torque steer

[novaa]

2.0 16v very bad torque steer:( it has spax T/A drive shafts cut and welded 1.2 tie bars no ARB wheels correct offset whats the problem

[meritlover]

tracking might be all over the place, diff might be U/S, poor camber/geometry.

or you drive like a tool bag.

[Philsutton]

cut an welded tie bars???? WTF?


Also a diff will help as it wont be spinning the crap out of one wheel.

[liftoffoversteer]

You want diesel or late GSi ARBs and tie bars (cheap from a scrappy), HHMS tie-bar lowering kit, rose jointed and strengthened lower arms. These will help a lot, but not completely cure.

Do you have a chassis plating kit? If not, it'll always have a degree of torque steer as the front end will be as stable as a jelly on a five dollar whore.

[Stuart]

having a front ARB fitted at all is totally debateable...personally I like sans ARB.


plating kit isnt vital, sitch welding is though.


sounds like you have the tyre pressures a touch too high/crap tyres/worn shocks/drive like a complete weapon for the TS to be an issue.

[craig green]

Depending how worn some parts of the setup are or how poor the 2.0 conversion is, the issue may lie entirely at the doors of knackered components.

I would be checking engine mounts, fr end bushes & steering components tbh.

[Andy]

Has anyone considered the fact that this is natural to happen in a car that was never designed to cope with such power??

[liftoffoversteer]

having a front ARB fitted at all is totally debateable...personally I like sans ARB.


plating kit isnt vital, sitch welding is though.


sounds like you have the tyre pressures a touch too high/crap tyres/worn shocks/drive like a complete weapon for the TS to be an issue.

Sans ARB is nice, but with a valver it wouldn't be my choice. All the ones I've driven tend to go better with, rather than without - specially matched to a HHMS anti-dive kit. It's just another 'tool' in the box to help calm things down and hold it all together. Lots of one percent improvements make a decent gain overall.

Craig - spot on. More bits checked makes a better package, IMHO.

[BIGS]

Has anyone considered the fact that this is natural to happen in a car that was never designed to cope with such power??

dont be silly lol

[craig green]

When my GSi T was switching lanes all over the shop & generally being a handfull I found the offside rubber mount was almost ready to rip away & only 1 bolt was left in it.

The number of times I've witnessed Novas at Santa pod & you can clearly see how loose the fr bushes are by how the fr wheel wobbles about in the arch. Not even on launching but just manouvering in the queue.

Quite how a car is meant to steer or track in a straight line precisely when the whole front end is looser than a fake Rolex watch strap is beyond me.

[Andy]

Thats my whole point Craig.You need to change all those bits for polybushes etc or stronger items

[craig green]

Or just make sure its all fresh & not sloppy 120k/18 year old components.

It amuses me that so many people try to tune their cars to 300bhp yet dont have the funds or skill to even bleed in new brake fluid.

I'd rather have a pukka maintained 1300 SR than a shonky valver, any day of the week.

[novaa]

driv a friends his had arb g max suspension and it driv like out off the factory

[Stuart]

erm... in english.


plus driving like its out of the factory ISNT a good thing for novas lol.
I have thrashed a gmax kitted valver round Llandow and it was the funniest thing ever, although TS tastic. I'm sure it would have been a problem if it was my car/tyres lol

[craig green]

lol Yeah right.

[novaa]

thanks for some of the advice will change bushes, the shocks and springs are new

[Stuart]

but what KIND of shocks /springs are they? if they are a pikey brand (read that as Gmax/jammex/£200 new coilovers from ebay) then I'd expect it to be gash

[novaa]

they are spax T/A

[John]

So what's welded then? the shafts or the tie bars??!!

[1.6 8v turbo nova]

torque steer is miles better fun, don't fix it :thumb:

[nathan.]

What have you cut and welded?

If you've modified the tie bars, were they done properly? ie- both the exact same length?
If one tie bar is very slightly shorter than the other this would give castor readings which are different on each side causing the car to pull heavily to one side!

[Dar]

2.0 16v very bad torque steer:( it has spax T/A drive shafts cut and welded 1.2 tie bars no ARB wheels correct offset whats the problem

I read the above as


2.0 16v very bad torque steer:( it has spax T/A, drive shafts (cut and welded), 1.2 tie bars & no ARB. Wheels correct offset. Whats the problem?

Mine was terrible (read ****ing dangerous!) before it was finished. Once I Poly bushed the front and got the tracking done it was a different car to drive. I suggest that you do the same:thumb:

[novaa]

the drive shafts are cut and welded. 1.2 nova outers mated too GSI cavalier

[Mike]

the drive shafts are cut and welded. 1.2 nova outers mated too GSI cavalier

Mine moneis on one shaft longer then the other :thumb:

[Mike]

torque steer is miles better fun, don't fix it :thumb:

Not really, Torque steer indicates possible ****e geometry IMO. Aswell as a few transmission inadeqaucies.

[novaa]

I have GTE shafts. what else do i need to fit f20 box

[Mike]

Your XE should already have one.

[novaa]

The gear box still has cavalier GSI cv and shafts welded to nova outers

[meritlover]

has this car actually been through any kind of alignment checks since these cut and weld violations took place?

any amount of lowering (even with purely the weight of the XE) let alone imperfections in tie bars will cause camber changes and toe-in which will make the torque steer awfull!

[craig green]

Find out what g/box you have & sort the right shafts on it.

Dar's comments on polybushing & setup are highly valid IMO. Get the bottom arms boxed aswell.

[novaa]

Thanks for the help must look for new shafts and bushes

[R1CH]

Mine moneis on one shaft longer then the other :thumb:

I'd expect that one shaft is longer than the other !!
By the sounds of it he's using std 1200 tiebars (not cut & welded ones) so no probs there. Can't see the driveshafts causing the prob either, there not gonna any different to using the 22 spline shafts ect ..
Things to make sure its right IMO is that the front end is in good nic (not rotten and about to fall apart) and seem welded, poly bushes, good ball joints / track rod ends, decent shocks (inc top mounts) with the correct weight springs and some decent engine mounts (fill the std ones with Stikaflex), if all thats ok then it should go in a straight line no bother ... as long as you don't drive like a tool !!
Mine pulls dead straight and thats still with a std diff on an LET, i do use Equal length shafts (cuts down on tourqe steer a bit) but if you sort the bits listed above then you shouldn't have a prob with an XE.

[loggyboy]

Its gotta be an equal length drive shaft setup. thats the most obvious cure for torque steer.

[craig green]

Its gotta be an equal length drive shaft setup. thats the most obvious cure for torque steer.

Youre not wrong, but an XE shouldnt pose massive problems, understandable on a LET when 200+ lb/ft are unleashed all in one go.

Personally, I think this thread has all the info going to help minimise torque steer. Now just fix it.