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Had 2 new tyres fitted on the front & car started pulling left. I've had the 4 wheel tracking checked twice and it's apparently fine but still pulling left plus the outside of the rear left tyre is wearing & probably needs replacing. Any other issues that would cause a pull left?
Sticking brake caliper. Twisted chassis
well if the 4 wheel alingnment is OK now was it out before the check which caused the tyre wear?
If the tyre is bady worn on one edge, that in itself could cause the car to drift now the suspension is set correctly. Swap the two rear wheels over and see if it stops the pulling.
mismatched tyres or a bad tyre can also cause this
It's the outside of the left rear.
The rears weren't replaced at the same time so a mismatch could be the case. It was running good pre front tyre change but to be honest I didn't keep an eye in the rears
I usually take my car to a specialist alignment company rather than a tyre fitting garage.
if you are near Bristol, give Lee at FCM Wheel alignment a call. He is very knowledgeable and can adjust for known problems with certain cars.
Swap the front tyres and see if it starts pulling the other way. Maybe one is duff.
Are the tyre pressures equal?
Not a skoda Fabia Monte or VRS, is it? Were they Dunlop tyres?
If so, there does seems to be some weird incompatibility between the two. Many, many people found this.
Rachel
i have some experience of this having spent several years at a major oem plant studying customer complaints of pulls left. in lhd countries generally they pulled right.
toe does not make any difference. the main reason for pulling one way or the other is the tyres. did you fit premium tyres or cheap tat?
check the pressures are balanced.
try swapping left to right front tyres. (this will not necessarily fix it as tyres behave in strange ways and can pull in one direction if rotated clockwise and pull the otherway if rotated anti clock)
try fitting the rears on the front,
geometry wise the cambers must be balanced, and also the castors, but camber balance is very important. the car will pull towards the side with least negative camber. do you have a read out. the rear geo is less important, especially if the car was ok before new tyres.
what car is it?
Did you get both alignments done at the same place?
I had problems with my car, got it aligned several times on one garage's Hunter laser alignment machine based on Hunter's reputation. Kept coming back with with print out showing everything bang on, but problems still evident. They kept saying it wash bushings worn etc, but I didn't believe them as it was a new car.
Eventually went to another garage, they stuck it on their Hunter and it was massively out. After they adjusted everything, it now drives perfectly.
My assumption is that the first garage had not calibrated their machine correctly, or they were not operating it correctly.
Problems were tramlining, a feeling of instability at speed and off centred steering, I think it wanted to go left if you held the wheel straight. Also strange wear to the tyres, I forget exactly what kind.
Both alignments done at same place (tyre fitters) - I might go to a specialist place. It's 2003 Audi A4 Estate. Premium tyres fitted and pressures checked regularly.
would different shock absorb. performance affect this, I wonder?
AS others have said if it was alright before the tyre change then its probably the tyre. I have had this on a premium Conti, changed it and all went back to normal, it was like it had an extra layer of rubber on one side under the tread.
It's a 2003 Audi A4 estate
Ah, why didn't you say to begin with! Move your Orange 5 to the right hand side of the roof rack. Job done. 😉
all your balljoints , suspension , wheel bearings all in fine fettle ?
Burchy1 - it's an orange Heckler!!
Cars going for a service so I'll get the garage to check everything. Cheers for the help!