Thread: Brand new Puma drifting to the left

I could not read your data very well, but it looks like the rear end is steering the front ( toe in on the lh rear ) , and the castor setting on the front lh side is lower than the right. Both are going to push the vehicle left, particularly on cambered roads. I guess if the brakes are contaminated, that would perhaps explain the pulling, but it really does sound like something is loose in the suspension to get it ducking & diving on undulations.

The drifting left should be able to be corrected. I would be more concerned about the moving around over bumps.

The 4mm wheelbase difference might sound a lot, but I can assure you there are a lot of new vehicles out there with greater variations.

Interested to hear what your dealer discovers.

Picked up the landy from the dealership yesterday evening.

What do you know, they claimed it's all fixed and it drives straight. They corrected the toe on the rear axle by adjusting the washers fitted to the left rear radius arm mounting to correct the thrust angle.

They did not send it to the panelbeaters, since they thought they were fixing it in-house.

Sounds all good & well, but as soon as I drove one block, the landy showed
the same behaviour as before.

*sigh*

So I went back, but by that time everyone had left, except for the salesperson and I informed her of the situation and will hear from her tomorrow.

Our next step is to take it back and tell them to give us another one since:

1. they have sold us a defective vehicle; and
2. they are clearly unable to fix it

Ah, the joys of owning a land rover

Not sure what the rules are over there, but can you notify them you want to reject it?

Hi all,

After my chat with the DP on Friday, he asked me to come in today and he would be in the car when I drove it to see what the issue is.

I get there at 0800, no sign of the DP, I get saddled with Gustav, who acts as if he's doing me a favour to even see me. He drives the car, agrees that it's pulling to the left but claims it's a wheel alignment problem. So off we go to ****, and I stand there while they swap the front tyres around. I drive it around the block, still no change.

They hook it on the wheel alignment machine, and while the tech is fiddling, I ask him some questions about the figures. He points out to me that there is a 0.24deg difference between the right & left caster angles, which effectively means that the front right wheel is always ahead of the left! Since you can only adjust the toe on Defenders, this means that it will always pull left, and that possibly this may be resolved by spacers - not something I want to contemplate.

FYI, the 3rd wheel alignment print out is here: Google Docs

I go back to N1 City and inform Gustav of this, and his whole attitude is 'they all do this on SA's cambered roads, get used to it'.

I have just filed a complaint with LRSA, and will now see how that plays out.

Sounds like you are getting a run around.

Did the 2nd wheel alignment place check the rear wheel alignment, or only front.

Good luck!

Guys,

Some of you may recall that when I bought my Puma, it was drifting to the left. Many attempts at getting this sorted out by the dealership (N1 City) where I bought the vehicle ended up in nothing but frustration and many wasted hours. The attitude of the service manager there is to be as rude and unfriendly and unhelpful as possible in an attempt to make the customer go away - which I admit, works. So in the end we lived with the issue, which was cured to a large extent by Hillstar Panelbeaters & Expedition Gear who removed all the misplaced shims that N1 City put on the back axle.

Anyway, driving past LR Stellenbosch the other day, I saw that they were Dealer Of The Year in 2009, so I popped in to see who was in charge. The workshop manager with whom I dealt previously and who stuffed up my DC is no longer there, and the new one is Owen - a friendly and helpful man. He took time out of his lunch break to take a drive and commented that he thought the gearbox was also sounding a bit sick on top of the drift.

I booked in the landy for its first service a couple of weeks ago, and they kept it for 2 days to attend to all my queries. However, the drift still persisted, so I went back for a chat with Owen. At this point I queried whether it was not the power steering box, and his response was 'in Defenders we've only had to replace a few of these once every 5-6 years, so most unlikely'. A quick trip to Supaquick to double-check the wheel alignment and he then decided that a shim was needed to resolve a 0.40deg difference in the caster angle, which I also thought would cure the problem.

Landy was booked in for last Thursday, and I was expecting them to put the shim in and that would be that. They sent the landy to an suspension specialist for a more thorough check, and today I get call that they have found that the power steering box was too tightly adjusted at the factory, and thus would not return to centre to the one side. Having spent a day at Schalk Burger's workshop, I have seen how even a slight misadjustment in the steering box will cause problems. The part has been ordered and should have it back on Thursday and I will resist the urge for an 'I told you so' when I go pick up the landy!

It just goes to show that when you have a dealership with people willing to help and test & try things, most problems can be resolved. Holding thumbs that they fit the part without breaking anything else.

Good news - the steering is much sharper now with the new steering box.

Bad news - it pulls to the left even more.

Am going to have the wheel alignment done this morning, maybe have my indie mechanic re-centre the steering box during the week.

If that does not help, will have a shim done on the left front radius arm to correct the 0.4 deg difference in caster angle.

After that I dunno

Where will you put a shim in to change the caster?