Car pulling to the left after 4 wheel alignment

M

Michael O'Connor

Guest
Really strange... had new tyres and alloys fitted last Saturday (255/55/16 up to 225/40/18, 6.5j up to 7.5j.

So I had the alloys/ tyres fitted in the morning, then went up the a10 to have the alignment done. Car seemed fine all the way up there and after driving back too.

This morning on the way to work on the a10 I noticed that in the inside lane, on a straight section of road, I had my wheel turned slightly to the right. On noticing this I straightened it up and the car very noticeably pulled left towards the kerb which scared the hell out of me, so I righted the steering wheel (or wronged it) and carried on my way.

Now today on my way back home I noticed it even more, in the outside lane along a stretch thats very long straight but curves to the right, then straightens out at a roundabout. At the roundabout I straightened up and put the wheel back to the middle and the car started veering towards the middle line and inside lane (and cars). Very unsettling.

Parked the car, straightened SW up and had a look at the front wheels. The front left is definitely turned out slightly. From the front you can see it sticks out much further 'up' the front of the arch more than the right wheel sticks out of its respective arch, which you can hardly see from infront of the car and it is also pointed in slightly.

Sorry for the essay. Car is a 2006 a3 btw. Anyone ever encountered this?
 
Take it back to the place that done the alignment and show them your problem and get them to fix it and ask them if you can see the live info .
 
Thanks. Yeah I'm gonna phone them tomorrow. He said it was slightly out (I believe he said the toe in particular was out, there is no camber adjustment on the front suspension for A3s). Even though he said it was out, it most definitely didn't do this before taking it there, or after I had the car lowered 2 weeks ago.

It's just really weird that I've only noticed it today, and that it didn't do it on the way back from the tracking place...
 
Sorry, I should clarify that it's not so much 'pulling' to the left, but you have to keep the steering wheel a couple degrees to the right in order for the car to go straight. When the steering wheel is completely straight, the car drifts to the left; not that noticeable under 10mph but anything over and it's really obvious.
 
The alignment might be properly done, but the steering wheel centering is probably just off from them not using an alignment seat brace .... Alot of alignment shops don't brace the steering wheel to the seat which means the wheel will be slightly turned even tho the car is tracking perfectly .... That's why I finally found a shop that was Professional about there alingments and they did an alingment that was way better than an OE one.

Also camber is slightly adjustable up front by pushing the strut mounts inward .... Front of the car has to be jacked up and raintray off .... It's not very accurate but it works

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miltybilty said:
The alignment might be properly done, but the steering wheel centering is probably just off from them not using an alignment seat brace .... Alot of alignment shops don't brace the steering wheel to the seat which means the wheel will be slightly turned even tho the car is tracking perfectly .... That's why I finally found a shop that was Professional about there alingments and they did an alingment that was way better than an OE one.

Also camber is slightly adjustable up front by pushing the strut mounts inward .... Front of the car has to be jacked up and raintray off .... It's not very accurate but it works

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That's a really good point. I'll ask them if they used a wheel brace tomorrow. To be honest they seem pretty professional so I'd be surprised if they didn't; their workshop and bodyshop buildings are immaculate, always have lots of S and RS series Audis in, BMWs, Lambo's, Ferrari's etc, Range Rovers along with your more 'run of the mill' cars in having work done.
 
Ya they may have just forgot ..... Almost anybody can make a mistake .... But I'm guessing it was to do with bracing it at the wrong angle or forgetting to.

From the sounds of it obviously there doing something right to get that type of customer base ....



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miltybilty said:
Ya they may have just forgot ..... Almost anybody can make a mistake .... But I'm guessing it was to do with bracing it at the wrong angle or forgetting to.

From the sounds of it obviously there doing something right to get that type of customer base ....



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Yeah I guess what you've said makes sense, it's almost like the wheels have been aligned with the steering wheel slightly to the right, so that when it's straight, the wheels go off to the left instead.
 
So I've taken it back this morning and left it with him. He said he did use the wheel brace though, as its standard equipment procedure for that type of 4 wheel alignment.

Will see how it is when I pick it up later on. Really hope it's sorted as it's getting quite disorientating steering slightly off to the right in order to go straight
 
I thought 4 wheel alignment was only on 4wd cars only reason for asking this is i have to take the S3 to a place who can do the 4 at the same time .
 
ch1z64 said:
I thought 4 wheel alignment was only on 4wd cars only reason for asking this is i have to take the S3 to a place who can do the 4 at the same time .
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No, it applies to all cars.

If you've lowered it then you may need to tweak the factory alignment settings to account for this. Only a decent alignment centre will know how and what to do for each car. However this is not your problem - either they've made a mistake, or as above, not locked the steering correctly.
 
ch1z64 said:
I thought 4 wheel alignment was only on 4wd cars only reason for asking this is i have to take the S3 to a place who can do the 4 at the same time .
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All cars are adjustable at all four corners (in some way), so 4 wheel alignment is best for any car really and it makes sense to do them all at the same time. In theory anyway, hasn't worked so good in this case haha.
 
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