Car pulls way left all the time?

frog23

Thanks alot, Going to have a go at changing the tyres round, then Friday its in the garage for a full alignment check which I will be watching carefully. If i'm honest i think the tyres have been put on in a different order to which they started life. Maybe a wheel balance is in order. Tyre pressure checked again today all at 32psi so no problems there.

Thanks for the great replies!!

Tetley_the_Cat

Whell balance has no effect so don't wadte your money. Process is as follows.
Inspect for damage or play in joints.
Tyre pressures and check issue.
Swop left to right on front or front to back if directional tyres. Check issue.
Set rear camber and toe. Total toe usually should equal 0. Left toe-right toe divided by 2 will give thrust angle. Check agianst manufatuers spec. Negative thrust means car will go to left, positive to right. Readjust to get thrust angle at zero or near as dammit. Then set the front toe and camber if adjustable. If all joints OK, ride height ok, rear and front camber and toe ok then car should be relatively stable. If not let us know as it then gets quite complex. Don't stab in dark. Carry out this methodically.

frog23

Thanks for that will have it all checked over today when its on the ramps. Another point to tell you about is the car has been lowers 30mm all over. Don't think this makes a difference though.

Thanks

cyclonebri1

Make you 20 stone mil walk next time:A:A:o

Apologies.

To be serious I don't think I've ever had a car that didn't pull to the left to some degree on most roads, but strangely I found it doesn't happen so much when fully loaded.

A quick check I do, but you need to pick the road carefully is to drive down the left normally hands off, and then turn round and drive back down the wrong side and see if the difference cancels itself out.

Disdclaimer;
I didn't advise you to do that,

scotsbob

frog23 wrote: »

Thanks for that will have it all checked over today when its on the ramps. Another point to tell you about is the car has been lowers 30mm all over. Don't think this makes a difference though.

Thanks

Not as long as the tracking and alignment was done after the lowering.

Lowering itself won't be the cause of your problems. The vast majority of MX5 owners lower by 30mm because Mazda raised it by 30mm to comply with US safety regulations.

Make sure when you have it checked again that you are armed with the correct alignment spec from the manufacturer and make sure that the final alignment printour has the same settings.

Limey

If it only started pulling/drifting after the tyre change I'd check that the tyre monkey didn't jack the car up by one of the suspension components and bend it. :mad:

GolfBravo

Limey wrote: »

If it only started pulling/drifting after the tyre change I'd check that the tyre monkey didn't jack the car up by one of the suspension components and bend it. :mad:

Unfortunately there are not many knowledgable tyre places. I got a new set of tyres last month, and it was the first time ever that the garage took particular attention to tyre runout lines and weight mark dots, and spot on balance - the end result is a super smooth ride.

First thing you should definitely check the tyre runout lines on your tyres - if both front tyres have runout lines to one side the car will definitely pull to that side. Also, if they are directional tyres, make sure they are facing the right way. Obviously, any OUTSIDE signs should be facing the outside.

Limey

That's one of the reasons I tend to hang about when I'm getting tyres done so I can 'assist' if they don't know where to jack up the car.:rotfl:

The techs almost certainly think I'm an interfering !!!!!! who's too precious about his car.:o

blacksta

Had this issue on c class 04 reg - was told after numerous checks that the Uk road generally slants to the left.

Tetley_the_Cat

Lowering could have a huge effect on it. The whole geometry will need recalculating and is not something that any garage can do. You need to get the car back to standard. People who just lower cars without taking into account the consequential effects. My nephew lowered his accord and had handling problems so re calculated the geometry and he couldn't believe the cost of rectifying the other parts to get it to a state where it would handle. So I calculated how far he could go before the effect took place and it was a max 18mm. It is possible to build in offsets into the geometry to compensate for the camber but you need to know the average camber for the UK and that is nigh on impossible.