Full Lock Problem?

[pmwanderer]

Hi! I've noticed recently when putting full lock on the car (parking, reversing out of drive etc) my o/s/f wheel appears to scrape or 'jitter' as if it's skidding (but its not skidding, its just a skidding feeling) but as soon as full lock is taken off there's no problem and drives OK. The tyres have not been changed recently and have decent tread, there doesn't appear to be any obstruction inside the wheel arches and they're definitely not loose - any clues what could be causing this?

 

[njrichardson]

Hi Paul,

I was getting a similar problem on that wheel for 3 months and couldn't work out what it was. However, I had recently had the wheels/tyres changed! I got a noise and judder when turning left at high speed or when on full lock at low speed.

I screwed the wheel arch liner 5mm further forwards to help clearance, but that didn't make any difference. After putting the car up on the ramp I noticed that it was actually the base of the suspension strut that was fouling the inside of the tyre slightly on full lock.

I therefore tried adding 5mm spacers onto the front wheels to push the wheel away from the strut slightly. This worked perfectly and the spacers didn't cost me a penny!

Cheers,

Neil.

 

[uk_sub]

Hi,
This scared me enough to stop the car and leap out to check my wheels weren't hanging off the first time I drove the car
[]
Obviously take the necessary precautions to ensure there isn't a genuine problem but it's most likely 'normal'.
The geometry setup is such that this happens on full lock

 

[NXI20]

It's the 4 wheel drive & they all do it to some extent. Don't worry about it.

 

[Mark_Bennett]

2 wheel drive do it too on full lock and reversing - it's the wide tyres.

 

[TonyS]

Mine too! I put it down to the front diff making the tyre skip on full lock. Interesting that the two wheel drive models do this too...

 

[Alan Woods]

My Cayman did that.

 

[pmwanderer]

Cheers for the replies much appreciated puts me at ease!

 

[Richard_Hamilton]

As Mark says, it is a function of having wide tyres. If you think about it, when turning, the outside edge of the tyre has further to travel than the inside edge. It is more noticeable in damp and icy conditions, as the tyre 'skips' on the surface.

 

[mdw78]

My C4 was doing this a fair bit recently. I got the wheel alignment adjusted last Friday and it has pretty much solved the problem (the toe on both fronts was way out ~+1deg15mins).

BTW The handling was also transformed for the better... I wish that I'd got it done much sooner.