My 1996 maxima pulls to the right. the wierd thing is that sometimes, very rarley it doesnt do this. I have gotten the tires alligned and they are now perfect and it still happens. The only other thing i can think of is that it might be the brakes...but it does still pull when not braking. Any other ideas or suggestions?

 

well since you said you had your wheels aligned it m ight now be that. Also you might want to look at warped rotors or it may be your tires tread makes the car pull to one side when catching a groove in the road.

 

Did you get a printout with the alignment? If so, what is your camber on each front wheel?

 

yes check camber ,wheel balances, and tire wear.

 

also check you tie rods and lower control arm. If those are damaged, you can get as many wheel alignments as you want and it will continue to go.

 

my ride pulls right too, even after recent alignment. when i pulled my tranny, the tie rods and control arms seemed normal?!? what specifically should i look for? freeplay? bushing wear? are you talking damage from impact or long term wear?

 

Have you checked if your tires are inflated evenly? Could it be the road? Sometimes the road just has some inclination towards a side and the car would tend to pull to that side.

 

i can vouch for that. some roads, especially highways, are slanted just a bit to let the water run off. it is so slight that the only way you will notice it is when it rains or when your car pulls to one side. this would explain it happening intemitently. does it happen on a particular stretch of pavevement? if the same strech of pavement yeilds varied results make sure you are going the same speed when you make your observations. hope this helps...

 

All cars pull to the right, thats the way they are built so when you fall asleep your car doesn't go in the oppesite lane, you go towards the ditch. But if your car pulls hard right...get an alignment, balance tires, etc.

 

Bad engine mounts could cause the car to pull to the side when stepping on the gas or just rolling. I had that on my piece of **** honda alligment didn't seem to help.

 

Brakes will not cause the car to pull when they aren't applied unless one of the calipers are stuck. Most roads are slightly crowned and can cause a slight pull to the right when you let your hands off the steering wheel. I hate it when customers come back to me and complain about a right pull when they let their hands off of the wheel for like 10 secs. I tell them that the steering wheel is there for a reason keep hands on it. If you have already worn the tires in a way before the alignment that can cause the car to pull its going to keep wearing like that. Cross rotate (left to right) and if it pulls in the opposite direction the problem is the tires. You may have something loose in the front end (tie rods, ball-joints, control arm bushings) but any real technician would check that out before the alignment is even attempted.

If you have a printout check the camber and the caster. Camber can cause a the car to pull to positive side while caster will make it pull to the negative side. Most of the time a half a degree difference in camber is about where it starts to make a pull. Caster will cause a pull after about a degree or so. Some printouts have Cross Camber and Cross Caster on them those are the differences i was talking about.