(Help!)Car hops to the left while driving.

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sam7606

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A friend of mine has a Corsa Lite 1.3('97). A few weeks back she told me that her car hops to the left while driving. I went to check the car and noticed that the front left tyre was completely worn out(no treads at all) while the front right one had some treads. So I told her to get both front tyres replaced with new ones. She did so a few days later. Yesterday she came back saying that the car still hops with new tyres fitted. So I took the car out for a short drive. While driving at between 60 and 80km/h and you let off the accelerator, especially on on a bumpy road, the car quite violently starts hopping(as if the car is loosing traction) to the left(only to the left, not right). When you turn the steering to the right the hopping stops, but immediately when you put the steering in the straight position the hopping starts again. The other way to stop the hopping is to step on the accelerator, but then when you get over 80km/h the steering wheel will start to shake. Once I nearly went off the road as the car hopped to the left even more violently when I let off the accelerator and slightly put on the brakes, on a downhill, at 70km/h. This however doesn't happen on all roads, but rather on bumpy paved/tarred roads and gravel roads. What could be wrong with the steering of this car? Wheel alignment maybe, or something else? I don't know much about cars. Please help.
 
Last edited:
sam7606 said:
A friend of mine has a Corsa Lite 1.3('97). A few weeks back she told me that her car hops to the left while driving. I went to check the car and noticed that the front left tyre was completely worn out(no threads at all) while the front right one had some threads. So I told her to get both front tyres replaced with new ones. She did so a few days later. Yesterday she came back saying that the car still hops with new tyres fitted. So I took the car out for a short drive. While driving at between 60 and 80km/h and you let off the accelerator, especially on on a bumpy road, the car quite violently starts hopping(as if the car is loosing traction) to the left(only to the left, not right). When you turn the steering to the right the hopping stops, but immediately when you put the steering in the straight position the hopping starts again. The other way to stop the hopping is to step on the accelerator, but then when you get over 80km/h the steering wheel will start to shake. Once I nearly went off the road as the car hopped to the left even more violently when I let off the accelerator and slightly put on the brakes, on a downhill, at 70km/h. This however doesn't happen on all roads, but rather on rather bumpy paved/tarred roads and gravel roads. What could be wrong with the steering of this car? Wheel alignment maybe, or something else? I don't know much about cars. Please help.
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Hi Sam.

Her tyre shouldn't have threads, it's not a forum.
 
Before she kills herself or someone else, PLEASE take the car to a professional who can look underneath. There is something seriously loose there, like her wheels are about to fall off, literally.
 
Broadcom said:
Before she kills herself or someone else, PLEASE take the car to a professional who can look underneath. There is something seriously loose there, like her wheels are about to fall off, literally.
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Agreed.
Sounds like loose control arms or something.
 
Wheel alignment, or worn shock absorbers or both. But let her take it to a professional .
 
Marthinus100 said:
Wheel alignment, or worn shock absorbers or both. But let her take it to a professional .
Click to expand...

Quite possibly buckled tyres and damaged CV joints too but as Marthinus says, get that thing to a reputable repair shop fast to at least find out whats wrong.

Kwikfit sorted my old cab out when I had issues many years ago.
 
My focus done the same after a service (at ford...)

I took it to a tiger wheel, turns out the alignment was waaaay out,
 
Wud balancing the tyres help as my chicks car also does a similar thing....car pulls to the left, only that specific tyre is worn out. Anything above 110kmph then steering wheel starts shaking. Did wheel alignment but still doing same thing. Took it in for service last week and they said alignment, but we just recently done that.
 
Car swerving to either side while driving = alignment is out.
Steering wheel rattle at high speeds = tyre balancing.
 
Holy crap, people! Sort your cars out!

Driving is a big enough risk without having your car turn all Christine on yo' asses. Tyres shouldn't wear unevenly, cars shouldn't hop around on the road... if anything feels or sounds out of place with your car, have it seen to by someone who knows what they're doing.

Don't hate life.
 
snail said:
Wud balancing the tyres help as my chicks car also does a similar thing....car pulls to the left, only that specific tyre is worn out. Anything above 110kmph then steering wheel starts shaking. Did wheel alignment but still doing same thing. Took it in for service last week and they said alignment, but we just recently done that.
Click to expand...

Shaking is generally balancing (or a bent wheel). More rarely, it's a worn CV joint.

Pulling to one side = alignment or radial pull
Uneven tyre wear = alignment.

If the pull to one side changes as you accelerate, or lift off, chance are your control arm bushes are shot, allowing your wheel to swing backwards and forwards slightly.
 
So what could it be if you have already done alignment and it still doesn't sort out the issue?
 
snail said:
So what could it be if you have already done alignment and it still doesn't sort out the issue?
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Then your wheel <-> suspension connection (ie cv joints, etc) could have a serious problem.
 
Get it to a professional right now. Don't mess around, the next hop could be straight into a serious accident.
 
snail said:
So what could it be if you have already done alignment and it still doesn't sort out the issue?
Click to expand...

the issue being pulling?
Then it's radial pull (assuming the alignment shop got it right).
Try swapping the front tyres around.
 
snail said:
So what could it be if you have already done alignment and it still doesn't sort out the issue?
Click to expand...

Or your tyres are badly worn already from when the alignment was out. No setting of alignment will fix this, until you get new tyres.
 
Start with Wheel balancing and Wheel alignment.
Those guys will complain if anything else is wrong on the car... :p
 
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