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[freeman123]

hi guys,

have only had my omega 2 weeks and right from the start the steering has felt odd,

so I went and had the geometry done and now its even worse I will try and describe the problem.

steering doesn't straiten after Turing a corner just seems to carry on turning.

when it hits a drain its a large bang and car jumps to left or right depending on which front wheel hits the drain.

steering wonders left to right as you drive.

I have taken it to my garage and the guy said that on inspection there is 4 or 5 degree's movement in the joint where wish bone goes into the hub carrier . so I instructed him to change the wishbones, as he suggested

after replacing he now said that the wish bones he took of are either the wrong ones or very very cheap ones and they have damaged the cast iron hole in the hub carrier  and that even the new ones are lose.

so I now need new hub carriers.

has any one heard of this before or any ideas.

many thanks .

[minifreek]

Same sort of thing happened to mine, but without the thing where the steering carries on turning... that could be castor angle but if it has had the geo set-up the castor will be set (even though the front is not adjustable on the Omega's)....

Mine turned out to be the - dare I say it - tracking was out by quite a bit on the front... after replaceing the wishbones etc... it still had the same problem until the tracking go sorted...

[JoeRadosavljevich]

Something's fishy. They couldn't have done the geometry with so many things wrong at the front.

[YZ250]

.......
after replacing he now said that the wish bones he took of are either the wrong ones or very very cheap ones and they have damaged the cast iron hole in the hub carrier and that even the new ones are lose. .....

I'm confused now, if I'm reading this right that's the pinch bolt.    It holds the shaft of the balljoint in place.
For the strange steering, I would have suggested that the wishbone front bushes were shot. 

[freeman123]

well this is the odd thing after I had the car a few days I didn't think the steering felt right so first thought was geometry was out,

upon visit to tyre place the print out said the back of car was fine but front was all out which gave me hope.

geometry all done all green and within vx tolerance.

but on driving home I instantly noticed the handling it was awful much worse than it was on the border lines of feeling dangerous to drive?

that's when I took it to garage for inspection and they said as I stated above.

[freeman123]

I will also add there is no uneven wear on the tyres at all. 

[Nick W]

upon visit to tyre place the print out said the back of car was fine but front was all out which gave me hope.

geometry all done all green and within vx tolerance.

but on driving home I instantly noticed the handling it was awful much worse than it was on the border lines of feeling dangerous to drive?

Omega front suspension is very sensitive to geometry issues. Unfortunately, many of the tolerances are so wide as to be useless. The camber tolerance is 1°30',  whereas it actually needs to be under much tighter control than that to work properly. Only the toe setting is easy to adjust quickly and accurately, so that is often all that is done. The rest may be in the green and considered good enough. This doesn't work on these cars!

Assuming that the wear components are good, then you need to look at the report you have paid for to determine what to do next.

[terry paget]

Strange and alarming story. I believe that the power steering is self centring, so if the steering wheel has been off the toe-in  and steering wheel could be set with wheels parallel and straight ahead but not when steering box centred. Was the man who changed the wishbones acquainted with the Omega?
The hub pinch bolt should hold the wishbone pin firmly in the hub split taper. I recall its a high torque setting (90Nm ish). The mechanic could not have left it out, could he?

[Nick W]

Strange and alarming story. I believe that the power steering is self centring, so if the steering wheel has been off the toe-in  and steering wheel could be set with wheels parallel and straight ahead but not when steering box centred. Was the man who changed the wishbones acquainted with the Omega?
The hub pinch bolt should hold the wishbone pin firmly in the hub split taper. I recall its a high torque setting (90Nm ish). The mechanic could not have left it out, could he?

If he had the car wouldn't have made it out of the workshop. The weight of the car would have pushed the wishbone pin straight out of the hub.


Everything you have posted points to a badly done alignment. Doing it correctly isn't the magical procedure often mentioned here, but it does require some care.

[freeman123]

the old wish bones he could lever out with the bolt done up tight, even after fitting a new wish bone it was a little better but was still loose even with the pinch bolt done up to breaking point.

am having new hub carriers fitted tomorrow will report back and let you no the result. 

[terry paget]

the old wish bones he could lever out with the bolt done up tight, even after fitting a new wish bone it was a little better but was still loose even with the pinch bolt done up to breaking point.

am having new hub carriers fitted tomorrow will report back and let you no the result. 

There's something rum here. The pinch bolt goes through a waisted section in the wishbone taper pin. Once the pinch bolt is inserted the pin is retained in the hub carrier hole. I eagerly await your report of the new hub carriers.

[freeman123]

hi all,

I got the car back today after having new hub carriers fitted and all is as it should be its perfect now problem solved.

[terry paget]

hi all,

I got the car back today after having new hub carriers fitted and all is as it should be its perfect now problem solved.

Great news! Glad you got it sorted..

[JoeRadosavljevich]

good for you.