fan168 Posted February 25, 2010 Report Share Posted February 25, 2010 Replaced a pair of tyres recently and found that the car was pulling to the left when I was holding the steering wheel dead straight. Experienced this behaviour before and it was down to tracking so headed off to my local Hunter wheel alignment place (found via http://www.alignmycar.co.uk/). The guy spent a good hour making the adjustments and then gave me the following printout. He reversed my car off the ramp and then proceeded to drive forward and then reverse several times. After which he said that it felt fine to him but to give it a week and then come back if I experienced any issues with the steering and he'd adjust it again. Whilst I was driving home I remembered that the last time this was done, the car was weighted down but this time it wasn’t. Not sure how much of a difference this makes. My question is should I ask him to re-do it this time weighted and also do the new values look correct? Got a 200 mile roundtrip tomorrow so will be able to check if it’s still pulling to the left. The car is an E46 318ci btw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 25, 2010 Report Share Posted February 25, 2010 Assuming the body height was correct then the final position looks fine, not all BMW's need the suggested weight added. The end data looks good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fan168 Posted February 26, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2010 Thanks for the response. Drove just over 100 miles this morning to Birmingham and the car feels much better but is still pulling slightly to the left, needed to hold the steering wheel slightly off centre to the right. I know motorways are slightly curved to allow for water flow, will try it in the car park over lunch. Think I'll take it back early next week and see if he can adjust anything more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 26, 2010 Report Share Posted February 26, 2010 Be sure they check the front wishbone compliance bushings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fan168 Posted February 26, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 26, 2010 Just got back from having him check it again, he made a slight adjustment (but its still pulling). Actually made me sit in the car and hold the steering wheel straight this time. Afterwards he checked the wishbone and said it looked fine but both front shocks could do with a change. He noticed they both still had the pin attached and said that shows that its the orignal pair. If the car still pulls to the left then you should have these replaced, quoted £280 (inclusive) for the job. Does this sound right? he said usually shock absorbers last between 40-60K miles. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 26, 2010 Report Share Posted February 26, 2010 No that's rubbish...... Next real move is to swap the front wheels side-to-side (wheel and tyre) then test drive, i think the problem is pneumatic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fan168 Posted February 27, 2010 Author Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 Thanks for the advice, I went back to the garage this morning and got them to swap the tyres front to back (tyres are directional). Drove off and found the car was pulling to the right this time. Went back and asked them to re-check the alignment but they refused as the boss said I needed my shocks replacing. However one of the guys said lets swap the tyres on the right hand side front to back. I drove along a stretch of the A4 several times and found that the car was pretty much straight, need to go onto the motorway to confirm. The only problem I have now is that the pairs no longer match but at least it’s better than it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 27, 2010 Report Share Posted February 27, 2010 This proves the real problem is pneumatic since nothing mechanical or geometrical was changed..... You have found your criminal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fan168 Posted March 1, 2010 Author Report Share Posted March 1, 2010 Can I just ask is this is a common problem and what causes it? Does it mean there is a problem with one of tyres / alloys? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M30TGV Posted March 18, 2010 Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 Can I just ask is this is a common problem and what causes it? Does it mean there is a problem with one of tyres / alloys? I'd say this is pretty common. I made another post on this board about an issue I was having. I switche the tyres round and ta da - problem gone. Adjusted the toe to centre the wheel, but the pull to the left has gone. So, I'd say there's probably quite a lot of alignment adjusting that goes on all over the country (world?!) that should begin with switching tyres and wheels over FIRST before starting to adjust camber, subframes, etc... My problem is, if anything it's gone the other way very slightly, but on a crowned/cambered road to the left, it balances out and the thing goes straight. Strange isn't it? Although logic tells me that when I get new boots on the car, it may cause problems again! Here's a question for the guys at WIM - do symmetrical tread patterns cause this still, or is it a problem specific to rotationally sensitive tyres? The guy at my local tyre place (Micheldever Tyres in Hampshire) says they've had this problem with cheap brand tyres that sometimes have a bit of conicity to their profile and cause a pull that's not geometry related. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted March 18, 2010 Report Share Posted March 18, 2010 Very common, hence this> http://www.wheels-inmotion.co.uk/forum/ind...p?showtopic=165 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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