To shortly describe the problem, my 04 TL is pulling to the right consistently. I just purchased 4 new Conti DWS on the stock wheels, had an alignment done last weekend, and the brakes (non-brembo) were changed a couple months back. But the car still pulls to the right, not hard but i can only take my hand off the wheel for a couple seconds without having to correct it. I believe that it may have something to do with the brakes, because under steady braking, the car pulls to the right.

Here are the specs from the alignment. It lookscorrect from what i can tell, besides the rear camber. I need a kit i know...





So what do you think? I installed the brakes myself (Brakemotive rotors and pads), and i followed the DIY's here, and they have worked very well since installing, besides the pull. However, I did not bleed the lines. What do you all think it may be?

 

check the tire pressure....is the tire balancing done right ?

Alignment is not the only thing which makes a car go a certain direction

 

Just checked and they're at 35-36 PSI all around. Tires should be balanced correctly. Had them installed at discount tire two weeks ago, and never had a problem with that store.

Thanks for the reply, but are there any other thoughts?

 

there is something to do with the axle and stuff but i dont know that since I dont have any expertise around that area....

how about the steering ? did the shop check for that ?

 

When i had it in for the alignment a couple weeks ago (a different place then discount tire obviously) they didnt say anything was wrong, however i did not ask them to check, and they didnt say they did check. I would think that they would inspect the suspension while doing the alignment, right?

However, my father had went to that same shop the previous week for an alignment, and they told him his suspension was going out. Its a 2006 Tundra, he constantly has weight in the back and its at 140K miles. It was time. But he only went in for an alignment and then they showed him, in person, that his suspension was going bad. They then replaced all four corners, and its perfect now. Drives straight. Since he dropped a good bit of money there, they said they would give a free alignment to a family member. I jumped on that. So here I stand. And i dont have expertise in the axle area either of course...

 

Your axles shouldn't have any bearing on your alignment or your car pulling. Pulling to one side is usually caused by one or more of the following: alignment, tires, brake dragging, bad wheel bearing, or worn suspension parts. Try switching your tires. Since yours are new, you can safely switch left to right, as long as yours aren't unidirectional. (They'd have an arrow on the sidewall.) If they are, switch front to rear. See if that corrects the problem. if not, check the suspension parts. If they're OK, check your brake caliper for drag. And finally, redo the alignment. Hope this helps. Hy

 

your rear right tire is outside of the range. maybe that might be it?

my car pulls to the right too, and i don't know why. i went to get my alignment done and he said my front right tire is still at about -1 degree or -1.5degree camber but the rest are fine. i just need to raise it just a tad but so he can camber it to 0. i still haven't raised my coils yet so i'm driving around with -1.5 camber for the passenger side front tire and my car pulls slightly to the right.

 

I will try switching the tires around. They are brand new conti DWS, and they were installed by a shop that I havent ever had problems with, but its worth a shot.

I think it may be the brake dragging. Could i just open up the caliper and reinstall everything? Would that help?

And i believe my suspension is fine, it is stock, but i havent ever had a shop tell me that its not ok.
Thanks for the reply!

It always seems that everyone on here who has a steering pull has it pull to the right. Its rare to have someone complain of a left pull. Or at least i havent read one yet.

But like i said above, i am on stock 5AT springs, 116K miles. But yes, i saw the right rear being out too. I want to take it back, and should, but i dont want to be overly picky since they did do it for free.

 

So today i took apart the right front brake and to my knowledge, everything looked fine. There was a little bit of gunk of the back of the pads as a result of the brake lube you put on them, so i cleaned that. I also took a look at the suspension, and nothing seemed to be wrong.
I am no mechanic, but i feel like i know what to look for, and i didnt see anything.
Put it all back together and its the same result. Still pulls... uhh.

 

Did your car pull to the right before you replaced the tires? You may have to do some shifting of all 4 wheels to narrow the problem down or identify it.

 

It did do it before the new tires. So I guess that is out of the question.

 

road crown?

i had a subtle pull when i installed the DWS tires. ended up road force balancing all 4 corners to offset any lateral pulling the tires might be creating. so far so good. not sure what will happen when the tires get rotated though. i asked the shop foreman, and he said it was a good question. he told me i may just have to leave them and replace tires two at a time. eh, we'll see what happens after the first tire rotation.