Wandering Stagea

[oxford1327]

hiya all was wondering if anyone else on here has had problems with their car developing a tendency to drift over the road surface? mine has recently developed this problem aand i suspect (after 4 wheel alignments) that the rear steering rack maybe causing it? before i got the rear camber corrected and the front caster done i t would always pull to the left a little but now it can go either way at random times, its not a drastic pull but it is enough that if you let your hand off the wheel that the next bump/ridge in the road surface will cause the car to drift across over the course of around 50-60 metres or so.

any ideas guys as it is pissing me and the wheel alignment guys off to no end, (prolly seeing as he cant charge me until he gets it right) gotta love service garuntees hahahahahaha

cheers oxford

[fergo308]

What's your front caster setting? even caster is best for cornering,but on cambered roads,the car will follow the road camber noticeably if the caster is even. set the O/SF back half a degree and it'll track straighter when cruising around.

What other settings are you running out of interest?

Justin...

[oxford1327]

gonna try and upload a pic from my phone of the print out so will see if can read it otherwise will type it out the long way

[oxford1327]

the car has 17"s on it and is maybe 2" lower than std as i have to be able to get over some pretty steep driveways etc where i work

[oxford1327]

sorry its such a big file but ya can read it clearly that way

[CruiseLiner]

rear steering rack? do the s2 come with hicas? if not then there is no rear steering rack

[oxford1327]

yes it has hicas

[CruiseLiner]

no worries, ive never heard of stageas with hicas before, i learn soemthing new everyday

[oxford1327]

my series 2 has hicas and attessa just to make it more fun to get bits for as some of the std stagea suspension part (r33 gtr) wont fit cos of the hicas

[EGA41T]

it only comes with s2 manuals.

is there any threads in the stag section with suggested wheel alignment settings?

which workshop is doing the alignment for you daniel?

[oxford1327]

heya andy

yeah i have printed out the entire suspension thread around 80 a4 pages at work and the guys have based their settings on getting as close to the ones in the thread as possible but it still wanders

[AlexCim]

As someone said above, its the increased caster in the steering wheel that will make the car wander on the road.

Dont worry, its completely normal and my stagea suffers from it on a daily basis.

[oxford1327]

the alignment is being done at my local pedders workshop on a CORGHI brand alignment machine whether that would make any diffwerence or no i dunno. it is a new machine prolly less than 2 years old

[GoldZilla]

SK offers caster kits in the Suspension Group Buy, and has settings for when you add those... Apparently you need to add a caster kit to add a sufficient amount of caster to get rid of the wandering...

Drop him a PM, and he may be able to help. Also, have a look in the Suspension Group Buy thread...

[oxford1327]

have already added a caster kit to try and bring the left hand side further to square and it hasn helped any, althouhg it was only one offset bush in the left (passenger) side so i may hafta get another offset and push the drivers side back or something??

[qikstagea]

Mine sufferes a similar thing - follows every single hole and dip and camber in the road. My old falcon you can pretty much let go of the wheels at 100kph and be good for at least 2-300m, but the stagea.... no.... Am going to try SKs camber and caster kits.

[oxford1327]

have pretty much put the same stuff as in the kits he has already and hasn really made that much of a difference unfortunately. only one that is different is the rear i have adjustable camber arms but they will be goin soon as i get the offset bushes for the rear arms

[qikstagea]

have pretty much put the same stuff as in the kits he has already and hasn really made that much of a difference unfortunately. only one that is different is the rear i have adjustable camber arms but they will be goin soon as i get the offset bushes for the rear arms

well shit... beats me then lol

If i figure out what it is, ill let you know! PS u do the same!

[oxford1327]

no wukkas will do if i find it i will be ecstatic and so will the alignment boys cos at this point they just about hafta go to advanced hair YEAH YEAH hahahaha

[Tangles]

Ummm, it doesnt seem completely normal to me.

I dont believe my Stagea (S1 , Jan 97) suffers from what you desribe.

Doesnt wander, doesnt track offcentre, and I still havent had a wheel alignment done to it yet.

Mods: Bilstein shocks, standard springs, 360mm ride height all round (centre of wheel to arch), 17inch R34 GTT wheels with 235/45 tyres, and Whiteline 'pineapples'. Whiteline front caster kit not yet fitted.

Im honestly very happy with the handling, I mean its no Lambo but for what the Stagea is its great - as we all well know. Albeit Im a careful driver, I havent come across your described problem in my car (have with a Pulsar N15 hatch tho!!! long story....)

It'll be wear & tear on a particlar item I guess. Has you car got signs of accident damage? Have you replaced all the undercarrage bushes, etc? What condition are your tyres in? Is your current suspension old/new, installed properly? etc etc...... power steeing fluid/lines, steering rack, plenty of things to go thru.

Id had enough of the mucking around with our kittedout N15 hatch, that was a nightmare in regards to wandering characteristics and we never got it properly sorted in the end. Oh, and the 3 clutches in 20thou kms! Was in Hot 4s tho on the backpage, so that was good for a laugh.

Best of luck with it, would be good to get different opinions from different workshops perhaps, time permitting. Maybe take out the hicas and put in the lock bar? Cant be of much help tho, sorry.