03' Pulling Right after 2 Alignments. help.

[papa protege 5]

i just bought my Protege 5 1 month ago. I replaced the tires and got them aligned, and the car still drifts right drastically when i let go of the wheel. i paid to get them aligned again at a different place and there was no change. both mechanics say that the car is perfectly aligned and that the drift is only occuring due to the convex shape of the road. I dont buy that because its way more dramatic than any car ive ever owned.

if im on the freeway or street and let go of the wheel i can go from the left lane to 2 lanes to the right in a matter of seconds. Not normal in my opinion. Any advice? im at a loss and am tired of spending money to get no results.

thanks, i still love my car just trying to make it perfect!

 

[jtlinna]

welcome to mazda land!!! lol..

Not to sound like your dumb, cuz im sure your not.. Is the tire pressure is all the tires the same??? that will cause a drift.. and did you have a four wheel alignment done?? or just the front.. Ive been to a few shops that i had to make sure i said fourwheel or they would just do the front..

JT

 

[flash75]

I assume you had 4 wheel alignments? Do you have print outs from the alignment shops? Are your new tires directional? If not directional did the alignment shops try switching the front tires? Do you know if the car has any accident history? Is the suspension stock? I know, lots of questions. Steering pull can be caused by problems in the front or the rear. It can also be caused by tires or mechanical problems. There isn't a lot to adjust on these cars and the factory tolerances are rather wide. More information from you may get a better answer.

Clifton

 

[RABID_MP5]

+1
But when you do get this resolved, remember that a SLIGHT drift rightward is typical for these cars, esp on a big crowned road. So don't insist on hands-off absolute straight line. See how it does in the left hand lane on an interstate, or in the wrong lane on an empty crowned 2 lane road.
I'm thinking the good news is if your pull is now so extreme that it should help make it easier to find the cause(s).

 

[papa protege 5]

thanks for all the advice. all the tires are filled at 32 psi. the car fax was clean on the car but when i purchased it, the front right tire was in terrible shape, im assuming because of the bad alignment it had, maybe due to a run in with a curb. i dont know for sure. at the 2nd alignment they showed me the computer read out to prove that everything was as it should be. suspension is stock.

im tempted to take it to a mazda dealership for them to look at, but i really dont like or trust dealership mechanics.

i live in Orange County, CA. Any suggestions on a place to take it? would love to find a trustworthy and smart mechanic. thanks again for the info.

 

[flash75]

If you can find a shop that does only alignments you will usually get better service. It may be hard to find one of those shops in your area. Many shops don't provide a lot of training for their alignment technicians. I think they may assume that the computer will provide all the answers.

I have owned lots of front wheel drive cars since 1973 and have found that most FWD cars are sensitive to alignment. They make things worse by having very wide tolerances. The tolerances can be within prescribed limits and still wear tires and cause driving problems. About all the technician can adjust is front and rear toe. The P5 has a little Castor and camber adjustment by rotating the top strut plates.

I think you may be right to not trust the dealer for wheel alignments. You may find a different technician on the machine each time you visit them.

Clifton

 

[detroitcity]

Make sure that your wheels are not bent or out of balance.

Bent wheels will cause you to drift all over the place.

 

[slavrenz]

Try switching your tires to see if that helps things.

 

[25FConv]

not for nothing, check your tie rods(inner and outter), ball joints, and rest of the control arm........just did a maxima, lincoln mark VIII, and a protege......all had issues with one of the three parts i listed and the alignments were on point.......the protege it was the ball joints

 

[slavrenz]

not for nothing, check your tie rods(inner and outter), ball joints, and rest of the control arm........just did a maxima, lincoln mark VIII, and a protege......all had issues with one of the three parts i listed and the alignments were on point.......the protege it was the ball joints

What was the issue with the balljoints?

 

[joe944]

I have had the same problem for about 20k miles now. I am compulsively checking tire pressures, rotating the tires, took it to two alignment shops, had the owner of one shop do the alignment, and still it drifts a little to the right on the freeway. Not horribly, but enough to piss me off! Only upgrade are shocks.

 

[joe944]

ball joints are fine on my car, wtf?!

 

[25FConv]

What was the issue with the balljoints?

they were shot, too much play too where they were were separated. jack your car up and shake the tire up n down look at the balljoints and see if there is play.

ball joints are fine on my car, wtf?!

damn bro, if you were in jersey i would say swing by my shop.

 

[joe944]

Yeah, I need to find a P5 guru in the bay area. The thing I miss about my Porsches is that no matter what went wrong, someone else had been through it and the mechanics knew exactly what to do. I want to fine tune my car, and get it set up to take to the race track in the near future, but it seems like everyone has a different opinion on what to do. Again with the Porsche's, no matter what you wanted to upgrade, their was the one product that was the best. Oh well, I don't miss the repairs on those cars, that is for sure.

 

[2slow2go]

Try switching your tires to see if that helps things.

Yup, I had some pull aswell, more than usual went to two alignment shops, the first one said they fixed it, drove away to find it was exactly the same, went to another, and he put it on the machine and said it was perfect, so he did some test with the tires and found one tire to have (what he called) pull in it. He did a rotation, and the pull was gone!

 

[25FConv]

Yeah, I need to find a P5 guru in the bay area. The thing I miss about my Porsches is that no matter what went wrong, someone else had been through it and the mechanics knew exactly what to do. I want to fine tune my car, and get it set up to take to the race track in the near future, but it seems like everyone has a different opinion on what to do. Again with the Porsche's, no matter what you wanted to upgrade, their was the one product that was the best. Oh well, I don't miss the repairs on those cars, that is for sure.

what made u go from a porsche to a p5? porsche any year > p5 or mazda

 

[ucMP3]

You could have a small crack on the inside of the steering spindle maybe? Hard to detect but can cause play in your steering knuckle. I would look into it. Your joint can look perfectly fine and when its up on the lift, may not show any signs of being bad/loose. But try to move it out of the socket numerous times and you may find that it "pops" out every once and a while.

 

[RABID_MP5]

Also did you check the right front brake for dragging?

 

[slavrenz]

You could have a small crack on the inside of the steering spindle maybe? Hard to detect but can cause play in your steering knuckle. I would look into it. Your joint can look perfectly fine and when its up on the lift, may not show any signs of being bad/loose. But try to move it out of the socket numerous times and you may find that it "pops" out every once and a while.

How would you crack your steering spindle - that seems like it would pretty difficult.

 

[ucMP3]

Potholes my friend, potholes. Big pot holes, but potholes nonetheless. lol Rough roads over long periods of time can do ****** things to suspensions. Especially really stiff suspensions.

Going over a large speed bump to fast, there's lots of things really. Basically not being careful is what it comes out to. Sometimes potholes can sneak up on you tho...