Stupid question...but...after numerous alignments I have given up trying to stop my car from pulling to the right. The alignment specs look good but with the crowned roads, it just pulls too hard to the right. I want to put more air in my tires on one side of the car to get it to pull more to the left. Do you know what side needs to have more and what would need to have less. Thanks.

 

First off, is this on a particular stretch of roadway? If it is not pulling on a flat surface then I doubt you actually have a problem. Some tire patterns are more susceptible to "catching" road interferance such as crowns, seams, grooves and other such poor construction. I personally wouldn't try and remedy the problem by inflating tires at different pressures.
Out of curiousity what is your camber and toe set at? If you are toe-out at all, you will become more susceptible to changes in the road surface.

 

It's on all roads but much stronger on crowned roads.

Front
Camber Left= -0.3 deg
Camber Right=-0.2 deg
Left Toe=1/32"
Right Toe=1/32"

Rear
Camber Left= -0.9 deg
Camber Right=-1.3 deg
Left Toe=1/32"
Right Toe=1/32"

All comfortably within min and max specs.

 

my car drifts to the right too all the time, just got the alignment done a few weeks ago and nothing much has changed. i would really like a way to solve this problem, if possible.

 

If your car pulls to the right you can put a little less pressure on the left side a little more on the right. But I do agree that this is just a Band-Aid you have a problem some where else if after aliment you are still pulling to one side. Are your tires evenly worn was it a smooth flat surface no crosswind pushing you,has your car been in an accident frame damage?

 

Is that toe positive or negative? Either way that really isn't enough to make your car twitchy.

Have you ever hit a curb?

Check your pads and rotors all the way around from any dragging or uneven wear.

What tires, size and rims do you have?

 

Toe is positive, never hit a curb. I have new pads and rotors in the front. Rears have 10,000 miles on them.

Tires are 225/55/16 Michelin Pilot Sport A/S. I got bigger tires than the OE 215/55/16. Hmm, maybe the extra grip on the treads is pulling me?

 

I would at least visually check the front passenger and the rear driverside side brakes. I would say a slightly dragging brake pad is more likely than "the extra grip pulling you" always to the right.
If it was the treads it would pull you to the left at times as well as the right .

 

Try cross rotating you're tires, I sell many pilot sports and commonly have complaints of a pull. I know they are directional tires but swap you're fronts and drive it. If the problem goes away go get you're tires warrentied because you don't want to drive with the directions wrong. Problem called (Tire radial pull) Just got rid of my michelins, Problem solved

 

That's a good idea, maybe I'll try that.

 

my pilots tend to follow the road more than I like as well, but after 50k on the first set and 20 (so far) on the second, I'm used to it.

 

If you inspect your car and discover that the problem is not being caused by frame damage, brake dragging, or unevenly worn tires, you might want to take it back to the shop that did the alignment and ask them if they'll adjust your alignment to counteract the problem. The shop I go to locally will adjust my alignment to within factory specs, but then they'll make extra adjustments if I ask them to.

 

Worn suspension bushings?

 

The shop I took mine to are morons. They aligned mine to zero on all 4 tires. I asked them if those were Nissan specs and their answer was "my machine is showing all green lights, I don't know why you are still pulling to the right..." what a freaking idiot. Does anyone know what the 2002 Maxima alignment specs are?

 

A stock maxima has NO camber or caster adjustments. The toe wont make you're car pull just where tires and make it wander either way. It's a pretty basic alignment, tie rod adjustments only

 

That is incorrect about the toe, I try all sorts of different alignments with my race cars and toe will and does make cars pull ESPECIALLY with directional tires. And if you read my posts I wasn't saying that is what was causing it, I was asking how much there was because at a certain point toe out will make the car extremely twitchy and sensitive to any road variation.

 

You can compensate for some crowning by adjusting pressures but as someone pointed out, unless it's all your roads all the time you will get undesireable results on normal roads. Lowering the pressure will increase rolling resistance making it pull towards that side. So if you're rolling down off a crowned road lowering the pressure on the high road side will tend to pull toward that side, but really not something that is very practical. One of the responders nailed it when he advised youto check for "radial pull" by switching the front tires from side to side. If it pulls the other direction you're half way there - you just have to figure out which tire is the culprit, which may take a couple of switches front to rear. I have found that a lot of what manufacturers refer to as radial pull is really a bad steel belt alignment under the tread. Picture in your mind having the belt off center all the way around. It makes the tire want to lean, or at least roll in a circle instead of straight ahead. Jeez I thought I was just being a wisea.. when I was in the tire pressure thread last night and wrote that we could get into a discussion of compensating for caster and camber settings with air pressure, but we do it on the track all the time.

 

It's your road. Mine pulls to the right and my car is within specs. Just to prove that
theory I drove on the left side of the road and sure enough my car pulled to left. Our
roads have 3-5 degrees incline to drain any rain water. I wouldn't worry too much about
it.

Mike

 

you may have bad tires? broken belt in a tire can cause a pull. switch the tires from the left front to the rite front and the rite front to the left and if the pull switches sides then you have a tire problem.

 

I'd have to say put a small tire on the left and a big one on the right.

 

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You guys nailed it. I switched my unidirectional tires left to right. I got an even harder pull to the left so I knew one of tires was bad. I put them back, then I did a drivers side front to back. The car went perfectly straight as soon as the bad tire was in the back. I ordered a replacement tire and now everything is all good. The bad tire was also making a rrr...rrr...rrr sound at 40 mph. Thanks for your help guys!