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[Paul M]

I get a weird pull when braking hard in my Omega. Braking with light to moderate pressure has no noticable effect, but when going in a straight line and stamping on the brakes from high speed, it feels like the car wants to veer off to the right. The really strange thing is that if you gently let go of the steering wheel while braking hard, the car will stay almost straight whereas the steering wheel turns slightly to the left! It straightens up again once the pressure on the brakes is released.

Both wishbones have been recently replaced, and the tracking has been done quite recently too. Wheels have been balanced but I haven't replaced the tyres since buying the car so maybe these are contributing (although there's no real pulling in normal driving other than tramlining).

The brakes themselves seem OK, they're strong enough and front discs and pads were replaced about 6 months ago (original VX parts). Rear discs and pads are about a year old. No sign of any uneven wear or sticky calipers anywhere.

The car has done this since I bought it. You can drive around it but it's obviously not a good thing to have. I thought replacement of either the front discs & pads or wishbones would have cured it or at least highlighted the cause, but it's still the same unfortunately.

I was thinking maybe one of the steering components is shot, such as the idler arm bush. But wouldn't this cause loose steering during normal driving? It feels pretty tight. Failing that maybe one of the calipers isn't working properly? Although would that cause the steering wheel to turn of its own accord?

Any ideas? I'm probably going to get the clutch replaced over the holidays so might get the mechanic to have a good look for any worn parts while it's on the ramps.

Cheers.

[TheBoy]

Does sound as if something is loose, unless you have a very bad case of tyre drift....

Best get mechanic to check for wear in suspension and steering components (or check yourself ) when its lifted up...   ...wishbone bushes (I know newish, but may be faulty/failed), track rods ends, steering idler, shocks etc etc...

[Marks DTM Calib]

Its got wishbones witten all over it..............have the front bushes been fitted in them in the correct orientation, its as if one is failed or wrong and causing one wheel to move back further causing the steer (possibly left side is the culprit).......release the wheel and the tyres centre up (thanks to the toe in) and straight ahead you go....

Do you know if he tightened the wishbone bolts up with it on the jack or back on the ground?

[Paul M]

Tyres will probably be replaced pretty soon but I'm pretty doubtful it's those since there are no problems under normal driving.

Don't know whether the wishbone bolts were tightened on the ground or not, wasn't my usual garage or mechanic and I wasn't there at the time. The bushes were pre-fitted to the wishbone so I'd hope they're in the right way.

If they were tightened with the car jacked up can it be fixed by loosening and re-tightening with the car on the ground, or are they likely to be wrecked by now?

Cheers.

[TheBoy]

Tyres will probably be replaced pretty soon but I'm pretty doubtful it's those since there are no problems under normal driving.

Don't know whether the wishbone bolts were tightened on the ground or not, wasn't my usual garage or mechanic and I wasn't there at the time. The bushes were pre-fitted to the wishbone so I'd hope they're in the right way.

If they were tightened with the car jacked up can it be fixed by loosening and re-tightening with the car on the ground, or are they likely to be wrecked by now?

Cheers.

I think this scenario causes them to fail, but Mark will be able to confirm...

[JasonH]

I think they'll be wrecked.

With the wheels on the ground (and the engine running). Try putting the steering on full lock and have a look at how the arms are sitting in the bushes, then try the other side full lock.

When I do this I have one front bush and one rear bush that move a lot more than their counterpart on the other side. I'm pretty sure these bushes are shot. When I change the wishbones (hopefully within a week or so) I'll know for certain.

The wishbones that have failed are only 6 months / 10,000 miles old.

[Paul M]

Car was in today to have the front drop links changed (cured the feint noise over every small bump, what a difference) and while they had it up I asked for the wishbones to be inspected. Result is that all the bushes are OK, so I'm no further on with this.

Last thing I can think of is the tyres, I'm (still!) waiting on 2 new tyres being delivered, which will be going on the rear and I'll swap the old rears onto the front as the front ones are worn on the outside edges. I'll be really surprised if this makes a difference, but it's worth a try.

Incidentally, why are my front tyres wearing on the outsides? According to many posts on here, worn wishbones causes wear on the inside edges and mine aren't worn anyway.

[JasonH]

Outside edges is too much toe in, or the camber is out.

When wishbone bushes go soft it normally allows the wheels to toe out a bit more than before and the insides of the tyre wear.

I had my wishbones checked by a garage and they gave them the OK.... but I gambled and changed them anyway and with the wishbones off you could see the failed one. Not very obvious on the car, only just detectable.

Having done my wishbones the tracking is a mile out and the tie rods have siezed........