Pulling to the left

delly

Okay, before Crimbo I was asking advice on car choice and went against most of the advice and decided on a Vectra. Anyhow I'm actually very happy with the car and have quiet a few KM's on it already.

I have a question though which I'm unsure of and thought I'd ask for a general consensuses. I have noticed since I started driving it that it has a pretty strong at times pull to the left. As it was leased from a Ford garage I took it back there and asked them to check it out but they said it all checked ok. He also said that the camber of the road can have a bearing on it so although I've driven on some nice straight parts of the M1 I still experience this pull as I'm driving and I could be paranoid but I think its worse when I've somebody in the passenger seat. I've checked out a few reasons why this could be happening but most are related to cars that are older so the fact its a new car is strange.

Oh and on a sidenote, when I left it in last time, I asked him to check the lights as when on full beam they seemed angled to the left without throwing much light on the right side, again he said this was normal to stop other drivers on motorways being blinded. Is this all BS or what?

Oh and nobody say 'You should have got the Mondeo'

C_Breeze

You probably need to get your tracking done and light alignement. - thats nothing serious at all. All very common , its not a "fault" as such.

Chunkychops

Hi Delly
Heard of this happening before on a new car. It was actually an avensis
Turns out- the car was damaged before it was registered. They suspect it was damaged coming off the truck and was repaired and sold as brand new, alignment was always out afterwards and the tyres etc always wore down on teh front left way too early. If this happens with yours then I think you might have a similar problem.

Fey!

C Breeze is probably right - it sounds like a tracking issue, or your tyre pressures being higher on one side than the other. This can happen on any car - you may have clipped a pothole or a kerb - and isn't a major problem. Should cost between €40 and €50 to get sorted. Tracking being out will effect how your tyres wear, and will have you changing tyres sooner than you should need to.

RobAMerc

There is a lot of reasons this may be happening. (road camber could actually be one but not hughely noticeable)
Get the tracking checked, check pressures, maybe check the tyres for bulges on the inside, check tyres (and wheels) are the same sizes on both sides, check for a sticking caliper. Alignment should not cost more than 20-25 as far as I remember, got it done about 1 year ago. If it's none of these go to your friendly local panel beater and have it checked on a gig. hope this helps

Wishbone Ash

Re: road camber - find a quiet piece of straight road and drive on the 'wrong' side for a bit (if safe to do so) to see if it's still pulling to the left.

Computer laser allignment costs about €50.

delly

Thanks folks. When I had it back in dealers they checked the alignment as well as tyre pressure. He even said they swopped the front wheels around in case it was having a bearing on it. I got the car with about 15km on the clock and noticed the pull within the next 5km so whatever it is it happened before I got it. I'll try to find a quiet spot where I can drive on the middle or other side of the road and that should tell me if I've gone mad or not.

franksm

could be that if it's tracking/aligned properly now, it may not have been in the past - in which case the tyres will have worn in the "wrong" way and are now tramlining.

Also check if the wheels or brake disc get very hot after driving - do a test drive and then coast to a stop without using the brakes (so as not to heat up the wheels unduly). If they are hot, then it's possible there's binding of the brake pads or perhaps a sticking caliper. Not the end of the world.

If t'were me:

- check for binding brakes
- get a 4-wheel alignment
- make sure the steering wheel is straightened as part of that alignment job
- failing all of that, swap on some wheels from another similar car (if you can find a mate willing to do so)

old boy

happens a lot with the opels, my corsa does,had the front tyres changed and allinged jan 2006, tyres still on it and it still pulles to the left

Fey!

Did the dealers do the alignment? That'd be unusual, as, IME, most dealers don't carry the equipment to do the job; any I know bring the car to a reputable tyre centre/fitter who specialise in that kind of work.

dubtom

I've had, and still do have the same problem on my Rodeus from new. The dealer sent me to some guy in coolmine who, they said, is the only person in the country with the specs for aligment:eek: Anyway, they did the job and it solved it to some degree but it still pulls,especially noticeable on motorways, infact the steering sometimes feels that I have to apply force to keep to the right. I'll certainly try some of the suggestions given.I was told also that camber would have an effect, funnily enough in 25 years of driving I honestly had never noticed any of my cars pulling left because of camber, and some of them were heaps.

crosstownk

Fey! wrote:

Did the dealers do the alignment? That'd be unusual, as, IME, most dealers don't carry the equipment to do the job; any I know bring the car to a reputable tyre centre/fitter who specialise in that kind of work.

Yep, this is usually the case.

It sounds like tracking or other wheel alignment problem. Does the steering wheel 'pull' to the left or does the car just 'drift' to the left. If the steering wheel pulls its gotta be wheel alingment - if the car simply drifts then it's possible that it's road camber.

Fey!

I've had it, and it was as simple as tyre pressures not being equal.

Check your tyres too; if they're directional, one may be on backwards. It does happen (more than you'd like to believe!!!)

Esel

Test drive another new car of the same model - with another dealer if necessary.

IMO, steering should be fairly neutral. Fair enough if I take my hands off the wheel I would prefer that the car preferred to go the left (i.e. nearside) - eventually! But not so that you'd notice in regular driving.

delly

When it happens you can actually see the steering wheel slightly turn to the left and on a straight stretch of motorway you would be in the the next lane within 6 or 7 seconds. Thanks for giving me more ideas on what it could be and weather or not its normal. I would understand if it was a few years old, but being brand new I think i'll have to start making waves with the dealer. They have several cars from our company on lease so it shouldn't take him to much to see the light.

DrChoda

When you got the wheels tracked (or aligned as I am used to) did they give you a print out of the specs?
-Road camber changes all of the time, and that is what the suspesion is for. You shouldn't feel a strong pull at all unless the road is really bad. The adjustments you make on the steering for an uneven road should be slight.
-Tyre camber can be a problem, which is why I would suggest getting a printout of your alignment specs.
-I would suspect if the brakes were sticking you would hear some noise, at least this is what I have experienced.
-I think checking the tyres to make sure they in the proper direction is definitely something to be checked first.

-Check to make sure that the tyres on the car are listed in the manual. If they are not what the car should be sold with, or recommended to use than it could be a problem. Even the style of tyre could potentially be the cause but I doubt it.

-The only thing that makes me slightly suspicious about this is what you said about the full beams. The fact that this is a new car means that it should have passed the factory spec. This would include tracking and light alignment. I would recommend the same as esel did: take out the same model at another dealership and see how it drives. Try doing it when it is dark so you can also check out the full beam issue. This is about the only way to have a benchmark to compare yours to.

delly

Just a quick update. After going to the Ford garage I then got referred back to the Opel garage. From there I got booked into Advance Pitstop on the Naas road where they did a four wheel alignment and found that 3 of the 4 suspension points were out (iirc), numbers wise he said one was out by 1.1 and another was .8 or so. Alls well now, thanks everyone.

DrChoda

Great news, thanks for the update! Had a feeling something was up with the camber.
Besides the annoying pull gone, you've just saved your tyres from premature wear!

delly

Just a further update on this, since getting the car just before Christmas I have put on about 7,000 km's and felt it was drinking fuel, but since I got the wheels aligned and ensured the pressure was spot on, I'm getting about 10% more km's out of a tank of petrol. I knew that this type of problem could effect range, but I'm amazed how noticebly so.

Mr Magnolia

delly wrote:

Just a further update on this, since getting the car just before Christmas I have put on about 7,000 km's and felt it was drinking fuel, but since I got the wheels aligned and ensured the pressure was spot on, I'm getting about 10% more km's out of a tank of petrol. I knew that this type of problem could effect range, but I'm amazed how noticebly so.

Jaysus 10%, I knew it would affect it but 10% - good stuff.

smcgiff

At the risk of hijacking a thread, but I think the OP is sorted now.

I got 4 new tyres on my car last week. Masterfit came around to my work and put four new shoes on. Since then there's a slightly more noticeable amount of effort needed to keep the steering wheel from wanting to move left.

The car still goes bang straight when the steering wheel is straight, but (and it is only slight) the small amount of pressure required to keep steering wheel straight is annoying. I'm a lazy driver and only use my right hand to steer so only a small amount of pressure change is noticeable.

Any advice?

Mr Magnolia

smcgiff wrote:

At the risk of hijacking a thread, but I think the OP is sorted now.

I got 4 new tyres on my car last week. Masterfit came around to my work and put four new shoes on. Since then there's a slightly more noticeable amount of effort needed to keep the steering wheel from wanting to move left.

The car still goes bang straight when the steering wheel is straight, but (and it is only slight) the small amount of pressure required to keep steering wheel straight is annoying. I'm a lazy driver and only use my right hand to steer so only a small amount of pressure change is noticeable.

Any advice?

Check the air pressures on all four tyres first, look for the pressure recommendations for your particular tyres on your car.

Get the car tracked if the pressures are all correct, if it's still doing it I'd take it to the garage.

smcgiff

Sparks400 wrote:

Check the air pressures on all four tyres first, look for the pressure recommendations for your particular tyres on your car.

Get the car tracked if the pressures are all correct, if it's still doing it I'd take it to the garage.

But but but, shouldn't he have done that?

Quick one. What's it called when you align the steering wheel to the direction i.e. if it's straight the car should go straight. Is that alignment or tracking?

And then what's balancing? *Scratches head*

Mr Magnolia

smcgiff wrote:

But but but, shouldn't he have done that?

Yes, but you never know.

Quick one. What's it called when you align the steering wheel to the direction i.e. if it's straight the car should go straight. Is that alignment or tracking?

Tracking is ensuring all 4 wheels are parallel. Poor tracking causes the car to veer, generally to the left.

Alignment is your steering wheel is level and your car is going straight, not many places do this.

And then what's balancing?

Balancing is ensuring the wheel is proportioned correctly, if it's out then weights are clipped on to balance it. A poorly balanced wheel causes vibration at higher speeds.

*Scratches head*

/ recommends Head & Shoulders

smcgiff

Cheers Sparks!!! I'll check the pressure.

Esel

smcgiff wrote:

I'm a lazy driver and only use my right hand to steer so only a small amount of pressure change is noticeable.

Real big 'tut tut' there. Ten-to two is the only way!