[Geeked]

How much caster is too much? My Jetta has +6.6 degrees left front, +6.0 degrees right front. Car pulls to the right (will drive up over the crown of the road on a freeway by itself).

Toe is nearly perfect, camber is fine, tires have only 6,000 miles on them and psi is even on both sides. Two alignments done in the past 6,000 miles, shop says caster is not adjustable. Tires do NOT show any uneven wear. All front suspension bushings + tie rod ends are less than a year old.

Could the caster be causing the pull to the right, and is it adjustable on these cars?

 

[Clean PG]

i dont know about adjusting caster on a mk4, but that is definitely your issue. whether or not it's detrimental to your car, i doubt it. you just have the pull to the right because the car will naturally pull towards the side that has less positive caster. it also doesnt affect tread wear so that's why youre not seeing anything too significant there.

pulled this from the faq for stock specs, as you can see this guy also is about in the same range as you so at least you know you're not alone:

 

[criley76]

i dont know about adjusting caster on a mk4, but that is definitely your issue. whether or not it's detrimental to your car, i doubt it. you just have the pull to the right because the car will naturally pull towards the side that has less positive caster. it also doesnt affect tread wear so that's why youre not seeing anything too significant there.

pulled this from the faq for stock specs, as you can see this guy also is about in the same range as you so at least you know you're not alone:

:thumbup::thumbup:

 

[Geeked]

Clean PG: thanks for posting that :thumbup:

time to find a shop around here that would attempt caster adjustment...i can't stand a car that pulls to one side

 

[gettajetta13]

i have just come across the same issue but i have massive amout of wear on the inside of my passenger tire. when i bought the car last year i replaced the control arm bushings w/ r32 bushings (new), new top bushing on struts, h&r rss suspension and new tires. gave my specs to the shop i go to and they said everything seems to be ok. i tried to have "BIG O" tires replace the shreaded one since everything on my car seems to be ok but they refused. is there something else on the car i should look at?

 

[19birel]

I'd keep your caster symmetrical on each side. On our race karts we play with the castor quite abit and it is always (should always) be equal. You won't need too much in your Jetta anyways because you have an open diff which takes away the need for any excess in castor.

 

[Geeked]

An update in case anyone has a similar issue - the strut mounts (rubber bushings on top of strut bearings) were bad. Both a bit collapsed from normal wear and tear, but crushed at a slight angle on the driver's side causing imbalance in caster.

I can't believe the first shop never caught this, even after I specifically requested the tech to take a look at the struts and try to adjust caster. Took it to another shop a few weeks ago and they spotted teh bad strut mounts right away.

Good news is that as the previous poster mentioned, I have not had any abnormal/excess tire wear since apparently caster won't/cant cause that.