03 tahoe still pulling to the right, after 2 alignments..

yukon25008.1 · June 15, 2012

So the 03 tahoe we have has went thru 2 alignments and still pulls to the right pretty bad..The 1st owner had it lowered to fit in his garage.. It has aftermarket coil springs in the rear, but up front im not sure what they did, do they make lowering torsion keys? the one side the bolt is pegged all the way in..the other side has about 1/2-5/8" left out. Not sure if that has anything to do with it or not, were the 2nd owner and the carfax was clean, but im debating on having a frame guy take a look at it just to see if anythings off. Please let me know what you guys think, Thanks

brantjs · June 15, 2012

Did you rotate tires? If it was pulling bad for a while, the out of alignment condition may have caused significant tire wear to the front tire(s) that may still act up if the tires were left in the same position. If those got rotated to the back it would eliminate that as a cause. The torsion bars should not have any effect as long as they maintain something reasonably close to the same height from a left/right perspective. The only other things I can think of is either the frame is messed up like you're thinking, or perhaps the right brake caliper is frozen and the pads are dragging bad.

nGAbear · June 15, 2012

I read about a bulliten (not sure if your make/model/year falls under it) about rims coming apart slightly at the weld bead in the center of the wheel. Might be worth looking into?

**Nevermind, those aren't stock.

montyss · June 15, 2012

first thing to do is switch the front tires side to side and see if it changes the pulling , then take a ball joint measurement to see if they are within spec's . I have the chart at work if you would like the numbers..

yukon25008.1 · June 15, 2012

Ive tried new tires, old tires rotated.... not a tire issue. and it pulls when your not on the brakes or gas...

the 1st owner was a million aire from jersey...andd had everything done to the truck possible, But im wonddering if the parts related to this are stock or not, i did do a driver sidde wheel bearing a while ago... It feels funny to me steering wise..not sure if its because im used to driving my HD or parts are just worn?

yukon25008.1 · June 16, 2012

would the pass side wheel bearing affect anything

2010LTZ4x4 · June 16, 2012

Is the steering wheel straight while driving? if not it could be the rear axle is out of alignment, you said they changed springs in the rear so....

Carder09 · June 16, 2012

The brake issue mentioned above does not have to have the brakes engaged from the caliper it be sticking, A recent memeber here had a similar issue. To check, put the truck in the air and rotate the side thats bad, see/ feel if the tire seems to have some resistance to spin and if the brake is dragging. Could be the issue...

Babyhauler · June 16, 2012

Who did your alignment? With the mods, you probably have to use someone that works beyond the range of non-stock vehicles and can line one up properly whether or not it is within specs or not. Such as a kit car or hot rod shop. I have ventured down this road with a lowered vihicle untill I found an independent shop that knew how to do it right. You may be using a place like this, if not, I hope you find one 'cause fighting the steering wheel is such a pain. Good luck with it.

Babyhauler

06_GMC · June 16, 2012

I will also add in that on my '04 Tahoe it had some chrome rims and cheap hankooks on it when I bought it. I had the thing aligned and tire rotated a couple times but it still pulled left. I went ahead and bought a new set of oem 17's and also put on some used tires and now it doesn't pull left or when the brakes start heating up they don't vibrate anymore and the howling noise is gone. Just a thought?? You may need some different wheels and tires.

yukon25008.1 · June 17, 2012

Thanks guys ffor the reply,s.. Im gonna get into and check..

The reason i said it wasnt a wheel/tire issue is because weve been thru the wheels the truck came with andd i put brand new tires on them andd it did it, got oem 16,s with brand new 265/75/16,s for winter, and now we have a set of newer wheels with tires at 85-90% and its doing it.

the first alignment shop..is a big garage that ive usedd before. with a big digital machine with sensors/things that go on each wheel,

the 2nd shop said they spent $110,000 on there machine "to be the best alignment shop"..The reason i went there was because 4 people refered me there because of good alignments...so im just pulling my hair out now!

Gurrzt · June 17, 2012

My problem on my 04 Tahoe turned out to be a "radial pull", yours seems to be different.

Easytide · June 17, 2012

There,s also an alignment angle called "setback". Rarely is it in issue unless the vehicle has suffered some trauma, ie: accident, whacked a curb,ect, The wheel/spindle assy can be aligned well enough the published spec in relation to ball joint axis, ect, but the entire assy. is either forward or backward on the frame. (it doesnt have to be much to create pull ) If the setback is within tolorance, ask the alginment tech what the "toe out on turn" reads. Again, static caster/toe readings can be spot on, but a componant thats minutely damaged will start to show erratic toe/caster changes as the wheels are turned through thier arc. One thing that bothers me ,if i read correctly, is you stated one t/bar bolt was all the way in as compared to the other side? Unless one bar has lost temper entirely, which i doubt, sound like theres something lurking in the bar/control arm assy that has been masked over.

Z45 · June 17, 2012

You seem to have elminated tires as the issue but I will relate a problem I had with a 99 Suburban at work. We had some brake work done and after that the truck pulled to the right. Not bad but annoying. Since this was a fleet truck I always had to get approval for repairs. I took it a big chevy dealer. They drove it, a tech and service manager and said, it need alingment. So we had that done but it still pulled. Lived with it for about 6 months till it needed oil change so I took it to a GM dealer for that as they worked on my gov't vehicles and it was less of a pita to get approval. Told them it pulls to the right, they said a brake claiper was bad and replaced that. Still pulled to the right. Mind you this is going on for over 2 yrs and 50,000 mile (GPS Survey Team) with oem tires still. One day out of the blue the fuel pump died and to was hauled to a GMC dealer close by. 2 days later went to pickup the truck and the service manager says, Do you know you have 3 load range E tires and 1 load range D tire on this truck? No, we did not. The factory had installed a load range D tire on the front axle and not one of the 3 GM dealers spotted this in the past 2 yrs. Got rid of the LR D tire and it never pulled again. Gov't would not authorize tire rotations, considered waste of money so no one would do it for free, not even the front end alignment place apparently.