steering wheel angled left car pulling strongly right
Discussion
Hit a kerb in my LCI E90 doing general BMW scumbag things (what a knob, i know) and since my steering wheel has been angled to the left by about 15-20 degrees and the car pulls to the left pretty hard. There is a bulge in the tyre on the side that hit the kerb (right side) but have swapped that over to the front left and it made no difference. Alignment has been checked by a trusted local garage and it was absolutely bang on. Clueless as to what it could be and haven’t found anything on the net after a lot of searching Any help would be appreciated.
first things first get rid of that tyre with the bulge in it just asking for trouble,
fresh rubber then get it booked in to get the suspension geometry checked,
if its straight it should not be pulling, to one side on a straight and level road.
many people out there offer 4 wheel laser alignment hunter aligment geometry checks whatever you want to call it but not many people actually know how to use the equipment properly. stick your location up here i'm sure someone can advise of a knowledgable outlet local to you
fresh rubber then get it booked in to get the suspension geometry checked,
if its straight it should not be pulling, to one side on a straight and level road.
many people out there offer 4 wheel laser alignment hunter aligment geometry checks whatever you want to call it but not many people actually know how to use the equipment properly. stick your location up here i'm sure someone can advise of a knowledgable outlet local to you
Glasgowrob said:
first things first get rid of that tyre with the bulge in it just asking for trouble,
fresh rubber then get it booked in to get the suspension geometry checked,
if its straight it should not be pulling, to one side on a straight and level road.
many people out there offer 4 wheel laser alignment hunter aligment geometry checks whatever you want to call it but not many people actually know how to use the equipment properly. stick your location up here i'm sure someone can advise of a knowledgable outlet local to you
got some new rubber coming next week so will see what the does. i know kwik fit use the hunters but i’ve heard they often lack competence. i’m dreading that it is some kind of suspension damage but the car drives perfectly smooth with no noises or play. i’m down round salisbury area.fresh rubber then get it booked in to get the suspension geometry checked,
if its straight it should not be pulling, to one side on a straight and level road.
many people out there offer 4 wheel laser alignment hunter aligment geometry checks whatever you want to call it but not many people actually know how to use the equipment properly. stick your location up here i'm sure someone can advise of a knowledgable outlet local to you
E-bmw said:
If your steering is angled to the left after the "event" and the car pulls to the left, then 100% you have bent something.
i assume you mean wheel to the left pulling to the right. that’s what i have been suspecting, but what? the car drives dead perfect ignoring the pulling. M157 said:
the car drives dead perfect ignoring the pulling.
In other words you know the car is fine apart from some unknown and potentially dangerous suspension damage.It needs somebody to inspect it carefully and work out what's wrong. If your current garage are telling you there's nothing wrong, you need a better garage. Obviously something is wrong.
GreenV8S said:
M157 said:
the car drives dead perfect ignoring the pulling.
In other words you know the car is fine apart from some unknown and potentially dangerous suspension damage.It needs somebody to inspect it carefully and work out what's wrong. If your current garage are telling you there's nothing wrong, you need a better garage. Obviously something is wrong.
M157 said:
well what i’m trying to say is that the car doesn’t show any signs of anything being wrong other than an alignment needed, i would assume if there was some suspension damage it would be more apparent.
I understand that you don't know what the problem is, but from the symptoms it is very clear there is a problem.GreenV8S said:
M157 said:
well what i’m trying to say is that the car doesn’t show any signs of anything being wrong other than an alignment needed, i would assume if there was some suspension damage it would be more apparent.
I understand that you don't know what the problem is, but from the symptoms it is very clear there is a problem.M157 said:
Hit a kerb in my LCI E90 doing general BMW scumbag things (what a knob, i know) and since my steering wheel has been angled to the left by about 15-20 degrees and the car pulls to the left pretty hard. There is a bulge in the tyre on the side that hit the kerb (right side) but have swapped that over to the front left and it made no difference. Alignment has been checked by a trusted local garage and it was absolutely bang on. Clueless as to what it could be and haven’t found anything on the net after a lot of searching Any help would be appreciated.
I would guess your local trusted garage should not be trusted , then.There is no way the alignment is "spot on" if you hit a kerb and the wheel is now 20 degrees off centre (which is quite substantial!)
If you need the wheel to the left 20 degrees to drive straight then if the wheel is straight during an alignment then the car would be going the equivalent of 20 degrees of steering to the right.
I'm not a mechanic by any means, but often one of the chassis to wheel linkages gets bent, this would be obvious I am sure to any person with eyes on a ramp. Especially if you compare to the side which was not impacted - so that would be my suggestion, have a mechanic inspect the car properly, and replace the pair of tyres on the axle with the bulge and whatever parts are bent. I would guess a control arm is what they are called.
No judgement on your actions, hope you had fun in any event
M157 said:
E-bmw said:
If your steering is angled to the left after the "event" and the car pulls to the left, then 100% you have bent something.
i assume you mean wheel to the left pulling to the right. that’s what i have been suspecting, but what? the car drives dead perfect ignoring the pulling. M157 said:
GreenV8S said:
M157 said:
the car drives dead perfect ignoring the pulling.
In other words you know the car is fine apart from some unknown and potentially dangerous suspension damage.It needs somebody to inspect it carefully and work out what's wrong. If your current garage are telling you there's nothing wrong, you need a better garage. Obviously something is wrong.
Strudul said:
You just follow the instructions on the screen, can't really go wrong (?)
When idiots are involved.....of course plenty can go wrong. Many users of such systems just do not have a clue. But as long as the customer gets some sort of a printout, they're happy.A bit like when a customer gets their car back from a "service", if it's been washed and cleaned, they think it's great service. Even if that's all the dealer has actually done, and not bothered with the actual service.
Strudul said:
You just follow the instructions on the screen, can't really go wrong (?)
It depends.I've had a garage repeatedly tell me my tracking was "spot on". Turns out that they couldn't make it "spot on" because one of the track rod adjusters was seized, it was late on a Friday, so they adjusted it all on one side and hoped I wouldn't notice that the wheel was a bit squiffy.
Another car years ago my wife hit a curb hard and even if the wheels were aligned properly it didn't drive properly because the rack had shifted and when the wheel was straight, the rack wasn't centred.
CarCrazyDad said:
I would guess your local trusted garage should not be trusted , then.
There is no way the alignment is "spot on" if you hit a kerb and the wheel is now 20 degrees off centre (which is quite substantial!)
If you need the wheel to the left 20 degrees to drive straight then if the wheel is straight during an alignment then the car would be going the equivalent of 20 degrees of steering to the right.
I'm not a mechanic by any means, but often one of the chassis to wheel linkages gets bent, this would be obvious I am sure to any person with eyes on a ramp. Especially if you compare to the side which was not impacted - so that would be my suggestion, have a mechanic inspect the car properly, and replace the pair of tyres on the axle with the bulge and whatever parts are bent. I would guess a control arm is what they are called.
No judgement on your actions, hope you had fun in any event
Sounds reasonable to me, and a track rod shouldn't be the end of the world.There is no way the alignment is "spot on" if you hit a kerb and the wheel is now 20 degrees off centre (which is quite substantial!)
If you need the wheel to the left 20 degrees to drive straight then if the wheel is straight during an alignment then the car would be going the equivalent of 20 degrees of steering to the right.
I'm not a mechanic by any means, but often one of the chassis to wheel linkages gets bent, this would be obvious I am sure to any person with eyes on a ramp. Especially if you compare to the side which was not impacted - so that would be my suggestion, have a mechanic inspect the car properly, and replace the pair of tyres on the axle with the bulge and whatever parts are bent. I would guess a control arm is what they are called.
No judgement on your actions, hope you had fun in any event
What we all really want to know is how you managed to hit the kerb on the right hand side?
Left hand side with a bit of understeer I can see, but this must have been a bit of a tank slapper?
Largechris said:
Sounds reasonable to me, and a track rod shouldn't be the end of the world.
What we all really want to know is how you managed to hit the kerb on the right hand side?
Left hand side with a bit of understeer I can see, but this must have been a bit of a tank slapper?
sliding round a roundabout, transitioning to an exit, didn't get enough lock on in time and found myself sliding backwards along the road into a kerb What we all really want to know is how you managed to hit the kerb on the right hand side?
Left hand side with a bit of understeer I can see, but this must have been a bit of a tank slapper?
M157 said:
Largechris said:
Sounds reasonable to me, and a track rod shouldn't be the end of the world.
What we all really want to know is how you managed to hit the kerb on the right hand side?
Left hand side with a bit of understeer I can see, but this must have been a bit of a tank slapper?
sliding round a roundabout, transitioning to an exit, didn't get enough lock on in time and found myself sliding backwards along the road into a kerb What we all really want to know is how you managed to hit the kerb on the right hand side?
Left hand side with a bit of understeer I can see, but this must have been a bit of a tank slapper?
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