TRACKING CHECK

The first job was to get the car up in the air and check for any worn balljoints or play in the rack. We had previously fitted a new offside front spring, but apart from eliminating the noises it made, the car still didn’t drive right.

With the tyre pressures corrected, the car was taken for a test-drive. The corrected tyre pressures reduced the pulling to the left slightly, but there was still work to do. Here, a rear tracking gauge is fitted.

It turned out that the passenger wheel on our car was minus 0.30 degree toeingout, whereas the driver’s wheel is toeing-in by an astonishing 11.9 degrees! That’s just ridiculous and it makes us check to see if anything is bent.

A look underneath only reveals that the driver’s side front wishbone has been replaced. We wonder if the car hit a massive pothole or kerb and bent the old one? Everything looks OK, so Chris adjusted it up correctly.

Tracking was adjusted and luckily nothing had seized. There are still slight but acceptable discrepancies in the camber, but that’s not adjustable. The rear wheels (top numbers) are still ‘green’, so within tolerance.

Sure enough, a drive down the road brings up the traction control warning light, but a trip to Parkside Autos sees Gary Cooke quickly delete the fault code from the ESP control unit. The 207’s handling and steering are simply transformed.

Here, the front tracking gauge is fitted. It’s very obvious that this front wheel is toeing-in a lot – by how much we will find out later. The front Avon tyres are still quite new and are not worn, but this could be the source of our steering problem.

Chris from Tanvic Tyres enters the data for our 207 CC. Laser four-wheel alignment is the only way to go to do a proper job and the 207’s front tracking should be set at 1 degree toe-in.

The steering wheel is now centralised. These models have a steering angle sensor and it’s possible that the corrected steering wheel position and tracking will bring on the ESP (traction control) warning light.