Pulling Left But Cant Figure Out Why?

[noahg]

Hey everyone,

So for the past two months I've noticed that my car pulls to the left fairly hard. Either it's been getting worse or I'm just noticing it more but either way it's starting to annoy me.

So I've done the mediocre DIY mechanic tests to try and diagnose what's been going on and here's where I'm at:

1. Lifted car and tested wheels for play for potential wheel bearing failure. Wheels have 0 play and rotate easily and freely. No audible evidence of wheel bearing failure either.
2. Took car to reputable shop for allignment. The allignment wasn't far off but it is corrected now, however pulling hasn't changed or stopped.
3. Inspected brake pads for uneven wear or sticking caliper. All pads have plenty of life left and are wearing evenly on all sides of the vehicle.
4. All tire pressures are within +/- 1 psi of each other and are set to 38 psi
5. No abnormal steering feel or noises coming from suspension when turning or going over bumps.
6. Vehicle doesn't pull in either direction under braking and brakes feel great. No pulsing or vibrating in pedal or steering wheel.
7. Tires replaced in Janurary of 2023 and the pulling started shortly after.
8. Pull isn't consistent in its force however it is at its worst under medium to hard acceleration and also when I'm just crusing on the freeway in all lanes so I don't think road gradient is a factor.
9. For context of how severe the pull is, if I let my hands off the steering wheel at 70mph the car is able to pull to the left lane in about 3-5 seconds so it's not just a light drift.

For context I've got about 25k miles on a 2019 GT2 AWD. I live in Michigan and our roads suck but I do a pretty decent job at avoiding potholes and haven't hit any curbs.

I'm absolutely terrified of Kia dealerships so before I take it in I'd figure I would see if anyone has any advice or troubleshooting that I could do further to figure out wtf is going on. Also I have made sure LKA is turned off.

Thanks

 

[bfglitch]

If everything is in spec and it only started after you got new tires, it's possible you have a bad tire. Have you swapped the tires left to right and right to left to see if the pull moves with the swap?

 

[noahg]

If everything is in spec and it only started after you got new tires, it's possible you have a bad tire. Have you swapped the tires left to right and right to left to see if the pull moves with the swap?

I am going to try this right now. I don't know why I completely ruled out the possibility that it was a bad tire.

 

[Snowwhite]

swap just the front two. if the car tracks straight you're good to go.

 

[bfglitch]

@noahg Did you ever get this figured out?

 

[noahg]

@noahg Did you ever get this figured out?

So i was able to swap the front tires yesterday. I was also able to really take a good look at the suspension, wheel bearings and brakes. All look great and have no real signs of serious wear at all. Tread on the tires is also wearing evenly on both sides.

I took it on a drive and noticed the following: in left lanes the car pulls to the left, in right lanes the car pulls to the right and on country roads with not as severe of a gradient as highways or city streets it's straight as an arrow. Before it was only pulling left and just left, the lane i was in and road i was on had no effect. Not sure if this is an improvement or not but I'm happier with it this way than with what I was dealing with before. I will be taking the car back to the tire shop to have them rebalance the wheels as well and then to another shop to have an allignment redone again.

 

[playerbase]

So i was able to swap the front tires yesterday. I was also able to really take a good look at the suspension, wheel bearings and brakes. All look great and have no real signs of serious wear at all. Tread on the tires is also wearing evenly on both sides.

I took it on a drive and noticed the following: in left lanes the car pulls to the left, in right lanes the car pulls to the right and on country roads with not as severe of a gradient as highways or city streets it's straight as an arrow. Before it was only pulling left and just left, the lane i was in and road i was on had no effect. Not sure if this is an improvement or not but I'm happier with it this way than with what I was dealing with before. I will be taking the car back to the tire shop to have them rebalance the wheels as well and then to another shop to have an allignment redone again.

All roads have a slight peak/curvature to them. I forgot the name of it, but my car was the exact same way. My alignment was pretty far out of place but my steering wheel was still straight. However the way my alignment was after 40-50k miles, it allowed me to continue to drive straight and not have to worry about any sort of drift.

After my alignment and everything got straightened out, I felt it pull off either to the left or right depending on the lane I was in. Took it to another shop to get checked out, and long story short what they told me was is that cause of the way roads are made (curved slightly to have water drain off to the sides/dirt of them, your car will always pull slightly in that direction. It's not a matter of your alignment/car, it's a matter of the way the road was paved.

I'm assuming your alignment, pre-alignment shop, was in a similar condition to mine where it wouldn't pull in one direction or the other till you had gotten the alignment.

 

[Snowwhite]

So i was able to swap the front tires yesterday. I was also able to really take a good look at the suspension, wheel bearings and brakes. All look great and have no real signs of serious wear at all. Tread on the tires is also wearing evenly on both sides.

I took it on a drive and noticed the following: in left lanes the car pulls to the left, in right lanes the car pulls to the right and on country roads with not as severe of a gradient as highways or city streets it's straight as an arrow. Before it was only pulling left and just left, the lane i was in and road i was on had no effect. Not sure if this is an improvement or not but I'm happier with it this way than with what I was dealing with before. I will be taking the car back to the tire shop to have them rebalance the wheels as well and then to another shop to have an allignment redone again.

that's the way it's supposed to work. as others have mentioned, roads are crowned to one side or the other to help with drainage. you'll have to find a road thats crowned to the right and drive in the left lane to see if it still pulls left, but sounds to me like you're as good as it's going to get. I don't think i'd spend more on another alignment unless they're willing to rack it up and tell you if it needs one before they make you pay.

 

[Rodtheviking]

Road crown, wide tires and AWD make for a fun ride. I have said it before on other alignment thread but have the shop put some weight in the driver seat while doing it. I used 150lbs when doing mine and it's much better, still pulls a bit on uneven or rutted roads but it just does.

 

[Ozstung]

Had my car pulling left for a year or so tried everything. Eventually found it was the rear passenger shock, got it replaced under warranty. Pulling has now stopped, still angry why Kia didn't find this when they did diagnostic test on all 4 corners. Even i saw the stats sayig there was 52kg extra weight over that wheel.