Car pulling to right when accelerating after wheel alignment

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Med_tech3
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Car pulling to right when accelerating after wheel alignment

Post by Med_tech3 »

Hi

I have a Peugeot 207 2011 diesel. Backstory - in June I had the MOt and my nearside spring had broken and the shock absorber was shot so they were replaced and the garage carried out wheel alignment. Unfortunately the steering wheel was angled about 60 degrees to the right when the car was going straight! I took it back next day and they corrected it - almost. It was still angled to the right when the car was straight. I contacted their head office and they told me to take it back one more time to correct it. I have not had chance to do this until now when I needed a new tyre so I took it to them, they fitted the tyre and realigned the wheels.
The steering wheel is straight (good news!) but now when I accelerate the car pulls to the right and when I take my foot off the accelerator it pulls back to the left. Driving is interesting and a bit sick inducing - if not dangerous.
I am going to go back to the garage to get them to try again to sort it but is there any other good reason why it would pull?

I put my two new tyres on the front and the two lower tread tyres on the back and made sure all the tyre pressures are correct.

Thanks

Simon
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Re: Car pulling to right when accelerating after wheel alignment

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

It is not unknown for a failing driveshaft to cause symptoms like this. It might be worth getting them checked.
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Re: Car pulling to right when accelerating after wheel alignment

Post by ekjdm14 »

During the MoT were there any advisories regarding wishbone (lower arm) bushes or ball joints? The worst pull I've ever experienced, scarily so, was in an Escort van which had sheared wishbone bushes AND a loose ball joint on the nearside. That pulled to the left on acceleration and then veered violently toward the centre line when you backed off or braked, so any wear in the suspension could also be a suspect.

To be honest though if I were in your position, after your "alignment" woes I'd be tempted to abandon that garage and take it somewhere else for a proper laser alignment and printout if there's nothing in the suspension possibly causing the pull (of course, if there is significant wear in the lower arms then they're best replaced prior to spending more money on alignment since it'd need doing after changing these anyhow).
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Re: Car pulling to right when accelerating after wheel alignment

Post by Peter.N. »

Could be due to a faulty tyre, try swapping them over.

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Re: Car pulling to right when accelerating after wheel alignment

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Be warned ^ Not if you have unidirectional tyres though^ This type cannot be swapped simply by rotating, say the 2 front wheels as they are designed to rotate in one direction - if you have these types of tyres, fitted, you could only swap front right to rear right and front left to rear left (and again, assuming they are identical brands with the same tread patterns on one axle).

Of course you could remove the tyres and refit them to the opposite wheels that way, but that's a faff in itself.
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