9n gti on gravel

[pogopins]

Currently on a roadtrip. Today I ended up on Bobeyan Rd heading up from somewhere near Tharwa into the Snowy Mountains — lots of glorious whooshy turbo noises! — but unfortunately after the initial good bits there was ~40km of gravel, something I'd not tried in this car before.

The car handled it pretty well but I did notice it would pull very slightly to the left under even gentle braking. Nothing unsafe or unmanageable, and only barely perceptible, but it was consistently there.

It's been aligned fairly recently and I think every front end bush has been replaced with OEM versions** in the last ~25kkm. I check tyre pressures pretty regularly, and right before every trip. Tyres are all the same (RE003s) and are also the same age.

Any ideas?

I've never noticed it happening on tarmac, no matter how hard I get on the brakes.

Eventually gave up near Three Mile Dam as the fog was the soupiest I've ever seen in my life, and went thru Tumut/Adelong instead. Oh well. Stopped at Blowering Dam also.



** when I got the car it had a bunch of poly bushes and they were noisy as hell. Not putting up with that ****!

[h100vw]

I have never found my poly bushes to be noisy, certainly wouldn't be swapping out stock ones all the time. Having had the car 10 years, I reckon we'd be up to the 3rd set.

There's a lot of movement in the front end of these cars with the stock rubber.

I'd not be critical of pull under braking while on a loose surface. Differing levels of grip and camber on the gravel could be the main culprits.

[pogopins]

To clarify, I've replaced the poly bushes the previous owner had fitted, and all the other bushes that were munted. It has been pretty good since getting all that sorted. (well, I didn't do it; I don't want to work on my daily. Outsourced)

anyway the trip (Sydney–Canberra–Wangaratta–Melbourne–Wangaratta–S ydney) was great. Today I cruised lazily home on the trusty old M31 from Wangaratta to Sydney. Boring as hell but happy to see 600km from a tank. Not as thrifty as the SO's Suzuki Ignis (4.6L/100km in the ~2000km trip I did in it last year!) but with far better acceleration

[sambb]

classic I just did the same. 4 day trip from sydney down to Glenbog state forest on the eastern side of the snowies on a hunting trip. Probably did 80km on unsealed national park and state forest roads. Not the most comfortable (400Lb springs don't exactly make it a flying carpet) but do-able provided the coilovers were wound up to stock height and the bars softened off. LSD helps too. The car swallowed all the gear needed to be self sufficient for up to 6 days. I'd say what you experienced was most likely either due to the crown of the road causing the car to pull towards the lower of the front wheels or very slight front wheel slip triggering the ESP (which then grabs a brake somewhere else on the car to 'straighten' you up) but which really causes the car to just pull one way or the other on dirt, that you were feeling. If its fine on sealed stuff then all is good.