Pitching/poor ride-normal

[Mike McKinstry]

Hi Guys,
I am currently finding the wifes estate uncomfortable (and as I am due to drive to N.Ireland and France in next few weeks I would like to resolve these issues)to drive as it does not seem to cope with uneven surfaces very well the most annoying being dips/surface changes on dual carriageway/motorway which when travelling at 60-80mph almost give a pitching sensation which could be falsely mistaken as a misfire.
Not having driven another Passat I do not know if this is normal ride or if due to the 134K mileage I need to look at front suspension bushes and shocks?Model is 130TDi SE on 15" alloys and tyres are Michelin front running at 30psi and cheaper on rear at 30.
I have played with tyre pressures over last 6 mths with little avail from Michelin recd to Haynes to VW.
Second annoying problem is that my(very large high street) tyre co. cannot get steering wheel dead centre/straight ahead -this did sit dead centre but when I had nasty tyres on front put to rear and new Mich put on front s/wheel suddenly sat down to left.
Tyre co. have told me this is due to the rear tyres pulling the vehicle although when I have swapped each of the rear wheels for the spare I have not had any difference on s/wheel.Tyre co.do not want to set s/wheel up straight ahead as they insist tracking/alignment is perfect.Anyone heard of this problem?

Regards,
Mike

[Dozz]

134 k miles Have the shocks never been done? I know not many of us take much notice of the manufacturers but they do say you should change them around the 60k mark so I would expect yours are past there best probably some wear in various Bush's too. If it was me I'd start with new shocks all round cost? I'd say about 200-300 so only do it if your planning to keep the car. As for the steering camber of the road makes most cars pull slightly to the left is this what you mean? or if the wheel is just drunk I'd say the tracking is all to **** then or who ever did the tracking was drunk :beerchug:

[snapdragon]

I recently has all four dampers, front springs and any front arms which weren't OK replaced, and a four-wheel alignment. The parts were all genuine or OE. My VW Specialist garage that did the work had the alignment done by VW as they said other places usually make a hash of it. The difference is pretty minimal really. Not so much an improvement, just different. I think it's worse over speed humps. If someone had done it in the night without telling me, I don't think I would have noticed. Getting rid of the Michelins and replacing them with Goodyear Eagle F1s made an improvement to grip, noise and comfort, but they do tend to cause tramlining on bad roads. However, I find my Passat Estate worse on urban roads, rather than on motorways, where it's quite smooth, though not in the league of Vauxhall Omega etc...

[guyg]

The handling is dissapointing on my 2001 SE. I have been told that both the springing and damping on these is much softer than other versions such as the sport. I will be changing mine soon, but I'm going to go for something a lot stiffer then the OE units.

I'm still researching, so if anyone has experience of making an SE handle in a less soggy manner or can recommend suitable shocks and/or springs, I'd be interested to hear about it...

Cheers

Guy