HurstLightning84

So I thought I would post this here ( I know its not Oldsmobile) cause I love the people and knowledge on this forum better than any other. But here is my problem. I just bought this 2000 Grand Am GT, and it pulled to the left, so I got an alignment done and got back into specs, test drove and drove out perfect. But driving home it started to pull again? Now (as stupid as it sounds) sometimes it pulls hard to the left, and sometimes its perfectly normal??? ( road conditions have no effect, same roads everyday, but drives differ each time) I talked to the shop, they switched the wheels around to see if that was the issue, but nothing, same problem Put back on the alignment rack, but still shows a perfect toe, thrust angle, caster and camber. . Now we're all baffled. Any ideas of what could cause an alignment to be out one time, but then the next time be just fine?

OLDSRALLYE350

A draging or sticking brake can cause a pull. This could be caused by a hose that has a restriction in it , slide pins that are sticking causing the brakes to drag after being applied or a caliper piston that sticks whe it gets hot or has rust in its piston bore causing it to stick.

Chuck_66

How many miles are on the car? Anything that is causing more drag on the left will cause this problem. The most common problem is a tire pressure imbalance if one front tire has more pressure than the other it will pull. I realize that is not the case here as this would happen all the time, but I just wanted to make a point that even a little drag will cause the car to pull. As Oldsrallye350 stated the brakes could be causing this or possibly the wheel bearings.

AZ455

Well, until you said that the car behaves differently on the same roads each time, I was thinking perhaps it was a caster or camber issue (if caster is adjustable on that vehicle). Sometimes more negative caster is set on the left side to cause a slight left pull to compensate for road crown. Don't know if perhaps the spec included this compensation. The same can be done with positive camber, but is less desirable, since it's a wear angle and caster is not.

Did they check out your control arm bushings, steering rack bushings, tie rod ends? The whole rack can become loose and cause strange sounds and behaviors. Like Chuck said, some bad wheel bearings could cause this, but they'd have to be pretty severely worn.

My last thought... does this happen when accelerating only? Could be a condition FWD vehicles can experience called 'torque steer'. Under acceleration the vehicle can pull to the side with the longer driving axle. I'm not familiar enough with the Grand AM to know if the axles are equal length.

HurstLightning84

Thank you all for the reply. The car has 123K miles. I'm kind of in agreement with oldsrally350. I'm wondering if it has a restriction in the hose. when they had it in the air, they said that the tires moved freely when they went to remove the tires (all set at 32 psi), however i'm wondering if once back on the ground there is some sort of blockage in the hose. this possible? But to answer AZ455, it does do it all the time, not just accellerating. It's just wierd cause I drove it all around town last night with no issues at all, drove like a brand new car. But then just this morning driving to work, it started pulling left as soon as I pull out onto a main road (above 35mph). Kinda one of those things that will drive you nuts enough to sell it. lol. Thanks again guys

1970cs

Hey Ryan,

Did a little digging, most of what the guys are saying correct! How many miles are on the G.A.? I have a few accounts on the internet of bad rack bushings and even rusted out mounting area for the rack causing the issues on Aleros. May be take it too Team One since they are on ex Pontiac/Olds dealer, they may have seen this before?

How many does this one make on the total? 23-24 cars

Pat

CQR

Usually the restriction happens Where a retaining clamp sits.
Dirt and rust will pinch off the flow. under breaking pressure it will force fluid thru the hose and apply the brake, but when released it will be slow to travel back towards the master cylinder. so by the time you get back into the shop and raise the car, the wheels could be free again. one thing that you can sometimes (not always) notice is under very light braking, the car may start to pull right and then straighten out. this is also caused by the restriction allowing the right caliper to engage a little ahead of the left. without attaching gauges to the calipers its sometimes hard to tell. sometimes its less brain damage to just replace the hoses and see if it helps.

AZ455

Last year when I was doing alignments there was an early 2000s Chevy Impala where the rack mounts were actually just loose. There isn't a whole lot holding them on, the large C shaped clamp was loose. Tightened it up, re-aligned it, problem solved!

Good luck, keep us posted on how it turns out.

HurstLightning84

I''ll have to check the rack, but the more I think about it, I noticed it does "clunk" when I turn the wheel quickly back and forth ( under 2mph while pulling into the garage) but I've heard this before on a few cars, so I never gave that a second thought, The car doesn't have any rust problems, but I didn't think to look at the rack for issues, usually they just leak, lol. I guess I'll check the rack and look closely at the lines again, Busy weekend for this guy.
By the way Pat, you were close. I believe the Grand Am is number 22 lol.

AZ455

If possible, get the front wheels off the ground and have a good look at the rack (and other wear points in the suspension) while someone jerks the steering wheel back and forth.

If you have access to ramps or a hoist, the same test with the suspension loaded may be worth doing also.

jackedolds

If your alignment shop is doing a proper alignment job - the steering and suspension joints/bushings should have been checked for play (thats not to say the best haven't been fooled before). I would suspect an internal rack problem given the clunk and intermittant pull when the vehicle is in proper alignment (likely with the control valve in the rack). Sadly, this kind of pull (it is actually a push caused by hydraulic pressure imbalance) is very hard to diagnose. What usually happens in a shop is all other causes are expored and if no problem is found you look at the rack.

HurstLightning84

Well guys, just a quick update. Finally found the cause. As it turns out, it's a bad spring. The top of the spring is broke digging in and lodging itself into the bearing at the top which causes the spring to not turn freely when i turn left, and then I turn right, it pops out of the spot its lodged itself into, freeing it up therefor making the alignment correct. Thanks again everyone for all your input! Made the job 10 times easyer!