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steering tilt

1K views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  RAPTOR 
#1 ·
Hi All,

Yesterday I was trying to bleed air from the power steering as i thought it could contribute to the steering noise. When I got to the stage of rapidly turning the steering wheel from one lock position to another with the car stationary I noticed that she tilted about 10 degrees to the right when the steering wheel was in the left lock position.

I then thought it may be just my weight doing that and stepped out of the car and repeated the turn but saw the same tilt (probably little less but still noticeable).

It doesn't do that at all in the right steering lock position.

Is this normal or should I get the car to the mechanic asap?

Thanks,

Alex
 
#2 ·
If I'm understanding you correctly you have noticed that the whole body of car tilts as a result of the steering going through it's full range. If so there are 2 factors causing this and it is quite normal.

Firstly, and one you can't change is the inbuilt "king pin" inclination angle. I don't know if there is a more modern name now that cars no longer have king pins but the concept is the same. The upper balljoint is located more inboard than the lower balljoint. If you draw a theoretical line between the 2 the angle between this and a vertical line is the "king pin" inclination angle. This will cause the car to rise whenever the wheels are turned and contributes to the steering self centering.

The other is the caster angle. This is the relative front/rear location of the upper balljoint to the lower balljoint when viewed side on. This will add or remove from the above effect depending on which way the wheel is turned.

If you car tilts very noticable when you steer one way but not the other it is probably a result of different caster left-to-right. You should get this checked out but isn't urgent if the car is otherwise doing what it should.

TIP: to try and visualise what is happening imagine if the suspension upright was WAY inclined inboard or backwards. Turning this exageratted upright to steer the car will force the wheel to rotate into or away from the ground (lifting or lowering that corner of the car)

Hope all that makes some sense.

OR something is bent.
 
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