Car pulls left after turning right

[cutter]

00 Celica GTS. In Aug, I installed KYB struts/shocks all around and H&R lowering springs 1.5" drop. Got an alignment and they told me I should replace ball joints. I put in new ball joints and got another lifetime alignment at Firestone shortly after. A few days later, I noticed the wheel tends to pull to the left after making a right. The steering wheel isn't centered, it physically pulls to the left. It also has a tendency to pull to the left over road crowns/dips, and bumps. It will straighten eventually when the road is flat and smooth, although I feel like it has a tendency to wander left.

Think I should try a different Firestone shop or does this sound like something other than alignment issues?

 

[qdeezie]

I would be checking tie rod ends and other front end parts.

 

[bigt61]

How old are the tires on the front? If they aren't unidirectional you could try swapping the fronts side to side and see if the condition changes. If it doesn't change, it's likely an alignment issue. Have them double check toe-in and caster. Uneven caster all by itself will cause a pull and any toe-out will cause the car to wander a bit, especially under braking.

 

[OVERKILL]

Could be a host of things including but not limited to:

- Changes to the suspension geometry from the lowering causes the car to tram-line

- Sticking brake caliper on the left-front wheel

-Alignment is out

- Some other suspension component is failing (as others noted, like a tie-rod end for example)

 

[eljefino]

Make sure the strut to knuckle and top strut bolts are super tight. Sometimes the alignment is held by friction particularly if the holes are hollowed out to fix camber.

Also check all your bushings, like on the lower control arms, but also steering rack and pretty much anywhere. Lowering can change the geometry to abuse this stuff more.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

How are the soft brake lines?

The fluid could be doing something strange and causing the caliper to hang.

I had something similar happen, where, if I was making a sharp right turn and pressed the brake mid turn, the pedal would go to the floor when I straightened the wheel. Turns out a shock broke off in the front and was crimping off the line on a sharp turn.

It could be that when you make a right turn, it's expanding the hose and getting full of fluid, then when you turn back it compresses and holds pressure on the caliper until it bleeds off back into the line and MC

 

[cutter]

Thanks for the responses.

The tires were bought in May of this year, about 3k miles on them. Maybe they need a rotate, but I did one at 1500 miles.

I replaced the driver's side inner and outer tie rods last November. The passenger side was still ok, although I should have probably replaced them as well. No weird pulling action up until now though.

Appreciate the suggestion to tighten all the components again. I'll try it, although shouldn't it be making noises if loose?

 

[Rand]

dont overthink it.. start with the most likely problem

Either bad alignment(probably)
more bad parts (possibly)
other random issue like brakes(maybe)


I'd take it back to firestone tell them your problem and ask them to inspect the components to see if any need replaced while they realign it... maybe take the tech on a drive and demonstrate the issue.