Yep,

2003 V70 still pulls slightly to the right despite a 4 wheel alignment. If steering wheel is straight, car tracks straight and no pulling on the steering wheel. However, once you let go of the wheel, it turns slightly a few degrees to the right and the car heads for the edge of the road.

Tire wear looks normal. But, I will admit, 2 years ago the car slid on snow/ice and the front end pounded a curb pretty hard at about 15mph. Perhaps I bent something? If so, what should I look for?

Cheers,

Bob

 

How many miles? I had a similar issue with my 1996 850 wagon with 250k miles. Turned out the hub bearing was causing significant drag. I also replaced the axle shafts. The right axle has a bearing on it and this could also cause pulling. Check for brake drag also. Cheers! Greg

 

The car has 115,000 miles. That's an interesting idea I hadn't considered. When I have a chance to inspect I'll be sure to look for things which could be causing drag on the right front wheel.

Thanks

Bob

 

What you are describing may be due to what is termed as 'torque steer'.
Caused due to different length half shafts, common with most front wheel drive vehicles.
If the pull to one side is however excessive, then other issues will be contributing.

see the link below.

http://www.aa1car.com/library/torque_steer.htm

What the heck is torque steer? (ABCs of Car Tech) | The Car Tech blog - CNET Reviews

 

Letting go of the wheel is not how you check alignment. If it goes straight with the wheel straight, the alignment is fine.

It could also just be following the crown of the road

 

Pretty sure it's not torque steer since it occurs even when coasting and it never did this in the prior 110K miles of its life.

At first, I suspected alignment - hoping that was a quick fix. But, you're right, when the wheel is straight the car drives perfectly straight. But, as soon as I let go of the wheel, the wheel ***** about 3 degrees to the right (no more, no less) and car pulls to the right curb.

I suspect a bent suspension piece or something dragging on the RF wheel. I checked for dragging yesterday and detected nothing. But, while writing this, I just had one more thought. Last December I had the right upper strut bearing and spring hat replaced. I seem to recall this issue started about or after the same time. I wonder it has something to do with that??

Thanks

Bob

 

Hub bearings that are worn cannot necessarily be detected by raising the wheel and spinning it, as it is no longer under load. When driving, noise (whirring/whining) generally accompanies worn bearings.

I had the benefit of swapping axles and while out of the car, I spun the hub bearing and it pretty much free-wheeled...it should not. The bearings were dry and I could hear them moving in the race. I later installed a new hub bearing. When turned, it was quiet, with a very firm and smoooth movement. I decided to replace all the hub bearings. All were loose. The inside of the car is now quieter, car tracks perfectly and my mileage went up 10%. More evidence the bearings were shot. At 1/4 million miles, parts die. Not saying this is necessarily your issue, but it could be.

 

The V70 I just bought had a noticeable pull to the right when I let go of the wheel as well. Thing is, when I was on a road without a crown, it didn't seem to do that. I interpret that to mean that either it's inherent in the design of the car to pull right on a crowned road, or that mine has some alignment issue that is causing it.

I'll know soon enough because I just replaced my right lower control arm, and NOW I have a REAL pull to the right - the steering wheel will spin about 1/8 turn to the right if you turn it loose (so obviously, I don't!). I'm curious to see if there's any pull at all when I get it aligned (hopefully tomorrow).

 

maybe its just tire pull. try swapping the tires to the other side and see if it fixes the cproblem.

 

Swapping tires, left to right- for radial tires - is NOT recommended. Front to back is okay, of course.

 

how is it not recommended. if they were directional that would be true but for testing purposes it is completly fine. if he swaps them from left to right and the pull goes away then there you go you know what the problem is.

 

I agree with geemurphy that it's best not to swap radial tires left-to-right, but it would be perfectly fine to do so as a diagnostic method, assuming he swaps 'em back afterward. Otherwise it's always possible that his right rear tire has a bit more drag than the left rear, while if he swaps side-to-side on the front tires, he'll take the tires out of the equation altogether.

 

Hmmm, tires were rotated the week before the alignment and made no difference. I'm thinking more and more its having a brand new upper strut mount on the right side while the left one is 10.5 years old with 115k miles on it.

Bob

 

FWIW, I just had my V70 aligned, after replacing a lower control arm (wow, was it out after that!). The aligner mentioned that there was a little tire drag, and swapped the front tires left-to-right. I had just mounted them a couple hundred miles ago, if that, so I wasn't worried about it one way or the other. He said the "drag" followed the one tire, and that I should buy a couple new tires from them. I took the car (with the old tires, of course) and the "drag" isn't noticeable to me - there's a slight tendency for the drift to be to the left when I let go of the wheel now, but certainly nothing I'm going to get excited about.

 

I had this problem with my 02 V70 front wheel drive and it turned out to be the tires. Swapping them around cured the problem.

 

Thanks all for your ideas. I'm pretty sure it's due to the fact that I have a new upper strut bearing on the right side and the original (with 115K miles on it) on the left. Probably should have replaced both at the same time.

The pulling is ever so slight and it only really presents itself after you take both hands off the wheel.

Bob