This car is driving me crazy!! I had an alignment done a few days ago and everything is within spec but the car is pulling to the right, pretty bad. The tires are new with maybe 2k miles on them, with even wear. Swapped sides on the front tires, no change. Everything is tight, none of the steering component are worn. Also when the guy did the alignment I made sure the wheel was centered however now it is still cocked to the left a few degrees when driving straight. Wtf is going on here?!?
some info on the car.
When I bought it the front tires were new but they were cheap tires, rears were the factory tires but very worn. At this point the car drove perfectly straight. I had a shop replace my balancer and when I got it back the steering wheel was off centered pretty bad (not unusual) shortly after that I had the four new tires put on and a 4 wheel alignment done. The car slightly pulled to the right at that time but not as bad as it does now. I had another alignment done the other day and now it’s pulling to the right even worse. Everything was within spec, i saw it for myself. The only thing different now other than the tires is that I did put on Z51 swap bars and Moog end links not long ago. This is a base car with the FE1 suspension. Could this be the tires? If so why? Could it be related to the steering rack being removed when the balancer was changed? If not what else could be going on here?? Like it said it drive straight as an arrow before I had the balancer changed and tires changed….

 

You do know that the rack was disconnected from the steering box for the balancer replacement. Both front tie rod ends were also disconnected. Possibly the tie rod ends were turned excessively during removal and installation. Did the shop tie your steering wheel so it did not move during this Process?

 

Yea I know the rack was completely removed… and I have no idea if they did or not but they do balancer replacements all the time so I would assume they know what they’re doing. Even if something was turned excessively wouldn’t an alignment catch/fix this?!

 

 

Can you post the alignment readings?
Settings can be in 'spec', but still skewed enough to cause a pull.

 

Been awhile since I did my balancer, and I don't recall if the pinion shaft is splined, or has 'flats' to align it with the steering column.
If it is splined, and off more than a little (crooked wheel after they were done...), the steering might feel odd after being aligned, but I don't think it would necessarily cause a pull.
Steering gears are often cut with tighter clearances on-center to help stability. If the rack is far enough off center it might feel loose one way, and tight the other.
The alignment would straighten the steering wheel, but only hide the rack issue.
Checking the steering lock-to-lock can determine if the rack is centered. Probably other ways too...

 

The shaft is not splined. It is a D shape with one bolt.

 

OK, pretty much rules that out!
All the German stuff is splined, and easy to get off a tooth or 2
M-B had a spec for how much you could move the steering wheel. They were splined also.
Early Rabbits only had one adjustable tie rod... had to reposition the wheel on the shaft to straighten it!

 

The last time my C6 was aligned, I supplied the specs for the alignment from the PHAT numbers. He missed the numbers but got it "within specs". It was enough that the steering wheel was off a little. Took it back and got him to use the Tech 2 to get the steering wheel angle exactly on 0. Then the alignment was completed. Originally he had just looked at the steering wheel and tried to get it close. The suspension bushings, front and rear, are soft and sometimes the crown of the road can cause the wheel to not be straight.

 

show me the print out or specs of what they did. if you're anywhere where the road is crowned you need 0.5 degree (sometimes as much as .75 degree) cross caster or a combo of cross caster and cross camber. you want more negative caster on Driver's side, and/or positive camber. You have to be careful of Pfadt specs too because if you don't read their paragraph and just go off the chart.....their toe is backwards from norm. Toe out is negative, they want negative toe....which is toe in....which is normal.....but that should be called positive toe. I just did one for a customer last week. Also, any alignment that is more than just minor "toe and go" should be aligned, then rolled back and start from scratch with rollout compensation, caster swing.....the whole nine.

 

Still waiting to see the printout....

 

I’ve seen cars that would lead to the right when on right side of road and would lead left when in left side of road, align was in specs but as already stated the caster setting and possible toe in are in a neutral setting which will crown of road to cause a lead to low side of road, good luck