precise and linear than it has ever been before in my ownership, all the wandering and pulling has vanished, it rides much more quietly over sharp edges in the road and it feels tight and together in the way I remember them feeling when new.

 

So there we have it again. Many pattern parts are rubbish. The worrying thing is what will happen when Peugeot no longer supplies the genuine articles.

 

John

[kyepan 291]

raise and support the front of the car, grab hold of the wheel and pull/push it at top and bottom, while an assistant watches the joint for horizontal movement.

 

also get a lever between the arm and something suitable and see if there's any vertical movement.

 

the steering rack is bolted to the rear of the subframe crossmember and the two bolts run horizontally through it, these should have spacers within the sufbrame's box section (hole at the bottom, near where you stick the socket to tighten the gearlinkage pivot that always seems to be loose)

cheers,

 

got round to this at the weekend, checked and tweaked all the steering rack, and subframe bolts, this involved more cleaning first to get the nuts in a condition to put sockets on...

[kyepan 291]

Just to add my 2p-worth... my 1.9 was starting to feel as if there was ice on every fast, open bend, and sometimes would pull right when accelerating and left when lifting off. Also, the steering had gone vague at the straight-ahead with an exaggerated response once all the slack had been taken up. Rear beam? Couldn't find any untoward movement at all, so the finger of suspicion pointed at the items I had dismissed before: the wishbone bushes. It couldn't be anything else.

 

Sure enough, both the small front ones were done for, even though it wasn't obvious when levering against the 'bone in situ. The centre tubes had pulled away from the rubber and everything was floppy and horrible. Yet these are wishbones less than three years and 15,000 miles old. They came from those people in Horsham who smarten up GTIs, and they were pattern parts. The original pair they sent me didn't match. One was a nice neat casting exactly like the genuine Peugeot one, the other was a heavier, rougher one and each had different hardnesses of bushes, even though both had the same supplier's label (can't remember the name, unfortunately). So I got Just GTIs to change the nasty one for a decent one and thought all would be well. So it was, but not for long.

 

A mate has had a similar problem with some 'bones from Autofive. The front bushes of those lasted just a few months.

 

Both he and I have now fitted genuine Peugeot bushes, with much heating and bashing and cursing in my case, and I've just been out in mine to sample the result. I changed the anti-roll bar bushes too, while I was at it, as I thought they could do with replacing after 21 years.

 

The car is now utterly fantastic. The steering is more precise and linear than it has ever been before in my ownership, all the wandering and pulling has vanished, it rides much more quietly over sharp edges in the road and it feels tight and together in the way I remember them feeling when new.

 

So there we have it again. Many pattern parts are rubbish. The worrying thing is what will happen when Peugeot no longer supplies the genuine articles.

 

John

 

 

i would love to agree with you, and deep down i suspect that you're right.

 

Full story is, bought cheap 309 bones, put them on and after 6 months the bushes were shot, took them off, bashed out the bushes and put power flex ones in, all was ok for maybe 50 miles, then back to the old changing lanes again....

 

I think its the bushes, but I just can't believe its the bushes.

 

However Anthony mentioned the drop links might be to blame, I knew they were replaced not long ago (2 years) but will check them for play next time the wheels come off.

Edited March 2, 2008 by kyepan

[GLPoomobile 958]

Well I know that I've read countless times on here over the last few years about how bad poly bushes are for failing soon (and within 50 miles has happened). I've certainly read very few tales in support of poly bushes.

[d-9 0]

How would droplinks cause that kind of problem? Ive had shagged ones on my 309 for yonks and apart from making a nasty noise when u go over bumps theres not been any probs.

[kyepan 291]

Well I know that I've read countless times on here over the last few years about how bad poly bushes are for failing soon (and within 50 miles has happened). I've certainly read very few tales in support of poly bushes.

so you've heard good things and bad things? or mainly bad, just having trouble decipering what you meant exactly?

[GLPoomobile 958]

I mean I've only ever heard 2 or 3 people say they've had poly bushes that have lasted yonks, whereas I've heard loads of people say that they fail unacceptably soon. I think Anthony commented recently that there was a particular brand of poly bushes (not one I've heard of before) that seem to be OK.

 

This is just what I've read on here, and I do spend an unhealthy amount of time on here absorbing and storing other people's knowledge

[d-9 0]

You dont want to believe everything you read, as the following cycle happens quite often:

 

Person has idea, tells people.

People tell other people that idea is good idea.

Idea becomes fact.

Fact becomes law.

Law is now unbreakable, people dont ever challenge law.

Shame idea was bad idea.

 

See Bilstein streetline suspension for examples.

[GLPoomobile 958]

Oh I totally agree! You have to be able to read between the lines and pick out what is of value from what is written on the internet/forums.

 

I'm not suggesting anyone takes what I've written as the gospel truth, as I'm merely recycling what other people have experienced and reported. But I do trust what I have read to a reasonable degree, it's not like I've taken the opinion of some random new member who has said "my mate's dad has a mate who does track days and says all poly bushes are s*ite"!

 

All I know is the negative opinions far outweigh the positive, and for me that's enough to put me off ever using Poly bushes on a road car. If I was in to motorsport and wanted to use poly bushes then I'd be more inclined to stump up my money and find out the hard way, but when money, time and skill is tight you often have to go with public opinion and hope it works out for the best.

 

In Kyepan's case he seems to have exhausted a lot of avenue's, so considering other people have had poly bushes fail very early (probably due to bad fitment) I think it's worth investigating rather than assuming they mus be OK simply because they are so new.

[kyepan 291]

actually i still have not checked the ball joints, thats another thing to check.

 

J

[Batfink 201]

I really think it must be the wishbones that are the cause. Time to remove and check their condition!