I noticed that the left front wheel on my 84 GTI seemed to be much closer to the rear part of the fender well when compared to the right front. Upon measuring the distance from the center bore of the front wheel to the center bore of the rear wheel, sure enough, the left side was .75" shorter than the right side.

A visual check leads me to believe that the control arm is perfectly straight. The body itself has never been hit, so I doubt that it has to do with the actual mounting points for the control arm. The tierods are old and should probably be replaced, but even a "bad" tierod shouldn't cause the front wheel to "move back" by almost an inch, should it?

What could be the cause of this???

Please advise...non-technical person on board. :-(