pulling to the right. not alignment...

But this is why you don't say 'give me an alignment'. You say 'it pulls to the right' (or left) . Let the mechanic inspect it.

You wouldn't go limping into to the doctor and say 'amputate my leg', now would you? 'Course not! You would say 'my leg hurts!' ;)

Same advice for 'give me a tune up' or 'charge the a/c'...
 
well like i mentioned, it wasnt just pulling, it wore down one spot of a tire pretty quickly
 
But this is why you don't say 'give me an alignment'. You say 'it pulls to the right' (or left) . Let the mechanic inspect it.

You wouldn't go limping into to the doctor and say 'amputate my leg', now would you? 'Course not! You would say 'my leg hurts!' ;)

Same advice for 'give me a tune up' or 'charge the a/c'...

(rofl)
 
I'm surprised no one has thrown out the idea of a hanging break caliper, or maybe I didn't see it. If one of your front break calipers is hanging it will cause the car to pull, usually more so on braking but still. Some times it will be more noticeable than others as well. This happened to me on a previous vehicle.

Next time you have the car in the air spin the front wheels. If there is more resistance on one side than the other this could be causing the pulling problem.

Just a thought. Maybe it will help.
 
Or just feel the brake calipers after a run - they should all be ~ the same temp - no one way hotter than the others... ;)
 
does anyone think that the difference between the old and new specs was worth the alignment? if it really wasnt, i may go back and complain saying they did something unnecessary. i didnt know they would check it first then do it. if it was good in the first place they should have just told me and not proceeded with the job. town fair tire is a reliable place, used them a bunch for tires.
 
steering shake eh? Mine did that at highway speeds and was a bad wheel bearing on the left side. If a bearing is bad it could cause a pull as well.

swap left to right, who cares if they're directional for 10 minutes of testing. If it pulls the other way then its the wheels. At least do the front to rear swap if anything before making any assumptions.
 
+1. Switch your front tires to see if the pull follows the tire.
what happens if it follows the tire? bad tire? if it still pulls to the right? bad alignment?

i should elaborate:
here are my symptoms: when the steering wheel is straight the car goes toward the right, straight line to the curb if i let it. i have to keep the wheel pointed to the left to stay straight. after 1/8-1/4mile (a guess) of driving with the streering wheel pointed to the left the front end will get loose and feels like i'm hydroplaning on dry surface. the steering wheel wobbles a bit and i have to correct it. this happens on the highway and around town.

here's whats been done: lower control arm torn bushings replaced with pedders polyurethane bushings. dented wheel replaced, remounted old tire. 4 wheel alignment.

the cause: deep pothole. dented the wheel pretty badly. drove around for a week with bad toe while the replacement wheel and bushings were being shipped.

i am bringing it back to the shop again but wanted to get an idea from you all.

update:
the shop swapped front wheels from left to right. the mechanic who test drove it said that the car pulls to the left now. which indicates bad tire since it was pulling to the right. i took it on the highway and found i did not experience pull, but now had severe torque steer. whenever i accelerated the steering wheel will turn to the left. when i let go of the pedal the steering wheel will correct itself. if i keep the steering wheel straight and i accelerate, the car will definitely pull to the right again.

update (4/1):
last week replaced all 4 tires. torque steer still exists, any thoughts?

this would would explain the pull:
http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/show...rol-arms-too&p=5663170&viewfull=1#post5663170
 
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My 2002 has been pulling to the right since I bought it, 88K miles and several sets of tires. It's been aligned three times, including once by the dealer when brand new to address the pull. I recently replaced all four struts. None of this has had the slightest effect on the pull, it's still there. It's not torque steer, because it doesn't change with throttle.
 
You also have to keep in mind road crown. Any car, regardless of alignment geometry is going to follow the road crown. Down here in the south where we get a lot of rain, the roads are crowned pretty heavily to allow the water to drain off quicker. My car drifts to the right in the right lane, to the left if i'm in the far left lane.

Also note the difference between a drift and a pull. A pull is a pretty forceful "pull" to that direction. A pull will drag you across the lane, and the longer you let the pull go the faster it is going to pull. for example, if you're in the far left lane and it starts to pull, it will gradually pull harder and sharper. A pull can almost always be attributed to either a bad tire, camber, or caster being out of spec.

A drift is often confused with a pull, but it's much more subtle. with a drift it may favor one direction (left or right) but it's not going to be nearly as forceful. It will not force the steering wheel to go, and the "pull" to that direction is consistent. Drift can be more often caused by a bad tire, road crown, ruts from semi trucks on heavily traveled roads, or alignment.

very seldom does the toe-in ever cause a pull. Toe-in will chew up tires, can contribute to a drift but mostly toe is just supposed to be used to center the steering wheel. you can set the toe with the steering wheel at the 2 o'clock position and the car will drive perfectly straight, as long as the steering wheel is at 2 o'clock. but if you put the steering wheel straight as 12 o'clock obviously it's going to "pull" left because the tires are no longer straight so a lot of people confuse it thinking the toe causes a pull.
 
also to note, wider and low profile tires tend to exaggerate drift/pull conditions more so than skinnier taller tires because they have more surface contact area with the road, and don't give/flex nearly as much. So a drift with a low profile 215 or 225 tire may feel like a pull, but if you did nothing other than change to a normal(er) profile 185/195 tire it may go away completely. In that case, generally no amount of alignment is going to correct what you're experiencing unless you work at a shop, do the alignments yourself, ignore the factory recommended specs and align your vehicle for those tires. most shops, however, won't do this for a customer because it can be a tedious process taking multiple visits back to the alignment rack, multiple adjustments and tweaks to get it just right. And there's a certain amount of liability that is then assumed by the shop because they did not align the car to factory spec.
 
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