Cornering feeling *unsafe* 1990 Coupe

James Sheridan james at pixelix.co.uk
Mon Jul 23 22:43:14 EDT 2001


Hi there listers,

Over the last few days I've noticed a certain uneasyness in cornering
in my 1990 Coupe (no Quattro) - the steering seems to be very, very
light and it literally does feel as if on every bend that the rear-end
is going to swing out.

At first, I just shook it off as just me being silly, but on Saturday,
in very light rain I managed to spin off the road (at circa 70mph) on
a long swooping bend to the right. The rear end flipped out and I
ended up in the hedge on the other side of the road. Luckily the road
was empty, and the hedge a good cushion - otherwise who knows what
woulda happened to me. :(

The car is in remarkably good condition considering - only a few
scratches on the drivers (right hand) side bodywork, and a broken
bumper and some extra dents on my (already messy) alloys.

So, my question is - what caused the car to do this? I do concede that
I may have been travelling a little faster than would be recommended
for the corner - but I've never had the car 'feel' the way it does
now. It really doesn't 'feel' safe at the moment.

Even when negotiating roundabouts and 90deg corners at low speeds (sub
20mph) it still feels very very loose and uncertain.

I've checked the tyre treads, and although they're fairly low, they're still legal
(tread depth of around 0.3).

Anyone got any ideas what could be wrong before I get onto my local
dealer for an expensive service?

-- 
James Sheridan // james at ineedprozac.com / fax: 07021 117 198 / irc: dr_bob
::: Visit Pixelix - http://www.pixelix.co.uk - Through With Being Cool :::




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