Hi All, had a strange thing happen the other day. Car was up on stands at the front. After a full steering re-fit I started the engine to sort the PAS system. Whilst it was in the air, with the engine running and gearbox in neutral <I checked!> and the wheels off, I saw the OSF driveshaft moving, rotating forward very very slowly. My eyes popped out I could hold it still with my hand, then when I let go it would rotate again very slowly ????? I think that is one of the maddest things I have ever seen It was definately in neutral !!! I have one other major problem .... after a full steering system refit and new ball joints, tie rods, tie rod ends (all VW OEM). All items are properly tightend (doubled checked), bushes are new too ! http://www.clubgti.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1382174#post1382174 I have problems under acceleration. The car will pull to the right under heavy acceleration then when you take your foot off the accelerator the car will pull back to the left and correct itself. This is a little scary at speed. The steering otherwise is much improved with the new rack. I had the car fully tracked and the camber set at Nottingham Wheel Alignment Centre on Monday, so the geometry should be spot on (a fraction of Toe in). The tyres are in perfect nick, Eagle F1 GS-D3, 36psi front, 35 psi rear, 1 year old ... covered ~8000 miles. All the running gear is new ! Shocks are VW OEM and 9 months old. I did have this OSF driveshaft fitted in July by a local garage and I suspect it is the reason for this, especially as it was turning in neutral whilst the car was off the ground at the front. A long story really. http://www.clubgti.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139346 Any suggestions. I have spent weeks working on the suspension, running gear and steering over the past year and it is all new (inc . top mounts) except for the springs and rear axle bushes. I think I might take it to C&R Enterprises in Nottingham to get the thing checked out and then go back to the other garage that fitted the OSF Driveshaft and get my money back if they find anything. Any thoughts people ? Answers appreciated as always ! Cheers
not sure about the rest, but i had the exact same problem after we rebuilt the front end of my passat at the weekend but the other way round. On mine we tracked it down to the front wishbone pivot bolt on the drivers side not being torqued up properly, so i would check all your wishbone bolts are very tight before you drive it again. Also have you got the thin metal sleeves on the bolts that go in the rear front wishbone bolts? also while searching on here for a solution i cam accross a thread where a loose pinch bolt on the steering column to rack UJ was loose was giving the same weird handling.
Thanks for the reply .... wasn't sure where to put this post as it's both Transmission & Chassis. But I torqued up all the bolts and added 90 degrees to them to make sure, double checked them all before the wheels went back on. The wishbones have VW bushes and didn't cause this before ? I'll double check the pinch bolt on the UJ, could be that ... need to tie wrap the boot actually .... forgot that Swear It was as tight as I could do it up though ... will check that ! The turning driveshaft in Neutral has made my mind spin as to what could cause this. The head says is it chassis (even with everything bolted up properly ?) but the heart says its that poxy OSF non-VW driveshaft ! I'll double check all bolts first thing in the morning !
yea we tightened all the wishbone bolts too (had to borrow a torque wrench taht went high enough!), it was ok for a few miles then it started getting progressively worse, i can only assume the subframe seems to settle/flex slightly when the cars weight is back on it and loosens the bolts off. Im going to take them all out at the weekend and threadlock them in i think to make sure it doesnt happen again.
Some singe seater race cars actually drive themselves along when the gearbox oil is cold because of the drag caused by the gearbox oil.
