Bad Alignment?

EFLine · December 19, 2015

Hey guys, got a question for ya! sorry this will be lengthy...

Recently bought my 14 SLT Z71 in August, had 28,000 miles on it and CPO with remaining factory warranty. When I test drove the truck I noticed it pulled a little to the left and told the sales guy about it. Long story short, I had sold both my cars and needed to take this one home with me that night and never had it dealt with.

Fast forward 4 months, couple road trips and a much longer commute with a new job and finally took the truck in to get aligned at the dealership I bought it from. They had the truck for 18 days, and road balanced the tires, rotated them and said it was fixed.

Drove home and immediately felt the truck still pulling to the left. Took it back the next day and they said I was right that the truck was out of alignment and that they fixed it.

It is much better but the steering wheel is not straight and i still notice it pulling to the left.

Went back AGAIN yesterday and took the techs out with me and they saw it pull, test drove it and said there might be something else they can do.

Said it was perfectly in spec, that nothing is out of alignment and want me to bring it back again to have them adjust the camber and toe on the right passenger side so that it will counter act the pulling to the left.

My question is this... is there something wrong and I should take it to a new place? could alot of this just been the road crown? It has the OEM tires on it, 20inch rims, could it be just the tires?

Looking for a bit of guidance before they keep messing with it.

EFLine · December 19, 2015

Attached a video to watch it pull. Once I get it driving straight, i let go of the wheel and it wants to head towards the shoulder.

http://vid14.photobucket.com/albums/a302/-Greg-/20151214_174011.mp4

Silverado4x4 · December 19, 2015

A lot has to do with the road, in the video it appears the road is leaning to the left towards the wall for water run off so your truck is going to follow it same goes for 2 lane road almost all crown in the center for drainage so your truck is going to follow, as for the steering wheel tell them to center it.

Mike Trnka · December 19, 2015

Sounds like the alignment guy isn't very good. I'd take it somewhere else.

Why did they have your truck for 18 days?

muddkatt · December 19, 2015

First, driving on that side of the road appears to be sloped for drainage like mentioned above. Try driving on the far right lane and see what happens. The right lane would be sloped to the right,, and the truck should pretty much hold its lane.

With that said, there could be other issues such as tire pressure either low on the left front, or high on the right front. I have seen the brakes slightly sticking and cause it to pull.

its been a LONG time since I did front end alignments, but we use to put a little more caster on the left side to accommodate for the slope of the road (only had 2 lane roads in that area).

EFLine · December 19, 2015

Thanks for all the responses so far guys! I will do a little bit more road test and check it out. As for them centering the wheel, they said they will accomplish this by adjusting the right tire to pull more, therefore pulling the steering wheel "right" to center it.

they had it for 17 days for multiple reasons. I took it in for Seat rattle/clunk, knee board rattle, recall for 4x4 engaged in cold weather, reset the transmission learn, drivers side seat didn't heat. First it took them a bit to deal with it all, then they ordered the wrong part for the seat heating element and couldnt figure out why it didnt work, after talking to GM tech for 3 days and looking at all the wiring diagrams, they realized they ordered the wrong heating element and had to reorder. Then the order never came...

Upon leaving the parking lot, the rattle in the knee board was still there. They replaced the hood release cable and it ended up being a bolt loose the whole time. I found it and took it back for them to deal with it, another day.

Went back after work one day for a road test

Now have to go back again next week for them to deal with the steering wheel.

Geiser100 · December 19, 2015

I don't have much to say, except I never take my vehicles to the dealership for any work. I feel the "techs" are incompetent and don't care, and will always find something else wrong just to make money or avoid the real problem. I would suggest taking it to a trusted mechanic. I've been using the same mechanic for 20 years. A little off topic but I had to vent. My sister just took her car to the dealership for inspection. Told her she needed new brakes. She decided to go to her regular mechanic and he said her brakes are fine.

Mike Trnka · December 19, 2015

So they're going to mis-align your suspension in order to fix it. You may end up wearing out your front tires faster.

Sounds like the techs doing the work are a bit on the inexperienced side.

If you have an infrared temp gun, you could go for a drive and then compare brake temps side to side and find out real fast if its a dragging brake issue. Temps should be close to the same from left to right and the front will be noticeably warmer then the back. Be sure to compared the same parts side to side. A caliper will be a different temp then the rotor.

EFLine · December 19, 2015

So they're going to mis-align your suspension in order to fix it. You may end up wearing out your front tires faster.

Sounds like the techs doing the work are a bit on the inexperienced side.

If you have an infrared temp gun, you could go for a drive and then compare brake temps side to side and find out real fast if its a dragging brake issue. Temps should be close to the same from left to right and the front will be noticeably warmer then the back. Be sure to compared the same parts side to side. A caliper will be a different temp then the rotor.

Well I am very mechanically inclined and only going to the dealership because its CPO and factory warranty. There is no out of pocket cost at all to me

That is a great idea to check the hanging brake and check the temp. But yes, it sounds like they are going to mess with it more to get it to drive straight. They assured me though that this would not wear the tires out any faster.

I do plan on putting a RC level kit on it shortly with 275/65/20 BFG KO2 on it in the spring which will cause a new alignment. BUT i'd like to get it sorted out first before all that

Brianibew · December 19, 2015

I notice mine pulls when there's any significant road crown or slope. I have a 2014 with 20's. Took it to the dealer and they checked the alignment and its within specs. They explained that the new electric steering senses road crown and will automatically compensate for it which makes sense because sometimes it drives straight as an arrow. Now it will only compensate for so much hence the intermittent pull, and I assume it does that for safety reasons.

ih8ford · December 19, 2015

I don't have much to say, except I never take my vehicles to the dealership for any work. I feel the "techs" are incompetent and don't care, and will always find something else wrong just to make money or avoid the real problem. I would suggest taking it to a trusted mechanic. I've been using the same mechanic for 20 years. A little off topic but I had to vent. My sister just took her car to the dealership for inspection. Told her she needed new brakes. She decided to go to her regular mechanic and he said her brakes are fine.

I get what your saying and im sure there are a ton of really bad dealership techs out there but there are also just as many bad mom and pop shop mechanics. Its not fair to lump all techs together thou Im a gm master tech and take great pride in my work but im sure not all techs do. Its always worth giving the dealership a try If you have bad experiences try another dealer or then take it to your trusted mechanic.

as for the original poster is sounds like their alignment guy is not very good have them straighten the wheel and ask for a print out of the specs to share with us when they are done.

crafferty · December 19, 2015

How does the truck drive in a flat parking lot? If you haven't test it that way you should do so. Just go to a flat empty parking lot, take your hands off the wheel and see if it pulls to a side.

Geiser100 · December 20, 2015

I get what your saying and im sure there are a ton of really bad dealership techs out there but there are also just as many bad mom and pop shop mechanics. Its not fair to lump all techs together thou Im a gm master tech and take great pride in my work but im sure not all techs do. Its always worth giving the dealership a try If you have bad experiences try another dealer or then take it to your trusted mechanic.

as for the original poster is sounds like their alignment guy is not very good have them straighten the wheel and ask for a print out of the specs to share with us when they are done.

Oh I know. Im just speaking about my local GM dealership, and our Ford dealership. There's always good and bad places. As well as some not so good small mechanics that will do anything to get a buck.

BlackZ71Silverado · December 20, 2015

They had your truck for 18 days and still didn't get the alignment correct, or fix the other issues you were having, typical dealership service department.

Sorry you have to deal with this but your case is another example of why I suggest people STAY AWAY from dealerships when it comes to any type of work. All of these so-called "technicians" have absolutely no idea what they are doing and your situation proves that yet again.

Don't let these people touch your truck. Whoever came up with the idea of misaligning the opposite side to make the wheel straight should not be allowed to even touch a wrench! That's not the proper way to do things, you don't take something out of proper alignment in an attempt to make the steering wheel straight. The steering wheel should be set during the front end alignment, not after the fact because they don't know how to do the job. If they set the right tire to "pull", that's really going to throw the front end out of alignment and you will burn through tires in a hurry. It's sad to see these dealerships still pulling these stunts with customers. It wouldn't be bad if they would just admit they don't know how to do the job but misaligning one side of the truck is a terrible idea.......Get your truck into a good 4x4 shop that actually know what they are doing.

You are better off paying a shop that knows how to do the work than you are buying new tires every few months because the dealership can't align it properly.

muddkatt · December 20, 2015

As for them centering the wheel, they said they will accomplish this by adjusting the right tire to pull more, therefore pulling the steering wheel "right" to center it.

I hope that they did not actually say it like you phrased it.