Pulling to the left.. why?

[Harry]

Just an update .. its started to pull left again ... no where near as bad . I think i will look at the wheel bearings . other than that im at a loss as to how to fix it ..

[Oh_Your_Blind]

I have a 02 vy exect, bought it not too long ago, it wanders pretty bad to the left, like everyone else has explained.. But im a little more worried because after about a week of owning the car I felt something was wrong, so I revs checked the car expecting the guy to own money on it, I find out its been a repairable writeoff in 06.. Im hoping my wandering has nothing structural.. :\
I gotta book it for a wheel alignment at holden in a week or so.. Hope its not bad news

[guyman]

my vy s does the same thing (pulling left) after 2 wheel alignments from 2 separate tyre shops and getting my mechanic to check it out (he reckons it is tyre related) iv given up...although the second wheel alignment improved the steering position i'm still not satisfied, im studying atm and i just cant afford to look into the problem any further and pay for further alignments/new tyres etc...i wonder if holden knows about this problem?? seems pretty common.

[Jase26]

Hi All,

Got the same problem. Have taken it to numerous tyre shops had numerous wheel alignments and have also been told it's the tyres I have on my car. Still has not fixed the problem. Got a neighbour who works for Holden, going to ask him what he thinks may be the issue.

[guyman]

keep us posted on what your neighbour says, thanks!

[Harry]

Yeah let us know what he thinks it might be .. Its driving me nuts ..

[jameswh]

Hey guys,

I haven't driven my car in a couple of weeks (overseas at the moment), but I did notice that prior to my departure, my car was in fact starting to pull to the left - just slightly. I think I may go and get an alignment report to see if the alignment has gone out - will post results when I can.

[MYV6VY03]

i got the same problem on my 03 VY, changed rims and tyres stopped steering wobble but not pulling left. never been in a crash nor hit a gutter. only started about 2 months after owning the car

[alien]

I've hit a gutter at 80km/h, caused a bad bulge in the tyre. Got that replaced pretty quickly once i noticed it. It's never been in any front end collisions. And it doesn't wobble or veer at all. When all new tyres were put on i got a front and back alignment done, wasn't too bad at all. Make sure if you get one done that you either ask for a printout OR ask them to watch them do it. Or both. Normally they're happy to do that, and you know the work gets done.

[caster]

For those who are interested, here is the new wheel alignment sheet. This is the best result I've had thus far.

http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9...treportnew.jpg

i work at a tyre store and do wheel alignments. i know you can get a caster kit for your car and they can increase and decrease the caster by adding and removing shims. Looking at your specs any caster difference over half a degree can make it pull to the side that has the least caster. by your specs the car should be pulling to the right very hard. if it has started to pull hard again to the left you have other problems maybe a bent arm somewhere or your rack. hope this helps

[sunnyjim]

Ive been doing wheel alignments for 5 years now, for a VY I usually set it at;

Fronts either side at
camber -0.30 degree
toe + 1.3mm
castor* isn't adjustable unless it has aftermarket bushes, but prefer 1/2 degree more to the left hand side

Rear
camber - isn't adjustable but it should be around -1.30 degree either side
toe + 1.5mm

Hi mate I have also been to 2 different wheel alighnment joints rotated the tyres put new castor kits on etc but it still pulls to the left, when doing the castor kit I kept it at the standard setting if I put 1/2 degree more on the left do you think that would help ? the strange thing is that my steering wheel stays almost straight but the car pulls to the left any input would be much appreciated
cheers

[alien]

Ive been doing wheel alignments for 5 years now, for a VY I usually set it at;

Fronts either side at
camber -0.30 degree
toe + 1.3mm
castor* isn't adjustable unless it has aftermarket bushes, but prefer 1/2 degree more to the left hand side

Rear
camber - isn't adjustable but it should be around -1.30 degree either side
toe + 1.5mm

Thats a fair bit different to the data that is used by Beissbarth machines at a performance type place. Why is yours so different?

Here's the target data for a VY Commodore (with FE1 for example):

Front Axle:
Castor 10 deg: -1°15' [+7°45'] +1°15'
KPI 10 deg: -1°30' [+12°52'] +1°30'
Camber: -0°30' [-0°12'] +0°30'
Cross Camber: [0°48']
Individual Toe: -1.1 mm [+1.1 mm] +1.1 mm
Cross Toe: [2.1 mm]
Total Toe: -2.1 mm [+2.1 mm] +2.1 mm

Rear Axle:
Camber: -0°38' [-0°45'] +0°38'
Cross Camber: [0°35']
Individual Toe: -2.1mm [+2.1 mm] +2.1 mm
Cross Toe: [4.2 mm]
Total Toe: -4.2 mm [+4.2 mm] +4.2 mm

[Harry]

Hey i was checking my front end this afternoon and i discovered that my kframe bolts on one side were loose ... checked the net and found this ..

http://www.iagresearch.com.au/index....=106&Itemid=40.

Im guessing it works for other models even if they haven't been in an accident !

[gsxr1201]

cars are designed with a slight pull to the left, not major, but enough so if you fall a sleep at the wheel or loose concentration, the car will pull off the road and not into on coming traffic!

[danja]

cars are designed with a slight pull to the left, not major, but enough so if you fall a sleep at the wheel or loose concentration, the car will pull off the road and not into on coming traffic!

Seriously, no.

[Sabbath']

cars are designed with a slight pull to the left, not major, but enough so if you fall a sleep at the wheel or loose concentration, the car will pull off the road and not into on coming traffic!

So instead of hitting an oncoming car at 100 you hit a tree instead? How thoughtful...

[dynoryder]

this prob is a esay fix buy adjustable castor bushes and increase the castor on the left hand side

if the pull is still there you may not have stock rims get rid of the rotaionals if you have them

but if it has been in a acco one of the knuckles might be bent maby even the strut too but the K.P.I. (king pin inclination)or(sai steering axis inclination same thing) looked good on the wheel alignment

and if it still needs more take castor off the right

this would of been a good qusetion for my suspension thread then it would of been a two post solve as the second post would of been what my boss recomends (over 30 years in steering and suspension)

oh yea check the subframe by loseing off on a hoist and check if the bolt holes are not elongated this can happen in accos and can shift the hole suspension setup in the front so the alignment figures look good but the whole lot has moved together

[Harry]

I have adjustable castor bushes .. never been in an accident .. i have 3 different sets of wheels and tires . the only things left are wheel bearing or subframe .. Arrrrrrggghhh .. It was fine till BJ did an alignment 5 months ago ... Sorry just venting ..

[S2_VR_]

Camber of the road anyone?...

[cpbait]

you will get the car following the camber of the road, but if you go down a flat piece of road like a service lane for example it should steer relatively straight.

mine pulls left with the steering wheel cocked to the right, iv got no idea what mine is any more, has standard FE2 suspension, new suspension bushes and sway bar links, my left or right hand sway bar link pin was bent on nearly a 45 degree angle at the thread on the top half of the link, so i may have a bent strut or something else bent, was a little better after these, bushes and allignment but still pulls left with wheel cocked to the right.

[haychtee]

Hi All

Im suffering from the same thing .. bought 4 new tires and had a wheel alignment . Now it pulls to the left .. Had it back 3 times and still no better .. Let me know if you find out the cause ..

G'day , i recently fitted new king springs and ultima shocks all round,top bushes & bearings,urethane swaybar bushes H/duty link rods and a brand new holden steering rack to my VT berlina wagon' then thinking at last i'll get rid of the pulling to the left with a simple wheel alignment ? it still pulled to the left exactly the same, took it back and was told the 4 radius rod bushes are worn which made sense cause all the other parts were worn out ! so i change the 4 radius bushes went back for a free wheel alignment and was only slightly better but still pulling , knowing the car has not had any accidents i knew i could solve this problem . as soon as i seen the wheel alignment spec sheet of someone else's car with different caster settings(with adjustable radius bushes) i simply reduced the caster angle on the right by placing a 4mm spacer behind the front radius bush that fits the shaft perfectly which reduces caster and the car starting driving straighter , 7mm of spacer fixed the problem the car is tight and well sprung and drives perfectly , haychtee.

[Shearer]

i simply reduced the caster angle on the right by placing a 4mm spacer behind the front radius bush that fits the shaft perfectly which reduces caster and the car starting driving straighter , 7mm of spacer fixed the problem

It's called caster offset, I remember an independent wheel aligner telling me about the issue with my VN. Nothing is more annoying then this left pull. Good to see you sorted it out.

Side note: I wonder who will be the first to belly-ache about a thread dig

[calaim]

has anyone checked your steering rack steering arms or universal joints or the ball joints? any mechanic worth his salt should have checked them straight away. have you noticed any grinding or shuddering, especially under braking? if yes that would be my diagnosis. dont pay anyone a cent until your car drives straight.

[Brett_jjj]

I replaced most of the front end parts in my VS not too long ago, springs, struts ,strut mounts ,steering rack etc, and after Id taken it for a wheel alignment, it was pulling to the left slightly. I took it back, and the guy who did the alignment ended up getting it to steer perfectly straight by loosening the K frame and moving it slightly to get the caster angle exactly the same each side. (with the first alignment they did, they said the caster angle was slightly different for each side, but they reckoned most people cant notice it). Anyway, it now steers dead straight with the caster angles adjusted to be exactly the same for each side. Ive also noticed that im getting slightly better fuel economy now too.