wa2sff@hounx.UUCP (J.WILKES) (02/20/86)
I have had three front wheel drive cars, a vw dasher, a vw rabbit and a plymouth reliant. Both vw's tracked perfectly straight for the whole time I had them. They also rarely needed wheel alignments. The 1982 Plymouth Reliant drove me crazy when I first got it. It would always pull to the right and the drift during acceleration was bad. The shift pattern was let up on gas, change steering direction, shift to next gear, [let up on clutch, step on gas, change steering direction ] (all simultaneously). Multiple wheel alignments and wheel rotations did not fix the problem. At 28,000 miles the Goodyear 185-70x 14 Ariva tires wore out. I replaced them with Michelen (sp) 185-70x14 tires and replaced the front shocks with monroe gas shocks. Car now keeps wheel alignment and doesn't drift to right. Only time I have touched wheel alignment since is when a wheel bearing was replaced and the dealer didn't align the car. The car now has 56,000 miles on it. For an american car it isn't bad. I blame the problem on a combination of lousy shocks (they were weak from the start, even with the HD suspension option) and lousy tires. I thought I ordered performance tires by ordering 185-70x14 tires. What I got was cheap (but high $) all weather tires. Joe Wilkes