Car Pulling To One Side. Alignment Is Straight

[theDoktor]

I don't know how, nor have the tools, so no. But everyone I've spoke to said the rear sway bar should have no effect on it. I also know the brakes are not dragging because I can get the usual 36MPG to 37MPG on highway cruising like I normally do.

I concur- the RSB has nothing to do with alignment unless there is major damage to the rear suspension. That does not appear to be the case.
Also, if brakes were dragging, you'd know it after a few miles- you'd feel the heat from the overheated brake just from having your hand near it, let alone the reduction in gas mileage. Your highway mileage is about identical to what I get, and I know I have no brake or alignment issues.

 

[xXDavidCXx]

Must have the front suspension inspected.

 

[GTIfan99]

I agree in principle that the RSB shouldn't cause an issue, but if it was binding with the suspension unloaded, it could be causing an issue.

Do you have any friends with tools and some mechanical skill? It would take minutes to rule it out.

 

[seanmcd1]

Let's see what those tires look like. How many miles on either set you've had on the car?

 

[KevinC]

They want $700 to do an alignment again and so I politely told them no thanks.

Jesus Murphy, did $700 include a weekend in Vegas, and maybe a reach-around? That's insane.

Has a potential tire problem been definitively eliminated?

 

[bfury5]

You mentioned that it pulls to one side when the wheel is on-center. If you release the wheel and let the car track, will the car go in a straight line? If that's the case, and your car goes straight but the wheel just isn't straight, your alignment is probably fine it just isn't "centered". I have had 5 alignments in two months when I was making setup changes to my car, and my steering wheel was always slightly off center each time. When my alignment guy did the wheel sweep to measure caster, it was near impossible to get the steering rack centered before measuring toe. If your steering rack isn't centered after that sweep, you'll be setting your toe to some off-center value. The EPS seems to have a lot of play in it at low-speed, which results in lots of steering wheel movement relative to wheel movement when trying to find the center.

What finally did it for me, was I used my ODB11 to monitor the steering angle sensor as the tech centered it after doing the caster sweep. By doing that we were able to make sure the rack was centered before doing toe adjustments. It's a pain, but after a few times we sort of have the drill down.

 

[GTIfan99]

You mentioned that it pulls to one side when the wheel is on-center. If you release the wheel and let the car track, will the car go in a straight line? If that's the case, and your car goes straight but the wheel just isn't straight, your alignment is probably fine it just isn't "centered". I have had 5 alignments in two months when I was making setup changes to my car, and my steering wheel was always slightly off center each time. When my alignment guy did the wheel sweep to measure caster, it was near impossible to get the steering rack centered before measuring toe. If your steering rack isn't centered after that sweep, you'll be setting your toe to some off-center value. The EPS seems to have a lot of play in it at low-speed, which results in lots of steering wheel movement relative to wheel movement when trying to find the center.

What finally did it for me, was I used my ODB11 to monitor the steering angle sensor as the tech centered it after doing the caster sweep. By doing that we were able to make sure the rack was centered before doing toe adjustments. It's a pain, but after a few times we sort of have the drill down.

Good idea, I never thought of using OBD11 and using the steering angle sensor.

 

[geokilla]

Let's see what those tires look like. How many miles on either set you've had on the car?

It's not the tires. I have 3 sets of tires, one winters, one summer, and one track. Alignment was done with the summer tires and car was tracking straight before I did the alignment and parts installation. When I switched over to the track tires on the way to the track, it was still pulling to the right with the wheel on centre. The track tires were virtually new too, with maybe 1,000km of daily driven use before it saw its first track day.

You mentioned that it pulls to one side when the wheel is on-center. If you release the wheel and let the car track, will the car go in a straight line? If that's the case, and your car goes straight but the wheel just isn't straight, your alignment is probably fine it just isn't "centered". I have had 5 alignments in two months when I was making setup changes to my car, and my steering wheel was always slightly off center each time. When my alignment guy did the wheel sweep to measure caster, it was near impossible to get the steering rack centered before measuring toe. If your steering rack isn't centered after that sweep, you'll be setting your toe to some off-center value. The EPS seems to have a lot of play in it at low-speed, which results in lots of steering wheel movement relative to wheel movement when trying to find the center.

What finally did it for me, was I used my ODB11 to monitor the steering angle sensor as the tech centered it after doing the caster sweep. By doing that we were able to make sure the rack was centered before doing toe adjustments. It's a pain, but after a few times we sort of have the drill down.

When my friends and I were playing with OBD11 last week, according to the steering angle sensor live data, when the sensor reads 0 degrees, the steering wheel is pointed towards the left. When driving the car is moving with the steering angle sensor reading 0 degrees in OBD11, the car drives straight.

 

[DarkArrow]

Jesus Murphy, did $700 include a weekend in Vegas, and maybe a reach-around? That's insane.

Has a potential tire problem been definitively eliminated?

The quote probably includes all the DAP sensors along with radar and lane camera calibration. Some dealers say this is "necessary" with an alignment.

 

[GTIfan99]

It's not the tires. I have 3 sets of tires, one winters, one summer, and one track. Alignment was done with the summer tires and car was tracking straight before I did the alignment and parts installation. When I switched over to the track tires on the way to the track, it was still pulling to the right with the wheel on centre. The track tires were virtually new too, with maybe 1,000km of daily driven use before it saw its first track day.



When my friends and I were playing with OBD11 last week, according to the steering angle sensor live data, when the sensor reads 0 degrees, the steering wheel is pointed towards the left. When driving the car is moving with the steering angle sensor reading 0 degrees in OBD11, the car drives straight.

That's remove your hands from the wheel with the sensor reading 0. If it goes straight, your steering wheel is just on crooked.

 

[geokilla]

That's remove your hands from the wheel with the sensor reading 0. If it goes straight, your steering wheel is just on crooked.

How would I fix that? I tried follow this post but no luck as I couldn't get step 6 working. It didn't like my security code or something.

 

[GTIfan99]

How would I fix that? I tried follow this post but no luck as I couldn't get step 6 working. It didn't like my security code or something.

Have the dealer do it. Should be under warranty, right?

 

[bfury5]

How would I fix that? I tried follow this post but no luck as I couldn't get step 6 working. It didn't like my security code or something.

Your wheels can be straight and your steering wheel can be crooked, or visa versa, and it can still be an alignment problem. Removing and realigning the steering wheel sounds like the wrong solution to this problem.

 

[GTIfan99]

Your wheels can be straight and your steering wheel can be crooked, or visa versa, and it can still be an alignment problem. Removing and realigning the steering wheel sounds like the wrong solution to this problem.

Are you sure about that? The car drives straight with the angle sensor reading zero. From what I can tell it doesn't pull in that situation, but we haven't really gotten a straight answer from the OP about that. Seems like it's the only reasonable solution if it isn't pulling when sensor is reading zero. What other solution is there?

 

[Elwood]

3 pages...
Center the steering wheel (which should've been done when it was aligned), loosen the tie rod ends and make the wheels straight. Done. You don't care about the angle sensor. It's probably within tolerance (+/-), but it doesn't make any difference.

Steering angle doesn’t matter because the steering rack is attached the the subframe. The subframe can be moved left or right to balance the camber between the front wheels. If it is sitting to one side or the other - and the camber is the same on both sides - the steering angle will not be zero.