My Leon has started to pull to the left

[tomo52]

I have had my seat leon cupra 1.8T 20v since January this year and over the past couple of months i have noticed the car has started to pull to the left.

Tyre pressures are fine and wheels are not curb'd
standard wheel and tyres
have swapped the tyres diagonally round
i have tried on various roads and is not just the camber of the road

but problem remains

i have had it 4 wheel aligned 3 times and been told by the last chap that the drivers rear wheel is out of the reconmended limits of being betweek .1 and .3 and is reading .9.

Any ideas of what could cause this and what might be at fault. I have been told so far it may be a tie-rod or stub axel??

But maybe there is another common fault or someone else has had this problem.

 

[Three Leons]

I'm getting the same problem at the moment so will be interested in suggestions. I'm due a service/MOT next month so don't want any nasty surprises

 

[Mike Green]

Yes - same problem with me on my LCR. I have had this looked at but if you do a search you will find out that this happens to loads of leon drivers.

In the past people have blamed this on roads, stearing, tracking, tyre pressure etc etc but the only conclusion I have come up with is that this is just an annoying falut on the cupra's and unless you want to spend vast amounts of time, effort and money putting this right then if it is not too bad then live with it. Having said that there are people out there who have had this problem corrected - as mentioned to a search and more info will be there.

Mine does not pull too badly, and tbh I only notice it if i think about it. It all depends on how bad it is and whether you think you can live with it or not. If not then it can be a long road battle, but you have covered most of the areas I would or have had looked at.

 

[Three Leons]

Fair enough. As you say it's not too bad and is only obvious when I let go of the steering wheel which I don't do too often

I just wondered if it was placing undue wear on some part of the steering mechanism or tyres - although I guess if you hold the wheel straight it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[tomo52]

still pulling

I have just spoken to a local garage and have said that it is likely that i would need to replace the stub axel or the main axel beem???

However, he mentioned that i would have to have had a big hit on that side to cause that. However it is the drivers rear side that has the problem... And there are no marks on the rear alloy, no probs with the tyre... and i certainly would have remembered a big hit/crash...

Any ideas what might have caused this, anyoine else haed a similar issue.

Any help suggestions much appreciated.

Cheers

tomo

 

[tripper]

do you have any knocking or does the car feel loose when drivin i ask this as i had same sort of problem and it turned out to be a tie rod that was worn supposed to have needed a special tool to remove guy at vw centre by me said cost 300 so went to back street garage cost me 140 as the part is about 75 quid from the dealer

 

[dan__smith]

You go round roundabouts too fast!

 

[gb]

i asked the same Q about 10 mounths ago and was told that all seats pull to the left and never got an explinatoin

 

[Teasy]

Mine does too!!! .......I thought it was 'coz I used my left hand too much for knocking one out

 

[tomo52]

Cheers for the suggestions.

Keep em coming...

 

[sandy1981]

Would changing the ball joints affect this? Just noticed mine doing this after having new ball joints and cv gaitors fitted,never noticed it before.

 

[MDS]

Oh Jesus... Dont tell me you have a comunist in your garage now ?

LOL....

 

[Big_daddy]

Mines did so after i had 2 new kuhmo tyres fitted at the front, just need to gett tracking, but it nothing majour.

 

[laffaklad]

I have a Seat Cupra 1.9 TDI which also pulls to the left. I've had tyres tracked & balanced a few times and pressure is spot on. It has been mentioned to me by a mechanic that it may be just a spring gone in the stearing rack, but then I know nothing about cars so I have no idea what it would be. I was starting to believe that my car had been in an accident before I bought it. If all Leon' do pull to the left then thats pretty crap isn't it? Its not very safe either and I'm having to change my tyres every 18 months or so as they wear out on the outside of the nearside tyres. I love my Leon to bits, but hate the fact that it pulls to the left. Having said that, it passed the MOT no problems last year.

 

[edmong]

I reckon tyres. You'll find that you can by two identical tyres, brand/size/make and they will not be the same. Honestly when you buy your next two get the tyre fitter to put them together and you'll see the difference. It may be only a very slight difference but its enough to knock your geometery out.

I had my tracking looked at when I hit a rock in a hedge at speed and they noticed the rear to be out but you cannot adjust it on a Leon for some reason.

 

[Captain Cupra]

I think its due to knocking one out too much also but i have a girlfriend now and its not going to the left so bad anymore! Is it not also known as Torque Steer? My lefty behavior only happens really under booting!

 

[oldman]

alignmycar.co.uk - as recommended by Honest John from the The Daily Telegraph is very good at sorting this stuff out.
Other threads say something about geometry being awry.

 

[Hudds]

Geometry is your answer, you need a full geometry test done!

 

[dave02cupraR]

pulling to left

i have aligned my cupra r 4 times on my works super tracker and had 2 sets of front tyres and the problem is still there but it was there when a bought it. but a have heard that its normaly down to track rod ends or ball joints and my car had has bottem arms before a bought it. but no play in anything ?

 

[Hudds]

when you say aligned, have you just done that, because a geometry test will show if the camber is out also, which would result in a pull in either direction, even if the wheels were pointing perfectly in the right direction