Thread: car pulls to the left

It's always going to pull to the left.........




It was built by unionised UK auto plant workers.

DL

There are posts somewhere on this site re slotting the hubs to provide adjustable castor settings. If you really want to fix it, that is your path.
In general and every vehicle is different, to correct for the road camber we have in Oz, you will need approx. 1/2 degree more + castor on the lh hand wheel than the right.( for rear wheel drive - all wheel drive and front wheel drive should be ok with less ) Camber should be the same side to side. If a variation is unavoidable, make the rh wheel more positive than the left.

Trying to use excessive toe to correct the problem will only give you tyre wear. If the problem has only occurred recently when your tyres were changed or rotated, you can try swapping the front tyre/rims over, side to side. If there is a bad enough bias in a tyre from the manufacturing process, it will create a pull one way or the other.

As has already been posted, using a RTC ( return to centre ) steering damper, only masks the issue, and again excessive RTC correction will give you issues when moving over the crown of the road ( like when overtaking ), as the vehicle will want to take off the the right when you strike the reverse camber.

Originally Posted by LandyAndy

A 12 degree camber is a HUGE angle,cant be correct.
Andrew

I aggree with you Andy, there is an Australian Standard for road construction. The standard for camber is complex taking into account, amongst other things, traffic volume, grade, surface adhesion, antisipated precipitation, curvature; but the absoloute maximum is 8*, rarely considered nesseccary.

Originally Posted by V8Ian

I aggree with you Andy, there is an Australian Standard for road construction. The standard for camber is complex taking into account, amongst other things, traffic volume, grade, surface adhesion, antisipated precipitation, curvature; but the absoloute maximum is 8*, rarely considered nesseccary.

I'd hate to be holding onto the steering wheel of an old truck without power steering on a road with 8* camber!

As stated, 8* is a maximum rarely utilized. My information was sourced from my place of employment, one of the two largest road builders in the Pacific region. My reference recalled the last time he saw 8* was on a change-over on the Hume (Goulburn bypass) during construction. This camber was due purely to the switch from future southbound/northbound lanes to northbound/southbound lanes and had a reduced speed limit.
As a point of interest, I found out that on an uphill section, with the right amount of traffic, travelling at a given speed, with a particular amount of precipitation, can cause the fallen rain to flow upward on the road surface, untill a point is reached that a mini flood runs back down the surfaced area; causing vehicles ascending, from below that point to aquaplane. There's more to road building than a grader, roller and paver. Various statistics put to practical use.

Alan, have you tried driving in the RH lane of a dual lane carriageway where the camber slopes noticeably towards the centre median strip? If the vehicle drifts 'right' under these circumstances then your vehicle is OK and it's simply camber-related. cheers