Car Pulling To The Left? Not Tracking Problem

[irishauris]

Hi,

I have a 2007 AURIS 1.4 petrol. In the past while the car is pulling to the left and quite badly as well.

At first i though it was bad tyre pressure but all four tyres were ok.

Next i though the tracking must be off so i brought it to my local Toyota Dealer.

They checked the tracking and said it was 100%, but the car is still pulling left.

Checked the balance of the wheels, still the same.

Next they swapped the wheels around, still pulling.

Next the decided to remove the tyres from the alloys and swap the tyres, still the same.

They cant figure out whats wrong and said they never seen this before (they also checked the track rods). They gave the car back to me the same as it went in after they had it from 9am to 5:30pm.

Has anyone any ideas because they cant seem to find the problem. Im only guessing myself here but could it be something with the power steering (although it seems to work fine)

Its not the first problem i have had with this car either, the mid exhaust box had to be changed twice under warranty.

Thanks

[T Sport 1978]

Had identical problem when I first had my car, cured by replacing tyres. There was no obvious tread or balding issue, but it had to be the tyres as the problem disappeared with replacing them.

[RichE]

Sticky brake on one side?

[Crasstoe]

Road Camber? If its anything like the roads near me they look flat but if you actually put your head down they curve quite a lot...

[acetip]

Road Camber? If its anything like the roads near me they look flat but if you actually put your head down they curve quite a lot...

when i brought my passat back in 1991 it had a tendecy to pull to the left,not badly but there was a problem there.

its was still under warranty so to back to vw dealers where i had brought it new,

they tested it first and ageed that it was pulling the one side,so onto the aligning rig it went, but everything was spot on.only when they chopped over the front wheels was the problem cured.

but after a further 1000 miles the problem returned,so i swapped the wheels over again,and everything was ok again.

so every time the pulling to the left returned, i did this swopping over,untill the tyres needing replacing.

the original tyres were single ribbed,but when replaced them with double ribbed i never had any futher problems.

[Crasstoe]

Must be the same in this case then surely?

[acetip]

Must be the same in this case then surely?

mistake.

[acetip]

Must be the same in this case then surely?

its worth a try,and can do no harm.

[davethefish]

I have the same problem, although I only noticed it about 2 weeks into ownership after I'd given the car a really hard time on a... shall we say, sort of track day, involving a lot of heavy turning!

I think I've damaged something but I have two thoughts...

1] My front tyres are odd, the front off-side (right) is newer and a different make (not my doing), this would possibly cause pull to the left.

2] On a Mitsi Galant I used to own, it was the Power Steering rack that caused that this problem. That wouldn't have been a cheap fix, £400 +.

Having said that, on a 24000 mile car, I wouldn't expect PS rack to be on the way out.

Any further from anyone on this?

[Rick D4D]

I had 4 matching tyres on our old T180 and had 4 wheel laser alignment done a Toyota and the steering was straight and drove straight but if you let go it would drift to the left so it was like you always had to hold the car straight, after a while you get used to it but the CRZ will drive straight all the time so now I notice how I had to always hold the steering straight.

I will also add that the T180 had around 1-2degrees of play in the steering but when I compared this to an Auris in the showroom then that was the same but again the CRZ has no play at all, the other thing I noticed was on broken surfaces the T180 steering would knock / thud which to be honest sounded really bad.

I know this may not be of help but this was everything I noticed in this area, I would also get the car 4 wheel laser aligned at Toyota (around £80) and try swapping the front wheels to the rear.

[ormi]

did they reset the steering angle sensor??

the auris doesnt have a p/s rack the steering is electric...it could also be a colum fault

[irishauris]

Thanks for all the suggestions, I will call back to the dealer next week and ask them to check whats being suggested.

irishauris

[Daveyonthemove]

I had the same issue on my last car, and as soon as i changed the tyres the problem vanished completely and never returned.

[Nemotion]

Road Camber? If its anything like the roads near me they look flat but if you actually put your head down they curve quite a lot...

I was thinking that... try (when at night and no one else is about) driving on the other side of the road to see what happens. You never know!

[irishauris]

Finally got this sorted a few months back - sorry for the delay posting a reply.

Was looking over the results that Mr T gave me for the 4 wheel tracking / alignment and noticed it was not my car details on the paper (toyota auris alright but different year and model).

I went back to them and they retested the tracking / alignment and sure enough the back axel was out. They said its a fixed back axel with no adjustment posible so they compensated for it on the front.

If i wanted the back axel replaced it would cost around €1500 or more. Now the funny thing is i never hit anything that would let me think i had damage done. I often hit the odd hidden water filled pot hole but never damaged a tyre or alloy.

In a previous car i hit a bad pot hole and it blew the tyre and dented the alloy but nothing ever happened this one. Maybe it was a fault or something. In the end i traded the car in at the dealer and upgraded to a 2009 Avensis Diesel.