I like many on here with the MS3 are experiencing a pull to the left when you let go of the wheel or on acceleration. I work for Acura and have easy access to an alignment rack and a lift which makes this fix alot easier then doing it on the ground. I intially checked my alignment when I noticed the tires chopping badly on the drivers side which is predominatley caused by a camber issue. What I found was a difference in cross camber in excess of .5 degrees which can cause a pulling issue and chopping issue in the tires to the side with the least neg. camber even though the specs for the alignment were within the green. What I did was while I had the car on the alignment rack , I loosened the front subframe bolts and shifted the subframe as far to the left a possible and then retightened the bolts. I then reset setup the alignment computer and found after shifting the subframe that the cross camber is now 0 degrees and the camber to the left and right is now even. The car now tracks perfectly straight down the road with out an ounce of pulling to the left. Give it a try if you having this issue it may fix the issue for you the same as it did for me.......
Fix for the infamouse pull to the left
- Thread starter Rubasu
- Start date
Silver Ecstasy
Member
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- 11 MS3 Sport
Well thanks for the post! I won't be able to do anything with it though until I take it to my next alignment.
mzspd3soffl
Member
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- MazdaSpeed3
Yah thanks for the Post as well.
oh mine does all the time, even if im just cruisnig, straight flat road, hold the steering wheel straight, it goes striaght, let go, the steering wheel almost always wants to just pull left, its not a struggle, but i have to hold the steering wheel straight to keep it straight, like it takes a lilttle effort and its annoying haha
I though I was the only one with the problem but, mine was pretty bad, when i went to get it aligned the camber was pretty far positive on the right side. My issue might have been from when i slid on ice and nudged a curve though. I need new shocks anyway though because they're all shot and my right rear one is actually completely blown. So when I get back from college in like 2 weeks i'm gonna order some KONI FSDs. I'm hoping that'll solve the problem because the guy initially said i'll need to replace all the shocks/struts in order to completely fix it. So I'm not even sure if my pull is for the same reason but, I'll keep you guys posted anyway.
GhostMercury
Member
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- MazdaSpeed 3 08.5
you should post some pics and stuff so we can bring it to our alignment place, and have them do it, while also having some kind of idea on what to do
GhostMercury
Member
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- MazdaSpeed 3 08.5
thanks that would be awesome
kwsmithphoto
Member
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- 2009 Mazdaspeed3
My MS3 does that too, but very slightly though. So did my last car, the one before that, and every FWD car I've driven in the last decade or so. I think it's a design decision to help keep you out of ditches and other bad things since virtually all roads are either crowned or graded to the right for drainage.
If it's minor, the safest and cheapest way is to keep your hands on the steering wheel and drive the car, instead of letting it drive you!
But if it's major problem on your car, did you know that the front camber is adjustable by a few tenths? You simply loosen the upper strut mount, unload the front end, push or pull the strut in or out, tighten it up and drive it around, then check it on the rack again.
If you've already done that, yet you're still seeing a .5 degree camber difference side to side, well, you might just have found a production tolerance in the subframe alignment.
I guess what I'm saying is that moving the subframe is like staggering the car to bias it for a specific condition. If the problem was bad and you weren't able to fix it with a relatively simple camber adjustment, then thanks for the info!
It isn't a problem on my car, but even computerized robots at the factory can be out of range, so for people who have this problem, shifting the subframe could be just the right trick.
BTW, how much did you have to pull it, did you measure? And did the thrust angle change at all?
Nliiitend1
Member
This is a commonly performed fix for front cross-camber problems in the Focus world...I think I may have even mentioned it once or twice on the Mazda boards in the past several months during different alignment-related threads.
With the Focus, there isn't nearly as much wiggle room with the front strut placement (there are studs on the strut's top-mount that poke through the towers rather than bolts, and the holes in the strut tower/unibody are not big enough to get any real movement), but I think this is a reasonable thing to do on a 3 as well, especially if you've already maxed out the available correction by unbolting the struts and trying it that way.
These cars are obviously not set up perfectly from the factory, and I'm sure there are assembly tolerances that many of us would find ridiculously large. It can be difficult to do this right without good access to an alignment rack (you can't always get it right the first time), but if you've got real cross-camber/included angle variance issues it's proabably worth it.
With the Focus, there isn't nearly as much wiggle room with the front strut placement (there are studs on the strut's top-mount that poke through the towers rather than bolts, and the holes in the strut tower/unibody are not big enough to get any real movement), but I think this is a reasonable thing to do on a 3 as well, especially if you've already maxed out the available correction by unbolting the struts and trying it that way.
These cars are obviously not set up perfectly from the factory, and I'm sure there are assembly tolerances that many of us would find ridiculously large. It can be difficult to do this right without good access to an alignment rack (you can't always get it right the first time), but if you've got real cross-camber/included angle variance issues it's proabably worth it.
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i second that
Nliiitend1
Member
Do you guys really need pictures to visualize this?? There is a front suspension subframe that is held onto the unibody using several very large bolts. Loosen (while supporting the car by the unibody) the bolts and shift the subframe. Re-tighten the bolts. It's not rocket science. (dunno)
