Odd steering feeling after alignment

Had a very odd feeling after I had the alignment done on the car which I couldnt really put my finger on,

The steering range felt somehow reduced but was the same both sides lock to lock but if felt stupidly heavy, at time I put it down to things being new and tight.

Earlier on I found out why it felt odd, check this out





Looks like due to the inners needing so much adjustment because I had fitted new wishbones as well as track rods, they were just turned and turned taking the boots with them.

I've ordered new rubbers but ironicly I need to remove the track rods to fit them so I hope they will agree to retrack the car free of charge as it is kind of their doing

I have never seen that happen as the normal way to adjust the Cabriolets are the outers, as I have 2 piece units, as the inners can separate from the outers, and I don't have the one piece rod that were on some of hte older Golfs.

Also they should of cut the wire-ties so that the shafts can be adjusted and the boots remain stationary.
I suspect that the shop assumed that you have the one piece so they only adjusted the inners to make the case for the alignment.
 

Mine are brand new two piece ones but because the place doing the alignment is literally in the next street I didnt worry about getting the alignment even close which meant it needed a lot of moving.

Unfortunately its just taken the boots with it, just wish I'd spotted it at the time, bit worrying that it went for its MOT at the same place last week and it wasnt flagged up then either!

Is it possible to get these boots on with the outers in place if they are removed from the hub?

Having done my own alignment with a diy tool for the past 45 years, the rubbers will always twist if the clamp/tyewrap isnt released,  find it hard to believe garage was happy to leave it like that..

Just cut the tie wraps shoot some wd-40 in the boot ends and twist them back around.

Oh, and re-tie-wrap them.

Find a new garage. Looks like they don’t pay enough attention to detail.

Just count the turns of the track rod ends off and put that exact same amount of turns back on. Can’t use a little masking tape also to help identify the point they were turn in to.


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I find the rubber doughnut on the track rod spins slightly on the shaft so you can twist the boot without the need for undoing the outer clamp. I also use Febi boots and they have a type of spring clip on the outer which is easy to loosen.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-GOLF-Mk1-1-3-Steering-Rack-Boot-Right-79-to-83-Gaiter-Bellow-171419832CS-Febi-/232465213238

I do still check my boots once the tracking is done as I've had the same problem as you once but no where near as bad… I'm surprised it was not picked up on the MOT or even mentioned?

Thats my worry as well, what else has been missed?

I've got the spring clips on the outers as well so will leave these off next time.

One of them is badly torn so will have to be replaced so may as well do both.

On the plus side at least the horrible steering will be solved

Rub a little grease on the track rod where the rubber doughnut is, they should slide a little so you can get the grease underneath them, then twist them on the track rod to loosen them up.

Then next time your boots may not twist so much they split.

Well I freed the old ones off over the track rod ends so hopefully the new boys will fit over just as easy.

I did stick my head in to the place that did it to start with and asked if they would redo the alignment again for free if needed and they said it was their fault so bring the whole thing in for them to do, for obvious reasons I'd rather they didnt need to touch it again

WATERNAIR said

Well I freed the old ones off over the track rod ends so hopefully the new boys will fit over just as easy.

I did stick my head in to the place that did it to start with and asked if they would redo the alignment again for free if needed and they said it was their fault so bring the whole thing in for them to do, for obvious reasons I'd rather they didnt need to touch it again

Ya Think? lolololol….but they did fess up….so good on them.