I've been having problems with the steering on my 2000 180 Fwd TT.

11,000 miles ago, I had a bad puncture on one of my RE040 stock tires. I decided, since I had 19,000 miles on the 040s, to get a new set. I purchased Bridgestone Potenza RE730s. Since getting those tires, and my dealer aligning them, I've felt that my car's steering just doesn't feel right - steering unsettled over all but the smoothest road surfaces (squirrelly), very loose on-center feel, vibration in steering at speeds over 70 mph, etc. Basically, I felt less confident in the safety of the car's steering. After many visits back to my dealer and a trip to another dealer, they both concluded that the type of tire was the reason the steering felt different.

So, after 8,000 (of which I didn't enjoy) miles on the RE730s, I couldn't stand the noise these tires had developed any longer. I went back to the tire store I had bought the RE730s from originally, prepared to buy a set of Bridgestone S-03s. After checking my existing tires and taking my car for a test drive, the tire store decided to change my tires under warranty, saying that they had developed uneven tire wear which therefore added to the noise. They said that bad alignment could be the problem. By the way the noise from these tires after 8,000 miles was loud enough to be heard over the stereo.

After hearing some of the comments from people here on the forum praising the S-03s, I was hoping that I would start to enjoy driving my TT again. While the feel through the steering seemed slightly firmer, the other problems were still there (on-center feel still loose, steering still squirrelly on most roads, vibration at speeds over 70 mph) and that's after getting the wheels rebalanced at my dealer following the new S-03s being put on. So I went to another dealer a couple of weeks ago who said that the steering felt normal but that there was something wrong with the Turbo, which was causing the extra vibrations I felt in the steering. After 4 hours of waiting they said they made a few adjustments, took the car out for another test drive and it felt fine. Well, I didn't notice any difference!

So this morning I was driving my daily 25 miles to work and I started hearing the same noise from the S-03s that my RE730s had developed throughout their life on my car. Mind you the noise is no where near as loud as it was on the RE730s, but I only have 1500 miles on these S-03s.

Any thoughts would be well appreciated. I am going to go back to my dealer and demand they fix the problems somehow. However I'd like to know as much as possible about what may be causing these problems before I do that. I love my car! It's well over 2 years old now and apart from this issue, I've had no problems with it, no electrical faults, gearbox grinding, etc. Also, I still have the original DV even though I have 30,000 miles on my TT. Could this be a problem?

Many thanks in advance,
Stephen.

2000 TT 180 Fwd.

 

I'm no expert, but I'd have the alignment (toe-in) checked.

 

The car had similar symptoms as yours.

 

Thanks guys! I'll do that.