I've had my car aligned three times in the last three days (in a row). I don't know why but it keeps pulling to the right. I had my strut mount on the right front side replace 2 days ago and they aligned it then. It was still pulling to the right so I took it in yesterday and they aligned it again. After this second time, I decided that the tires might need to be rotated and balanced, since the steering was shaking at low speeds, so I had that done and it solved that shaking problem, but not the alignment. So I took it in today and they did a full alignment and now the wheel stays pretty straight but the car still pulls a little to the right like the the previous times. The lady at the alignment place told me that it could be the tires and that because I have radials (I know radials sound ****ty but these are Yokohama "H" rated tires) they will tend to pull a little to one side and might correct themselves as I drive. Do I trust 'em? Could I have caused this by rotating and balancing the tires? Help!

 

Same problem... my car also pulls right, increasingly worse as I go faster. I had it aligned about a week ago and it seemed fixed for about a day or so. After going down an especially rough road the problem reappeared! Argh! The alignment guy suggested that it might be my tires, not alignment, because it was only off by a little. Like davis449 said, "Do I trust 'em?"

 

Yes trust them. Tires will sometimes do that. But, what it actually sounds like is torque pull. Here's what to do..... drive down the road, put the tranny in neutral, and let go of the steering wheel on a straight away. No, it may not stay straight forever, roads are not perfectly smooth ya know! But, if it stays straight for 5-10 seconds, it's fine. Even as long as there is no drastic pull all of a sudden, then it may be tires and WILL adjust. It seems that everytime they align my Max the steering wheel is off, then a couple of weeks later, it straightens out with no sign of pull. Remember, these cars are front wheel drive and mine pulls to the right also, this is normal.

 

May check your steering gear bushings if u notice wierd stuff happening that alignment dosnt fix. I aligned mine and it still does wierd stuff and i looked at the rack bushings and one is split. Cant afford to replace em right now tho...mine has a prob returing to the 'same center' after turning. Wheel can be in diff. positions and still go straight

 

Thanks guys! This is what I love about this BBS. It is so much help. Makes me glad to be a part of the Maxima family! If anyone else has any advice, post it please. i will try that neutral thing tomorrow. It was REALLY windy today so it wasn't a good day to test anything.

 

If the tires are not all identical and at the right pressure this will also throw things off. If the alignment is off the car will tug to one side when you hit the brakes (when the front end goes down it changes the geometry and makes things more sensitive).