Help! Car Pulling to the left!!!

[DaveA3]

Hey All,

I have a small problem. My car keeps pulling to the left quite badly. To hold the car straight i have to turn the wheel right about 30degrees.

I thought it was the tracking so i could it to the garage who said it was fine. So then i went to the petrol station and pumped up my tyres evenly. Didnt make the slightest bit of difference.

I thought it may be the suspension. So i spent ages setting it all up again. (wheels on and off about 15 ****** times)

Any ideas?

Im gonna go insane soon!

Cheers

Dave

 

[Dani_B19]

Whats the balacning like on the wheels? i had exact same problem and turned out all the wheels were unbalanced!

 

[DaveA3]

i didnt think about balacing as the car doesnt vibrate at all at that magical 80mph mark or anywhere before that.

Surely there would be vibrations?

 

[Dani_B19]

Just saying, it's worth a pop. Also, when you last fitted your suspension, did you check all bushes for wear?

 

[DaveA3]

nah i didnt change the suspension the garage did but they didnt say anything was wrong with them. the rear axle bushes need changing though. but problem only seems to have occured since new wheels and suspension. maybe the height is still out but i doubt it. maybe have to get a geometry setup done.

 

[DaveA3]

anymore ideas peeps?

 

[arsenal_69r]

no one taking your steering wheel have they? sometimes they could put it back wrong just one or 2 out and could cause this

 

[steve bain]

camber is off.

 

[DaveA3]

i thought A3's didnt have any camber adjustment? if so it must be the camber change from the lowering i guess. Can anyone confirm?

the steering wheel hasnt been taken off btw arsenal

 

[thegoal007]

my 2 cents:
get a proper wheel alignment, preferably a full one.

 

[steve bain]

i may be wrong on camber then. on most cars it is something people forget when lowering. anyone know about the camber one? i was going to get mine done soon, i'd be suprised if camber wasn't adjustable.

also, tyres...are they matching thread and depth? i had this one car as the thread pattern was different, try putting the rear wheels on the front. steve

 

[DaveA3]

hmm 4 wheel alignment may be an option cheers.

The tyres ill swap them at the weekend. They are as they came and the fronts have a different thread.

i might get new tyres in the near future anyway.

cheers lads

 

[thegoal007]

Thinking back I did see the exact same problem on an FWD Escort many years ago. Although from memory I'm not 100% sure if it was the tread pattern or the fact one tyre was a lot newer than the other i.e may have started to happen as soon as one of the tyres was replaced - I just can't remember.

 

[DaveA3]

i phoned the garage i took my car to and they said they only do the front alignment. I need to find someone who does 4 wheel laser alignment that should cure the problem. apparently the small difference in my tyres should pull as much as it does.

So that seems to be the case. im gonna get my rear bushes done my anti roll bar and bushes and my window fixed. then im gonna get the laser alignment when ive measured up the suspension one last time to make sure its all done. Gonna be an expensive month for me!

 

[steve bain]

protyre have some of the best equipment and it clamp to the rim of the wheel, not the tyre so good for lowered cars.

Protyre.co.uk | Buy Cheap UK Car Tyres | Online Tyre Shophttp://www.protyre.co.uk/Default.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

when my tyres were different (same tread, different wear as one was a spare) the car pulled hard to the left. and i mean hard! the wheel pulled over about 10-15 degrees which is a lot! with tyres swapped left to right it pulled to the right instead.

swap the tyres round (front to back) as its free and will take 30 min or so, then get the lazer allignment done, most places will do a free check. 2 wheel allignment should get it close enough though as 4 wheel is mainly to stop crabbing, not turning.

just my 2p

 

[thegoal007]

I would say don't mess around with tyres in a singular fashion. Do things in pairs at a minimum. i.e swap both front for both rear or replace both front.

But as you say this didn't happen becasue you changed 1 tyre or 2. When you say you changed your wheels , do you mean alloys and tyres - all new ?
So it does sound like an alignment issue , especially if you also now have new suspension. I am really surprised when all this work was done no one bothered to tell you. Plus the fact if it happened to me straight after all that work I would be back to them in a flash if I didn't know what it was.
?

 

[DaveA3]

suspension was fitted and was ok (a lil but not too bad) when i had my normal standard rims. when i bought my wheels (2nd Hand) it started to pull left. I didnt do the tracking as i wanted the car to settle once i readjusted the suspension for the new wheels.

they were done a few weeks apart. The wheels had used tyres so might have been a problem. one was nearly new others were worn a bit. i need to check em later and am now probably thinkin maybe the newish one is on the left hand side causing the pull to the left.


ill try all the above and let you guys know. thanks for the links btw

Cheers chaps! :icon_thumright:

 

[Dane]

If your in Milton Keynes give Vagtech a ring, Im going to them for my billys and eibachs and they have a Beisbarth four wheel alignment and they're a good bunch.

 

[steve bain]

sounds like tyres to me more and more. if it didn't pull with old wheels and does with new seems obvious imo. try swapping the wheels over and see if it pulls to the right. and as said above, ideally you want a matching pair of tyres with the same tread depth for this exact reason. also in your first post you said you have the tracking checked, ok, its no 4 wheel allignment but it should be good enough.

if you use protyre, they have a fiver off in there special offers section also. good luck

 

[DaveA3]

turns out it was the tyres many thanks for the suggestion! put 2 directionals at the front and 1 of each at the back and there are now no problems at all.

cheers!

i probably will get alignment done anyway at some point to make sure i dont rinse my tyres over time.

 

[Grale1]

Can tyres really have this much affect, this is properly the only thing left for me to do to try and get over my left hand pull as I have different tyres on

 

[losing it.]

3 yr old post..., my car does this, it doesn't matter what side of the road your on it will follow the camber, had it tracked at hogendoorn , and its no where near as bad as it was. on flat car park it wont do it and comes to a stop in straight line
PSI tuning originally did the tracking it was out by loads after they touched it.
i have 1 bald tyre because of there sub standard service.
anyone know how this has happened, my back wheels are left 0 degrees and 29seconds and right 0 degrees 16 seconds, the lefty wheel changed once they tightened up the front.

 

[Gops]

I know it sounds obvious, but have you checked the tyre pressures? Mine pulls to the right but I think it's that wheel that's dodgy.

 

[Grale1]

All the pressures are the same on mine and I've recently ( yesterday ) had both wheel bearings, track rod ends, inner tie arms, ball joints, wishbones and 4 wheel alignment ( hunter alignment ) still pulls when you accelerate, I know its nothing to do with the front wheels as I've swapped them over still pulls left, I suppose I have to put it down to torque steer as I'm not sure what else to try

 

[losing it.]

yea always check them 40 psi is in them, in my post above that is the tracking , and the camber is left -1 degree 54 seconds and right -1 degree 43 seconds, the tyre place said the back isn't adjustable, yet i noticed something intrested them at the backwhilst it was on ramps i have no idea what thou lol