pulls to left after alignment?

[The motor guy]

I went ahead and had my front end redone and I've noticed it pulls to the left a little bit. It kind of depends on the crown of the road though, so I don't know if I should go back and have them recheck it? I know they set typically set the toe in on the right side a little bit to make up for the crown of the road, but I think they got carried away a bit. I'm about to put two new front tires on and want everything to be good. Will redo the alignment or will I have to pay? I noticed it right away, but depending on the road it wasn't too noticeable. This truck always eats the front passenger tire if you don't rotate the tires. Done this since day one. Looks like a slanted roof of a house.

 

[Kool1]

I hope they checked for looseness before they aligned your vehicle. Looseness must be fixed before an alignment is performed. I've seen alignments performed on vehicles with loose ball joints or worn bushings only to have a customer complain that the steering is worse after the alignment.

 

[eljefino]

Go back and have them fix it.

Tell them what you told us.

IDK my way around this truck, but are the upper or lower A-arms adjustable for camber/ caster? This is where the fix lies.

If you got a set toe, let go, you wasted money.

 

[Nick1994]

Get the new tires first.

I had a pull on my VW and the dealer aligned it twice. They then took the tires off the rims and swapped them from left to right (directional Michelin tires). That didn't fix it either. Drove it for months like that.

Then I got new Pirellis and that totally fixed the problem.

 

[beast3300]

Hard to say without a print out or a screen to look at. (Toe is not set in any kind of way to compensate for road crown btw.) If you are holding the steering wheel straight around 25-35 mph on a decent road does it pull left?

 

[Merkava_4]

Don't let them set it for the crown of the road. They always use that for an excuse when they don't know what they're doing. It should go down a flat freeway with no pull - hands off the wheel.

 

[Jimzz]

Sorry to ask but it has come up when I was a tech, but how heavy are you? 275+ by chance?

If you are on the heavy side ask them to let you sit in the vehicle when they do the alignment. You would think it would not throw it off that much but for some people it can especially if you are sensitive to such issues.

Sounds like that may not be the case but its a option I had to do a couple times and did help.

 

[The motor guy]

Don't let them set it for the crown of the road. They always use that for an excuse when they don't know what they're doing. It should go down a flat freeway with no pull - hands off the wheel. [/quote

I don't know why they always toe the tires in, you can always visually see them toed in, probably why the tires wear uneven all the time.

 

[bbhero]

Merk is right on about this..

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: Jimzz
Sorry to ask but it has come up when I was a tech, but how heavy are you? 275+ by chance?

If you are on the heavy side ask them to let you sit in the vehicle when they do the alignment. You would think it would not throw it off that much but for some people it can especially if you are sensitive to such issues.

Sounds like that may not be the case but its a option I had to do a couple times and did help.


I weigh 120

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: eljefino
Go back and have them fix it.

Tell them what you told us.

IDK my way around this truck, but are the upper or lower A-arms adjustable for camber/ caster? This is where the fix lies.

If you got a set toe, let go, you wasted money.


Everything is adjustable on this truck toe, camber and castor.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Get the new tires first.

I had a pull on my VW and the dealer aligned it twice. They then took the tires off the rims and swapped them from left to right (directional Michelin tires). That didn't fix it either. Drove it for months like that.

Then I got new Pirellis and that totally fixed the problem.


The tires are pretty well shot. I guess I should have put new tires on first before having them replace parts.

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted By: Merkava_4
Don't let them set it for the crown of the road. They always use that for an excuse when they don't know what they're doing. It should go down a flat freeway with no pull - hands off the wheel.


Unless you do that & a customer comes back with a Right pull complaint on crowned roads.....Cant make everyone happy.

 

[clinebarger]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman

I don't know why they always toe the tires in, you can always visually see them toed in, probably why the tires wear uneven all the time.


All vehicles need a little Toe-In, 1/8"-3/16" Total Toe being normal, Nothing that can seen by eye.

 

[another Todd]

The alignment machine they use is much less important than the person operating it. A state of the art 4 wheel computerized alignment is worthless if the mechanic doesn't know what he is doing. On the other hand, a competent mechanic can properly align a vehicle using 50 year old alignment equipment. Many, many alignment mechanics don't have a clue what they are doing (although they think they do).

 

[The motor guy]

I took it out for a spin a few minutes ago and just estimating I can make it about 6-7 seconds going 50mph before I have to steer it back to the middle of the lane otherwise I'm going to come close to hitting the curb. So that's about 300-400ft? It's not a bad pull, but it's there. One guy on here said to just put new tires on and see what happens, what would that change?

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
I took it out for a spin a few minutes ago and just estimating I can make it about 6-7 seconds going 50mph before I have to steer it back to the middle of the lane otherwise I'm going to come close to hitting the curb. So that's about 300-400ft? It's not a bad pull, but it's there. One guy on here said to just put new tires on and see what happens, what would that change?
Junky tires often have a pull in them. And if you need new tires anyways, it might fix the problem.

My family owned a front-end, alignment, and frame (collision repair) business from 1959-2005. My grandpa always says you wouldn't believe how many tires made cars pull, that they were usually the problem, and often times swapping them from left to right fixed the issue.