Car pulling to the left after new tyres fitted

[babaa]

Hello,

I know that there have been some/many posts on this in the past, but after a search I haven't found out whether there is one specific fix for this or if my problem is slightly different from other LCR's pulling left slightly.

Since having the car from new I don't ever remember it consistently pulling left that much (either rolling or under power/braking), but now that I have replaced the tyres with some Eagle F1's the car always veers slightly to the left. I have tested this whilst driving on the wrong side of the road (not on a public road of course), and even though the road surface would look to pull the car to the right, at best the car rolls straight and then if I apply even slight power the steering wheel moves more to the left and I end up heading towards the kerb.

I am confident that the place I used to fit the new tyres did just that and haven't knocked anything out at all, and I now that the problem wasn't there when I had the old tyres on at all. I've dropped a couple of PSI out of every wheel to see if it was just that the new tyres were a little more sensitive to the road, but it still pulls over the same amount.

When I took it back to the tyre place they said that they doubted it would be tracking or alignment as it wasn't a problem before, but to give the tyres more time to bed in. I explained that they had already done 250 miles or so and that even when rolling the wheel drifts left a bit, but he said it could just be the tyres highlighting torque steer more than the last set. Is this right, or would torque steer result in pulling not just left, but also right depending upon the road conditions? Also I don't think torque steer would explain why it goes left under no power.

I hope that this isn't something I will just have to live with, but at the same time I don't want to spend visit after visit for tracking & alignment to be told that it is all within acceptable parameters and that 'some cars just do this'. I know that before the new tyres I never had this problem so it must be fixable.

Any ideas or people that have resolved this would be welcome.

 

[Pabs]

i had this problem after new tyres on my previous car (astra) and it turned out that one of the tyres was misshaped - we swapped it over with the RHS tyre and the car veered off into oncoming traffic! tyre was changed and problem disappeared.

Only things i would check are that all tyres are on the right way around (f1's have directional tread or whatever its called) and perhaps a quick test would be to swap the tyre at the front with the one at the rear - see if it still happens....

My LC pulls to the left and always has done, but then I have always had GSD3's on.

 

[babaa]

Thanks for the suggestion. The place that did the tyres said that if it still did the same after a few weeks that they would try swapping the front and rear tyre to see if it changed things (along with re-balancing them), but I may just do it myself and see if it makes any difference as they were fairly sure it was just down to the new tyres/tread highlighting torque steer more.

Hope it is something simple like this though.

 

[AKcupraR]

I had the same problem with my new tyre's (1st new set since owning the car) and I've just put it down to the camber in the road, I also took my car to various garages till I took it to the dealers, then one of the guys took me out and centred the car in the middle of the road and let go of the wheel and it was fine, straight as a dart! so even now it still pull to the left but as time goes on your tyres will mold to the camber in the road.. the LCR tyres are wide so it magnifies the camber..

 

[BlackCupraa]

What about the Tracking???????????

 

[babaa]

As the place that changed the tyres stated, all they did was put new tyres on the wheels and balance and re-fit them so unless there was a problem before (which there wasn't), they doubted it would be the tracking all of a sudden.

This was my initial thought, but after a bit of a search on here I see other people have tried the same to be told that 'the settings are correct already or within acceptable limits' and that 'oh, lots of Leon's do that as standard and you just have to put up with it'.

I was just hoping that someone may have found out what the actual cause of this is or if the general answer from everyone that has had this was tough, get used to it?

 

[swerver]

Have a look at this thread. Could be worth a look
http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=73414

 

[cupraR373]

same thing happend to me after fitting two front tyres(GSD3).

Guys at tyre place tryed to track it 3 times still the same. So i phoned stealer and they said ALL Leons will wander to the left. Its incase you fall asleep at the wheel the car does'nt wander into oncoming traffic. Believe that if you will.

i swapped front tyres with back tyres. So at least i aint recking 220 quids worth of rubber

 

[Reg]

Iyour tyres will mold to the camber in the road

Sorry mate, but your tyres do not 'mould' to the camber in the road - camber just refers to the 'slope' of the road from the crown (centre), and as LCR tyres are not that wide (only 225's after all), it should not be too much of an issue. Tramlining is another issue all together (i.e. the car wants to follow ruts and white lines etc, felt as a pulling left and right as the surface changes), which will certainly only get worse with wider tyres, particularly on FWD cars.

There was a issue with Ford's about 4 years back where I think it was the Mondeo kept wandering to the left, and no amount of fiddling would sort it. Ford made the same statement about it being so you didn't wander into the oncoming traffic, but that Watchdog programme got hold of it and proved that it could be fixed, but Ford weren't prepared to take the necessary steps to rectify cars already on the road.

 

[babaa]

Thanks for the updates. From other searches I was expecting a few people to say that they had been told Leons were meant to do this and to just live with it, but they managed to sort it for you swerver so maybe there is hope yet.

Having done some more fussy testing I think the car pretty much follows camber with no power and even under braking (although it goes to the left a lot easier than it drifts right), but when I am on a road and the natural tendancy is for the car to pull right a little, even a slight amount of power brings the steering wheel round to the left every time. So the problem is pretty much just when I put my foot down.

I'll give it some more miles and if it is the same first I'll switch the front and rear wheels over. If it's still the same I'll go back to the tyre place first of all to get the tracking/alignment/balancing all checked. If there is still a problem hopefully I should have enough effort in sorting this to get the dealer to check everything and see if it is also a tracking rod issue like you had swerver.

 

[Kam]

Exactly the same problem when new tyres were put on to my Leon. Gets better once the tyres are worn. I had the car 4 wheel aligned as well - there was an improvement but not that much...