My car, an H Reg (91) Renault Clio 1.2 is pulling to the left when driving in a straight line.
I have had the tracking done and it was fine, wheels are at the right pressure and tightness and there is no extra wearing on either side.
Have also noticed that when going over bumps or potholes, when the left wheel hits them it often pull the wheel to the left more. Oh, I also get some vibration through the steering wheel at speeds.
I'm not great at mechanics, but willing to try and fault find myself. What should I start looking at first? It's an old car so should I look at the bushes?
On a car this age it's quite common to find a pull to the left. Over years of use the suspension has to cope with potholes, kerbs and general abuse. Eventually the suspension components can become distorted slightly. You'll only be looking for fractions of a millimetre per components, but adding up to a few millimeters overall. You probably won't even find this using any measuring equipment you have at home.
There is also the possibility that the flexible suspension bushes have worn or become soft, this will cause the suspension to flex while driving, and this one seem quite likely judging by the symptoms you have. When they get soft, the suspension will move, effectively steering the car, to follow any lines of force that are present - such as road camber.
One final possibility is that the tyres may have worn slightly unevenly. This will usually be caused by worn suspension in the first place though. You can test this by swapping the tyres front to rear (don't swap them side to side). If the affect changes, then you are looking at simple wear in the suspension being the cause.
Unless the problem is severe (likely to cause an accident if you have an emergency situation), then it's not worth spending a lot of money on this, for this age of car. You can easily run into hundreds of pounds trying to pinpoint this kind of fault.
If you're getting vibration at speed with properly balanced wheels, it points to wear in balljoints or bushes, as does the pulling. Although pulling could also be due to damaged parts through hitting a kerb, etc.
Might be worth having an MOT done and pointing out why. Can be cheaper than a dealer diagnosis.
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