Its also worth bearing in mind that its a tall, thin vehicle like the Skoda Roomster and I've found the Roomie much more susceptable to side winds than the Fabia Estate that preceeded it.

Tyres checked weekly. We have learnt they are prone to being a 1lb or two out it effects the steering, but not to the extent ours does.

The steering is only effected not all the time only most if you get my drift. We have even had the tracking looked at. Not happy with it at all.

Car going back to Nissan for an independant check next week. Will mention what you have said menders!

Thanks for all your replys much appreciated.

I followed a Note for a while coming up from Sheffield this Morning on the M1. It was noticable from behind how narrow the tyres seemed and how wide the track was. (compared with cars around it)

My guess is the handling`s down to a short wheelbase as well.

It looked stable enough though from a following position - but my wife commented on the above factors.

Please don`t take this the wrong way, I`m not being critical- it`s just an observation.

All the best

Edited by oilrag on 14/04/2010 at 19:35

Guess what. They said they could find nothing. Typical. BUT they said they made some minor adjustments to the steering. Guess what its still behaves like its on marbles on a duel carriageway.

Looks like I got to poke up with it :(

Thanks all for your help

Can't stand the handling no more. Car going back to where it came from. Ordered a C3 Picasso fingers crossed we a ok this time.

Thanks for everyones responces.

As I said car going now. Had enough. When doing tyre pressures yesterday, hubby said that the off side tyre was nearly gone already, pointing out there is a problem with handling. The tracking has been checked. When I had the car back in I am going to point this out. I am so mad with them,

My mum has a Nissan Micra which I drove yesterday, it has the same chassie (spelling) as the note and handled brilliantly. Supurb little car.

Hi Yve,

Just asa matter of interest, do you have the 15" or 16" wheels?

My wife's Note has the 16" and is a pleasure to drive. I drove it for a brisk run on country roads last Sunday and quite enjoyed it. It has only done 6000 miles but I shall be watching the tyre wear and tyre presures very closely.

Regards

i have a 1.6 58 plate note... its on 16" wheels, and i can empathise with both the people who complained about the handling, its not a constant issue and some times its absolutely perfect , however, when it goes wrong it just "feels" bad and loose and generally poor... if anyone has driven an old marina or morris minor, i can liken it to that, still sharp, but really old.

the suspension is firm with little roll for a high sided car and it turns in well, its just that little vagueness that is really upsetting that makes you feel like your constantly in a side wind even if your not, or following a really bad cambered road.

ive checked the tyres, had it back to nissan, bought new tyres and its still the same and nissan, as usual, cannot find a fault... but nissans lack of skill is another matter.

the only thing i can think of is the tyre pressures are wrong, i inflate mine to the manufacturers pressure as stated on the body sticker on the door (and it shows the correct size for my car) and the fronts are 36psi and the rear 32psi... as it doesnt show these in the handbook, maybe there is a more suitable pressure to run on, any suggestions would be appreciated as i dont want to run on over or underinflated tyres for too long as theyre not the cheapest to replace.

Yes it does have electronically assisted power steering. So an intermitant electrical gremlin sounds quite plausible.

Touch wood at 17K my 10 plate 1.6 ntec auto is still a stonking buy. Very high grin factor. I'm very happy with it.

From my X type experience different tyres can cause severe handling problems. My car was fitted with Pirellis Assimetricos from new, but it started handling very badly.

I found out there was a tech bulletin for possible problems with X type front suspension, mine was checked during a service and all was fine. The front wheels were swapped around and this improved things for a few thousand miles.

At about 13,000 miles the handling went crazy - tramlining and following cambers - at slow speed it would steer towards the kerb and the steering wheel would judder slightly. I took it in for the tyres and suspension to be looked at. On taking off the front wheels the inside block of tread on the both tyres were just legal, the rest of the tyre was at 2.5mm and had even wear. Tyre balance and tracking were fine.

I ordered repalcement tyres and as soon as they were fitted the handling was back to normal.

The replacement tyres were Goodyears and these wore evenly across the whole tread (they only lasted 10,000 miles, but that's another story!). I swapped them again for Pirelli 6000s, handling was fine and tyre wear was even across the tread up to me swapping the car.

This showed to me the bad handling was being caused purely by the tyre choice and this became a vicious circle. Uneven wear was changing the camber setting, which was causing handling problems, the incorrect camber due to tyre wear was causing more tyre wear on the inside edge making the camber worse and this was making handling worse.

So my advice is to check tyre wear and consider another type. If the rear tyres have a lot more tread than the fronts swap them and see if this makes a difference.

Thats bizarre. My 1.6 is very good. Have you the 1.4 or the diesel? You do have the same trye size / brand as me. Though I am thinking of trying another brand next time.

I'm up to over 21K in just 16 months. Most of that high speed and the rest the twisty bits. Other than a very slight vulnerability to crosswinds due to it being relatively tall I'm quite happy. So much so that when the 3yr HP is up I'm considering buying another one.

Tyre wear....my Conti's have over 21K on them and 5 mil left. You MUST have something SERIOUSLY wrong with your Note if you can only get 10K out of a set of Conti's.

Edited by Ethan Edwards on 11/08/2011 at 14:46

- the car has done only 25000 miles in 4 years anyway so they should be fine. I've had the tracking measured - front toe-in was fractionally adjusted from 10' toe out to 5' toe in, rear was not adjustable and was 46' toe out before and after test. I am about to replace the 5th and 6th tyre so I am disappointed with the trye wear rate which is equivalent to about 10,000 miles per set despite gentle .

"

Sorry that tracking adjustment is NOT Fractional" ... it's major.

No wonder your tyres wore.

Personally I would re-iterate HJ above: go to a PROPER car fitting centre - eg ATS - and get tracking checked on all 4 wheels. It needs expensive equipment and TRAINED operatives used to doing it.. I would not trust any car dealer to do it correctly...

And that give the 'comedy handling' that the OP describes?

It would certainly affcest handling and tyre wear.

First thing to check when steering goes funny..

Same here. Rear wheels are fixed alignment and just had them tested independently and found to be out of alignment. , Dealer says you can't trust alignment machines as they are set to the tyre garage default. and Nissan know that this is a problem but won't do anything about it. Back to dealer on Thursday only 20K on clock and car is all over place.

There is a technical phrase to describe that comment : risible, rubbish and ridiculous come to mind but male cow excrement is better.

The dealer is not competent and fobbing you off. Find another .

Edited by madf on 22/04/2012 at 17:35