Ford Fiesta 1.4 Zetec 03’ Steering Problem “Tramlining”?

[Tanfies2]

Dear all,

I wonder if someone can give me some help and advice please?

I have a Fiesta 1.4 Zetect on an 03’ plate, which has had a problem with the steering ever since I’ve owned it.

After Googling the symptoms, the nearest thing a can find to this is something called “Tramlining”?

Basically, when driving on uneven roads, the steering never remains true, and picks up every imperfection such as cats eye’s, cracks, pot holes etc.

On the motorway and smooth surfaces it’s perfectly fine, but if you get on a really uneven bit of road, then the steering twitches madly from left to right, and the tugging is felt through the steering wheel.

To me, it feels as if something is lose, and that the road is manipulating the steering, but after replacing certain parts and checking the steering column, mechanic is now also baffled.

So far, I have replaced;

Front and back shocks, discs, pads, track-rod ends, bearings, new front tyres, I’ve also had the tracking and balancing done twice. Allows are the standard 16” and the tyres are 195/50R15’s.

To date, nothing I’ve done has even touched the problem, but it seems to be a common thing when looking it up on-line. All I know is that it’s not natural, and that something must be causing this.

If you’ve experienced this, or know why it’s happening, please help.

[DieselPig]

If you have new tyres they should be on the back wheels, swap them around and check the tyre pressures.

My Mondeo would tramline when the tyres were worn, do you have a matching set of tyres?

[Tanfies2]

To be honest, I’m not even sure if this is tramlining? Yes I’ve
new tyres on the front, not new, new, but a few months old now. It was doing it
even with the old tyres. I’d say it’s more twitchy steering, the steering wheel
twitches from left to right when hitting bumps, cracks in the road and doesn’t
ramin in a straight line. To me, it feels as if something is lose, or has some
playing it. All major parts like steering rack, track rod ends, steering column
has all been check. My mechanic is running out of ideas.