Shiny new Polo steering pulling Left or Right? READ ON.

[mythik]

Symptoms: All alignment (tie-rods) check out as OK.

Steering wheel look a bit off? GET THAT FIXED.

Sister just picked up a 66TDI with a steering wheel pointing at 1-2pmish and it kept pulling to the left. alignment was spot on. Corrected steering wheel alignment thus rack believes it's at 0degrees by adjusting tie-rods and HOLY **** IT WORKS FINE.

I hope this helps someone. I had some alignment issues but they were due to genuinely ****ed alignment. The tie-rod ends were not 1:1 and that screwed one of the tires slightly as one got scrubbed.

[kam]

hey my new 77tsi is always pulling slightly to the left, i thought this was normal

guess ill be calling up the dealership to get this fixed then

[alexaescht]

Shiny new Polo steering pulling Left or Right? READ ON.

I'm sure you would already have done this, but have you checked all tyre pressures? If the front-left tyre is a bit low it will pull left.

[nomadx38]

Could just be a placebo effect but when I changed my brand of tyres (from Continental Contipremium 2 to Michelin Pilots) it didn't pull to the left camber of the road any more which I spent a lot of time trying to correct with the Conti.

But I have noticed though that they "tram track" A LOT when braking in the grooves in the road where trafic has squashed the sides of the lane down. It forces the steering to continue the groove and makes it quite hard to pull out from it. I think this has more to do with the fact that I went from 55 to 40 profile tyres meaning a stiffer side wall.

[kam]

I'm sure you would already have done this, but have you checked all tyre pressures? If the front-left tyre is a bit low it will pull left.

yup, made them all the same psi, it still pulls to the left, just not as hard

its still annoying tho

[alexaescht]

Shiny new Polo steering pulling Left or Right? READ ON.

yup, made them all the same psi, it still pulls to the left, just not as hard

its still annoying tho

Yeah I thought that you would've tried that. It's a bugger that it didn't fix it

[kam]

i know all cars pull to the left slightly (i think the old story is that if you fall asleep at the wheel, the car will pull left, and not right onto oncoming traffic) but if i let go of the wheel, it almost immediately pulls to the left

[fastlane]

mythik, any chance you can recommend where to go? and what exactly they specified in the receipt?

Just like Kam, mine has been doing it from day one. I thought it was normal too LOL!

Same steering position as you describe, and immediate pull to left

[kam]

just read a post where someone changed their tyres, and the pull to the left dissapeared, might be the conti's...

im changing to 17" GTI wheels with Federal 595 EVO 215/40/17's on monday, see if that makes any difference

(will my speedo be out from going 15" 195's > 17" 215's ?)

[alexaescht]

Shiny new Polo steering pulling Left or Right? READ ON.

just read a post where someone changed their tyres, and the pull to the left dissapeared, might be the conti's...

...(will my speedo be out from going 15" 195's > 17" 215's ?)

I'd say it's the conti's. Both of the fronts on my Polo created a bubble that made the car shake violently at high speed and meant you had to use just about all your strength to keep the car in a straight line. The new Falkens have solved that

The speedo shouldn't go out of whack as long as the aspect (40 in your case) is the same/very similar to the standard tyres that come with the 17" wheels. If it is different the speedo will show a slower speed than your actually doing.

[wai]

I don't know if you have done this, but there is supposed to be a procedure (I read it on this forum somewhere) where you can reset the straight ahead position of the steering by turning full left and holding for a period and then turning full right for a period. I am not sure of the exact procedure, but it was something like that.

[kam]

i actually called up vw the other day, the mechanic said vw's will pull to the left a bit, but can only do a free alignment if < 1000km's

all good, im going 25/40mm H&R lowered springs and 17" gti wheels soon, which will require an alignment anyway