Car pulling left!

[Jeff]

Since I/ve had a reconditioned sterring rack fitted the steering wheel wants to pull slightly left, enough to be a nuisance.

I've had the tracking checked today, its okay.

In the past I've lost some LDS fluid (a few times) and because its £10/litre I have not refilled the reservoir fully thinking it will just end up on the floor. The car will still go through all the suspension movement (up and down) but this is the question.... could the partially filled system cause the steering to pull slightly left?

Thanks Jeff

PS its not the road camber.

[tommy309]

wouldnt have thought so, did you pump your tyres up? or an old slightly dodgy tyre can cause them to pull alot, if its a Xantia you drive could also be P bushes on the front arms worn done a good few of them in my time

[SaabC5]

Jeff mentioned LDS fluid so its either a C5 or C6. Did they do a full 4 wheel tracking/alignment on the car or just track the front end? Also check the front tyres for uneven pressures and especially uneven wear, mis-matched tyres can also cause a pull to one side.

[exect]

Did you fit the wheels on the same sides they came from?
Exect

[Peter.N.]

Is it actually pulling to the left or is it just that the steering wheel is in the wrong position? Some drift to the left is normal as it will tend to follow the camber but if the tracking has not been set up evenly the steering wheel will be out of position giving the impression that its pulling to the n/s. A little tweak on each track rod end should do the trick.

Peter

[reblack68]

If it's a C5 it has conventional power steering (and brakes) with its own reservoir.

It could just be the tyre trying to follow the wear pattern it established before the tracking was fixed.

[Peter.N.]

...it could be, try swapping the front wheels round.

Peter

[Jeff]

Thanks for all replies. Tyre pressures same, though different tyres / treads each front side as dont want to use expensive tyres that wear quickly, stuck a part worn on front left for time being to see if it wears quickly and on outside like last tyre. Cards a C5 2.0 HDI with £103k on the clock.

[myglaren]

If it's a C5 it has conventional power steering (and brakes) with its own reservoir.

Not quite. The power steering and suspension share the LDS reservoir but use separate pumps.
Brakes are as you say independent of the other two systems.

It could just be the tyre trying to follow the wear pattern it established before the tracking was fixed.

[Peter.N.]

If you have two different tyres on the front that could cause the problem, try swapping them and see if it pulls the other way.

Peter

[Norlander]

Tyre pressures same, though different tyres

As per post above, could well be the difference in tyres.....
Different makes or model of tyre may not both suit the same inflation pressure.

[cachaciero]

In my experience the C5 is critical as regards both commonality of tyres left to right and pressure.
The phenomenon of "driving" to the left is a not an uncommon complaint. I say this because I had the same problem and did a fair amount of web crawling looking for answers, Steering to the left together with rapid shoulder wear seemed to be quite a common occurence.
Last year having checked everything and even fitted a new lower arm although there was little wrong with the original I decided that it might be a good idea to purchase a set of tyres with re-in forced side walls.
I chose Kuhmo's, simply because the price was right and they met the requirement. Even with these new there was still a slight tendency to steer to the left and yes it is the wheels following the camber, get on the right side of the road and it drives to the right.
Eventually one day looking at the recommended inflation pressure on the door I decided to pump the rears up to the 3 Bar pressure recommended for heavy loads in the back, this being an estate, Viola! there seemed to be some improvement. After a bit of cogitation I came the conclusion that the 2.2 being a heavy lump maybe there might be some mileage in increasing the fronts to 3 Bars this seemed to improve things further.
I subsequently reduced this a little.
So in summary I find that running with the tyres at 40 Psi as opposed to the recommended 35 makes the steering sharper, seems to improve the centering and as a result reduces the tendency to steer to the left.
Higher pressures appear to reduce the wear rate on the shoulders, though the jury is still out on this.
I believe that tyres that have re-inforced sidewalls are a benefit on this car.
Commonality of tyres on an axle is important and this applies to the rears as much as the fronts, the car has passive rear wheel steering which basically relies on the loading of rubber bushes on the rear subframe.I suspect that different tyres and low pressures degrade the self centering capability of the subframe much as appears to be the case on the front (but this is just a theory!).

cachaciero