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Car pulls right on acceleration, left decelerating.

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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 10:39 AM
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Default Car pulls right on acceleration, left decelerating.

Picked up a 99 MT coupe at auction for a track car, very high miles at just under 200k. After some needed maintenance and repair finally got to drive it. Under hard acceleration it pulls right, back to the left when decelerating. When just cruising it tracks straight. The pull is really noticeable and consistent. Ran it on a couple different roads yesterday and same symptom.

Replaced both front wheel hubs, one was bad. Active suspension was shot so went to Bilsteins, replaced the front oil seal, upgraded to Z06 springs and sways. Other than the springs and shocks didn't do any work on the rear end.

Started wondering if there are some worn bushings somewhere in the rear suspension that are allowing it to move around under load. Didn't think there could be that much movement in the front suspension to be so noticeable.

Didn't come up with anything right off with a search.
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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 10:43 AM
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Start with the obvious I suppose, is there any obvious signs of weird tire wear?
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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 12:04 PM
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Alignment?
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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 12:21 PM
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Could be worn ball joints as well (i.e. tie rod end). If you take it to a decent alignment shop they may be able to advise you on worn components as well.
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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 12:45 PM
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Tie rods and ball joints are most likely shot, especially in the back.
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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 01:45 PM
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Took it in to a frame shop before I started work. Bumper cover has been replaced and couple other things made me question whether it had been munched. Everything checked out so apparently just plastic damage.

Front end was fine except for the wheel hub and outer tie rod end. Can't say that they checked the rear though. No problems noted on the inspection but no note that it checked out okay either.

As far as tire wear, right front was wearing on the outside, left was okay from what I remember. Rears were bald all the way across so someone was having fun prior to sending it to the auction. Already swapped out all 4.

Alignment was next on the list so will see how that goes. Had shoulder surgery last month so still not able to do any real work for another 4 to 6 weeks. Fortunately they cleared me to drive a manual trans car again.
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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 01:53 PM
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I agree that alignment would be the first thing I would look at here.
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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 02:33 PM
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How dose an auction work?.. Anyone off the street able to be involved?.. Where are they?.. Many Corvettes at these events?
Sorry if robbing the subject. 😒
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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 03:04 PM
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Sure sounds like your rear is walking around. Why else would the car pull and push under accel/decel?
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Old Jun 20, 2022 | 03:04 PM
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I would start withe the read tie rods. If those joints are worn a rear wheel could toe in or out on acceleration/deceleration.

Last edited by jackthelad; Jun 21, 2022 at 11:03 AM.
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Old Jun 21, 2022 | 05:46 AM
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Moved to C5 Tech.
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Old Jun 21, 2022 | 08:33 AM
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Differential is messed up? Power only to the left wheel? Try a burn out, two or one mark.
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Old Jun 21, 2022 | 10:09 PM
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Rear toe links are bad.
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Old Jun 23, 2022 | 10:31 PM
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Did you do the Z06 both front and rear?

Since the car was thrashed around, you’re probably going to find a lot of the various rubber links and mounts are rotten/cracked…
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Old Jun 24, 2022 | 12:15 AM
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History repeats itself.

Will the OP ever post again?
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Old Jun 24, 2022 | 01:20 AM
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Not even worth diagnosing until you get new tires mounted and balanced, and an alignment. Aged out, worn out tires, and unknown alignment, makes those the first steps. Unless you visibly spot something loose, of course.
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Old Jun 24, 2022 | 06:18 AM
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I had my rear cradle out and apart,Put it back together and forgot to tighten the lower a-arms and my car did the same thing,So something to check and like others said,Worn out bushings.
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Old Jul 17, 2022 | 02:05 PM
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Well looks like the problem has been solved. Haven't quite figured out how this caused it to pull under acceleration and not all the time but low right rear tire.

We're getting ready to move so have been buried in boxes and other crap so haven't had time to post.

It's been parked since my first post. Started it up yesterday, no tire pressure warning. Putting the top in the back and noticed the right rear was completely flat. Aired it up and checked all 4, took it for a drive and doesn't pull anymore.

Obviously the TPMS isn't working, must have been low last drive then went flat sometime in the past few weeks. Guess I've started relying on the electronic wizardry to take care of the basic checks I used to do.
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Old Jul 18, 2022 | 10:56 AM
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Thanks for the update IDTag.

There is nothing worse than searching for information on a forum to learn about something you are trying to troubleshoot and running into dead end threads.
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