[donmei]

My STI has pulled to the left since I drove it home from the dealer. I drove it for a month that way while the dealer ordered the proper software and hardware to align a STI.

Last week they called me and told me that they had the necessary tools and would do an alignment on the car.

Well, I got the car aligned and it still pulls to the left. I am baffled. The dealer has a very good service reputation. I'm confident that the alignment was done properly.

I haven't yet called them, I just want to see if others have had this problem and how it was solved.

We've checked the tire pressure. I haven't swapped left side wheels with right side wheels. Its worth a try. I know their directional, but just for testing purposes.

I know there are some really savvy chassis guys on the list and am hoping they can offer a suggestion.

Best regards,

Don Mei

[Xman]

there could be a couple of issues that cause this, both have been discussed at length in previous threads. The most likely candidates are soft steering rack bushings that "take a set" and can tend to pull one way or the other until you take an agfressive turn in the opposite direction to push them back or it is the tires "tram lining" or following the imperfections of the road.

scan this forum and you will find much more info, also the search tool is your friend. happy hunting

[donmei]

Unfortunately it is none of the above.

The car will consistently pull to the left while in the right lane of the highway , for miles on end. Its not following grooves in the road, or following the crown.

As for the car taking a set to the left, definitely not. I can tweak the wheel to the right, pointing the car towards the right shoulder. It will then begin a large slow hooking to the left.

i.e. last turn input was to the right and the car still pulls to the left.

Don

[RadarOnPaws]

It needs aligned again, most likely. Going back to the "tram lining" comment above, the re70's definitely do this, especially if overinflated. When I went from my winter tires back to the re70's, I noticed a huge difference in both feel and road noise, not to mention the way the tires want to follow the ruts in the road more than the winter tires did.

[QuickKid80]

Mine pulled to the left right after I got the car back in December, exactly how you describe. Actually, it was more evident than you describe. It would make my arm tired on the highway. Of course, I had the dealer check the alignment (I had to wait for at least 600 miles I believe). I trust the guys there, and they said it was dead on. Switching the left side tires did not do much, but X-ing the front left and rear right fixed the problem I believe. I'm not sure because the same day I did all this swapping of tires I also installed my SDRs and Blizzaks. With the winter tire combo the car pulls very, very slightly to the right, most likely due to road crown.

So it seems like a tire problem with one of the RE70's, which Subaru does not warrantee, you have to go thru a tire dealer. I'll be reinstalling the summer tires in a week or so, if they are still bad I'll like you know.

[HarlanPepper]

Mine also pulled left right after I drove it off the lot - it was a pain that they couldn't catch this in their PDI, but whatever. But in my case, after I had the alignment re-done (took them about 4-5 hours) the problem was solved. On a flat stretch of freeway I can let it run "hands off" for a good 10 seconds before I start drifting towards the edge of my lane. Straight enough for me.

I don't have any suggestions, but maybe they didn't properly use their new & fancy alignment equipment. Maybe you got one bad RE70 as QuickKid80 mentioned...

[Singletrack]

Are you sure your steering wheel is on straight? Mine is crooked.

-st

[STIin08]

Try filling the tires with more air... my escort doest that sometimes when the tires on one side get low

[Snax]

As RadarOnPaws has pointed out, the tires are a significant factor in what you experience while driving the car. Mine coincidentally also pulled left slightly since day one. When I put the Hakkapellittas on however, no pulling whatsoever - even at 110 MPH! As soon as I put the Bridgestones back on, the problem returned.

This phenomenon tells us one thing fairly clearly since it can be assumed that the suspension is unlikely to be damaged on a new car and brand new tires should have no significiant difference in wear areas or diameter: Camber is uneven.

If there were an issue with bushings or thrust angle, the effect would not go away by simply switching to a much softer sidewalled snow tire. In contrast, the RE70s are an exceptionally stiff tire and they amplify any disparity in camber through the amount of change in effective rolling radius. More basically, more camber increases your effective rolling radius, creating a pull toward the opposite side of the car with the smaller effective radius. The softer snow tires simply absorb this difference in radius by flexing and distorting more at the road surface.

So IF YOU KNOW that your suspension is in good condition, and that your rear wheels are aligned for 0 thrust angle, then you also know that it can really only be one of the two things I already mentioned. Either your diameters are different, or your camber is not balanced.

E.g., if it pulls left, then your right front camber is more than the left, or the front right tire is larger. You can verify this by the transition between cruise/accleration and deceleration under engine braking. At cruise or upon acceleration it will pull one way. Under engine braking it will cease to pull, or pull slightly the opposite direction.

After installing Eibach springs on my car, I played around with maximum negative front camber and had managed to make the pulling problem even worse. No big surprise there after I actually measured what maximum negative camber was on each side. Mine were off by nearly a full degree by my best ruler measurements. (So don't just slam them in as far as they will go like I did.) After correcting them to within what I measured at 1/10th of a degree, the pulling is almost completely gone. It still pulls left very slightly, but I also know that the front right camber is just a hair more negative, and it's just a matter of getting them down to no measureable difference to make the pulling stop. (But I only have so much time, and I've had too many bad alignments performed to know that I won't get perfection from the average tire shop tech.)

Anyway, hopefully that seems more like useful information to you than it seems like rambling to me. :P