My 97 GXE pulls to the right after I turn right at an intersection and pulls left after I turn left at an intersection. That's probably all some of you need to know what the problem is but I will include what I know so far...

I took it in to have the front end aligned to see if they could tell what it was and they thought it was the motor mounts. They said the shifting of the engine was causing the pulling to the left and right. I took it to another shop to have them look at it and they said the motor mounts were fine. They said they thought it was something in the axles but didn't recommend I do anything since my car is so high mileage and it would be expensive. I have been hearing a noise for a little while and I thought it was a wheel bearing going bad but the shop says it is the axles making the noise. The tires show normal wear.

 

If you don't do the work yourself, yes, things can get expensive. But you are going to have to fix the car or buy another one, because any bad parts will only get worse and maybe leave you stranded on the road.

CV half shafts for the axles are between $50 & $75 plus labor. The pulling could also be from bad lower control arm bushings. But if the car runs good overall, get it fixed.

 

did they notice if the cv boot was torn open?? i mean, what a duece thing to say to a customer. dont fix it cause its high mileage, sounds to me like they dont know how to fix it. i just did my entire axle for 375.00, got the axles from napa with lifetime warranty. take it somewhere else.

 

I think you may have a steering rack problem a flush of tue system may help and it should be fairly inexpensive start there

A boot kit for our cars at napa runs about 12 dollars around here

 

I would climb under the car to check every bushing out. Does indeed sound like steering rack problems.

I would think about doing the steering rack yourself. Having a mechanic do that one will definately be very expensive.

 

The steering rack, if it's indeed failing wouldn't cause a pull. Toe may change, or steering difficulty may be felt, but not necessarily a pull.

Camber and caster issues cause pulling.

Check control arm bushings & ball joints.
Are your struts in good shape?
Does the hub have any play?
Is the steering rack leaking?

Don't rule out issue with the rear end either. Check the bushings in the rear of the vehicle, make sure they are holding the rear suspension firmly in place.

 

Axles, LCA, Tie rods, wheel hubs are easy to diagnos. Motor mounts too. U look for any cracks or play in either system. Since u took the car to two diff places and neither found fault in either system, ima say those check out fine.

That being sd, to being with analysis, we need to look at the systems involved with steering and pulling to either side. This involves camber, steering rack assembly, tie rods, steering wheel, steering column, and tires.

need some more info:

have u been in any sort of accident?

how long has the problem persisted?

Did it happen all of the sudden or over a period of time?

Any leaks?

When stationary turning left to right or right to left, do u feel excessive
play in steering wheel or do u feel the steering wheel get notcy at a certain points?

Does the car pull to a side, no matter if u turn or not?

U have to check the center position of the steering wheel. With the wheels straight, rotate the steering wheel. Steering wheel play shoudl be 1.38 inch or less. If not within spec, check steering column, rack and pinion, front suspension, and axle for looseness.

Since two mechs sd it MIGHT be axles, but not sure. I think its the rack and pinion or column. I think your column is worn

 

his symptoms dont necessarily resemble a pull more of a returnability problem which is directly controlled by the rack and pinion. he turns left and the wheel stays left he turns right and the wheel stays right. a binding or faulty suspension component would cause a pull in one direction all the time not just after a turn is made. most suspension components are very good about letting the operator know there bad they make all kinds of crazy annoying noises clunks, rattles, squeaks, you get the idea. pulls are directly resulted by alignment angles and bent stuff. control arms, steering knuckles, etc.


op; flush your power steering system see if that helps a shop will be fairly reasonable with the price for just a flush it couldnt hurt

 

Tie rods, maybe?

 

At 125K I had Tokico struts and springs installed to replace the original worn out parts. At 169K my 75 year old mother tried to do a U-turn where there was a curbed median. She hit the left side hard and hung it up on the curb. I didn't see it but the left side was very messed up and the car was not drivable. She had it fixed and I never thought anything about it because it seemed to drive fine. It's possible this could be the culprit because the shop said it hit pretty hard.

I believe this came on slowly because I didn't notice I had a problem until I realized that when I let go of the wheel it pulled left but not to bad so I ignored it. A while later it was really pulling and then I noticed it pulling the other way and I couldn't remember if my mind was playing tricks on me because I was not expecting it to change. I eventually realized that after I accelerated while turning sharply it would shift the direction it would pull to the direction of the last turn. Another thing that probably started at about the same time as the pulling is that when I turn the wheel a lot to park the springs clunk like the rubber insulators are shot. It's pretty loud. Could it be this shifting around that is causing it to pull one way or the other?

Messing around with the suspension is not something I feel comfortable doing. I change my oil and do other minor repairs like change the thermostat. I'm considering having a dealer give me an estimate but I shudder to think what they would charge. I wouldn't mind them troubleshooting the problem though. If anybody knows of a good shop I could try in the Houston area that would be great. I'm in the Clear Lake area and take my car to Hunt's now. Thanks for all the inputs so far.

 

Drive to Chicago I'll fix it

 

Ok so the wander and weave may be caused by the alignment toe to be exact being off the pull may be a result of something bent like a control arm

Is the wheel hard to turn?
Is the wheel off center?
Which direction does it pull?

Upper strut bearing is shot or something's bent

 

I was thinking this as well. But i dont think it would cause the car to pull as the OP describes.

So the car was in an incident where it jumped a curve. Bad struts or springs are easy to diagnos too. I cant imagine that a mech would miss this if it was indeed broken.

U have to check play in steering wheel. Give us something to go on

 

My 96 maxima (250k miles) shows the same symptom.
It slightly pulls to right after right turn and pulls to left after left turn.
I replaced lower control arms, hub bearings, tie rods and front sway bar links.
The strange thing is if I jack up one side of the car, hold the tire 9 and 3 o'clock direction and wiggle it, I could feel a minor play and see the inner tie rod boot being pulled and pushed slightly (but no feeling of free play in the joint of inner tie rod). I have this strange thing both for driver side and passenger side.
Can I narrow down the culprit to the steering rack?
Steering oil flush should be the first thing to do?

 

just the outer (that go to the hub) or also the inner (that connect to the sterring rack)?

 

i just did the outer tie rods on mine, moog ftw

 

My car does the same thing. ALMOST 100% sure it's the upper strut mounts.

Your strut bearings are most likely shot, replace those along with upper strut mounts and you shouldn't see that problem anymore. If the upper strut mounts/bearings are shot, your spring will shift on the strut perch causing torquing toward the side you most recently turned toward.

And while you've got that all torn apart you might as well replace struts and anything else that's worn out in there (My personal near future project)

 

my 95 gxe used to do the exact same thing when i first bought it. it would shift to the left and right when turning or accelerating so badly that i was afraid to drive it anywhere out of fear that it would get me killed in a bad accident if i didnt find out what was wrong with it. so i jacked the car up, lo and behold, both ball joint nuts were loose, also the sway bar and both cv axle hub nuts were loose also. i was like wow!!!. tighted up everything and shes good to go now!

 

Thanks maxinout93.
I will check those bolts and nuts.