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MG MGF Technical - TF veering all over the road

Hi all. I was wondering if anyone can help please.
I have an mgtf, when driving along the road the car will suddenly veer or pull to either side for no apparant reason. It seems to be worse depending on the camber on the road. It also happens sometimes when braking. (Its just like strong wind blowing the car about).

A while ago I unfortunately managed to spin her on a greasy corner of a road junction and did hit the kerb with the nearside wheel. I wasn't going fast so it didn't hit the kerb with much force. Infact I thought how lucky I was as I couldn't see any damage at all.

Anyway I'm not sure but this problem seemed to start after this so thinking the wheel alignment may of been damaged, when I booked the car in at Brown & Gammon for a service, I asked them to do a 4 wheel alignment check which they said they did. I thought that that might of remedied the problem but unfortunately it hasn't.

So has anyone had the same experience as this and if so do you know what else could be causing this problem.

Many thanks.
Brent

Brent,if the car has been serviced recently then the steering problem should have been mentioned at this time for then to diagnose. Part of a service is to road test and report any problems so check back with the garage to see if anything was noticed and what is causing the problem.
m j satur

Unfortunately it was 5 months ago I had it seviced so B&G would probably say it must be something else that they hadn't checked. I should have acted on it earlier I suppose. :(

Brent.
Brent

Hi,

Had a similar problem with the wife's F and it turned out to be the rear N/S wheel bearing shot. It's easy to see if it is the same fault by grabbing the wheel and giving it a good yank about in all directions. Doesn't move much if there's no problem, but the whole assembly flopped about on the faulty wheel.

The fault happened very quickly (over the period of 1 week)

I replaced the wheel bearing and had to replace the hub too because the bearing had seized and badly worn the hub.

The car was dangerous to drive as you just couldn't keep it in a straight line and the camber of the road threw it all over the place.

If it is this problem it's not to easy to do at home as removing and replacing the bearing need pullers and presses so if you don't have the tool it off to the workshop with it.

When done the handling was crisp again.

Hope that helps.
Phil Greenwood

Hi Brent,
If your car has epas system then it may have a problem with steering bias.
tony hall

I would go with the idea of a shot rear bearing, it seems relatively common on TF’s (04MY in particular).
C Tideswell

Shot n/s rear wheel bearing and driveshaft happened on my 99F too. Since the rear wheel was flailing about the car pulled left under acceleration and drifted right when coasting. Sub £300 garage repair (mostly the driveshaft, the wheel bearing and labour were cheap enough - joys of the BL parts bin!)
Pete

Had a n/s bearing go on my 99 F as well. I thought the handling was dodgy, the garage picked it up on the MOT and fixed it.
Ddraig

Seems to be a common prob, just had my rear n/s rear wheel bearing replaced on my 98 F. It too gave the same handling issues as described, felt very dodgy to say the least :)
Steve P

Thank you all for you views and answers.

Tony I don't think my car has epas. How do you know for sure if it has, what do you look for ?

It looks like the census of opinion seems to be the problem is the n/s wheel bearing which to be honest amazes and shocks me as I only bought the TF in May 2004 although I have done 27k miles.

Another thing is as I said earlier, as I was having this problem then I took the car to B&G to check the wheel alignment whilst having its 2nd service. Surely they would have picked up on this problem if it was the wheel bearing whilst doing the service.

Anyway it looks like the problem could be serious so it looks like I am going to have to take out a mortgage and have it checked out :(

Brent.
Brent

Your TF will have EPAS (Electronic Power Assisted Steering.
C Tideswell

Hi all,
this may seem a bit obvious but i had a similar problem with my girlfrieds F. It had the tendancy to veer to one side as i went through a dip and the front end got heavier, then veered the other way as i went over a brow of a small hill. it made it very interesting to drive on some B roads. the problem turned out to be the N/S lower front subframe,rear mount to the chassis. the rubber had debonded from it's housing and was allowing the whole front subframe to move forward and backward very slightly as we drove along.
It's easy to see normally with a visual check.

because the whole subframe moved there was no abnormal wear on the tyres.

hope this helps
gary birch

my car too had a steering fault and eventually tire wear...this was traced to the wishbone bush on the nearside wheel ...I replaced these and the tie bar with the sports polypropylene bushes .....its like a different car now...wonderfulto drive ..
RP Armitage

This thread was discussed between 10/10/2006 and 02/11/2006

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