Do you experience steady pull on the wheel while driving ? Do you have problems with tire balancing ? Are you upset because whenever you drive the car tends to pull you to the right or left side ?
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Photo by Jami3.orgdy pull is a condition when the car continually pulls or drifts to one side while driving straight. When this wheel balancing problem occurs the car driver usually needs to maintain steady pressure on the steering wheel in order to make sure the vehicle running on the right track.
There are several possible causes including:
Unbalanced camber side to side. Vehicle can pull or lead to one side can be caused by too much cross camber. The car will go to the most (positive) camber or pulling away from the side that has the least (negative) camber.
The main problem can be a bent strut or dislocated strut tower, collapsed control arm bushing, a bent spindle, broken or weak spring, or a displaced crossmember or engine placement. You may replace the damaged parts, or adjust the location, or do necessary actions according to your diagnose.
Uneven caster side to side. A car may pull or lead to one side because of too much cross-caster. The car will pull to the side that has the least (negative) caster. The main cause could be a bent strut, spindle or mispositioned strut tower. You may fix the problem by removing the broken parts, fix the position of strut tower, and reducing cross-caster to half degree or less by resetting caster according to the default specifications.
Brake drag. If you experience the pull is constant to one side and it tends to get worse whenever you hit the brake. You should raise the car and spin each wheel with your hand to check if excessive drag exists. The possible causes are frozen or sticky piston in caliper, caliper sticking, overfilled fluid reservoir in master cylinder, weak drum brake return springs, drum brakes misadjusting, parking brake misadjusting, parking brake pedal switch misadjusting. All you need to do is repair or readjust the brakes according to the problems found.
If the pull only appears when you hit the brake, the problem should be unequal braking mechanism and not the dragging caliper or misalignment. The car will tend to the side where the stronger front brake exists. Unequal braking may be caused by a floating caliper that sticks, a frozen caliper piston, the use of different brands or quality of brake linings side to side, fluid leakages, or contaminated linings on one side. You may fix the problem by repairing the brakes.
There may be other causes that you should put into consideration like loose or worn control arm bushings or strut rod bushings that make alignment changes when brake is hit, make sure to check these parts before come into a conclusion that brakes are the main cause.
Low tire pressure. The car will go to the side with lower pressure front tire. Of course if this is the cause you can fix it by inflating tires to recommended pressure.
Mismatched tires side-to-side. The car will lead to the side which the front tire has the highest resistant force. To diagnose, you should compare tire sizes, brands, tread wear, styles and patterns.
Rear axle steer. The front wheels are aligned according to specifications, but still the car pulls to one side. The main cause usually because of the rear toe is out of specifications, misaligned chassis, or a stackup of assembly tolerances in the chassis that causes misalignment of rear axle. To do this, try measuring and comparing the wheelbase on both sides and check for the presences of thrust angle and measure each rear toe. Fix the problem by realigning the rear toe or rear axle, or perform a thrust angle alignment if this is the problem.
Ply steer. It is a manufacturing flaw in the way the belts are placed inside the tire. It will cause the tire to produce a lateral (sideways) force during it rotates. For testing, you may drive the car forward, then in reverse. If the direction of the pull changes, at least one tire is having problem. Switch the tires front to rear or crosswise can help cancel out the ply steer problem, if necessary we recommend tire replacement to solve this problem.
Uneven tire wear. When one side of the tires is worn more than the other, the tire develops conicity. The result is almost the same with camber, it will cause the tire to roll towards the side which is worn most. This can be caused by improper camber, toe and failure to rotate the tires periodically. If when rotating the tires side to side reverses the pull’s direction, then you should replace the tires.
Unbalanced power assist. Seal leakage in the control valve or off center steering may change the route of hydraulic pressure into one side of the boost cylinder piston. This can cause the steering tends to turn to one side. To diagnose, you may raise the wheels and let the engine runs to check if the wheels turn to one side by themselves. If no turning happens, it would lead to another cause, but if the pull suddenly vanishes, then there is problem of imbalance in the power steering system. To cope with this problem you should replace the valve assembly or steering gear.
Excessive road crown. Roads are usually crowned or raised in the middle to make sure when it rains the water will flow to the proper drainage. The slight slope to pavement often leads car to drift to the outside. To cope this you can add little positive camber and / or negative caster to the left front wheel. But we don’t recommend this procedure unless your car spends most of the time on such roads.
If you do own winter tire chains, it is best to keep them in your car’s trunk , or in the case of a pick up truck “toolbox” or in your truck’s or SUV’s passenger or storage compartment areas, throughout the entire winter time period. Stow a four by four plastic tarp near the chains, and perhaps an old blanket as well to kneel on, in case you are forced to install or remove your own.
