Steering pulling left.

ideajim · April 5, 2023

New 2023 sierra 2500 HD 4WD Standard Bed Crew Cab. From the day I bought the trucks pulls to the left and the pressure required to keep it straight makes the steering wheel tilt to right. Dealer checked alignment, swapped front tires left to right, change both front tires with new, and cannot get this thing to track straight on crowned roads or flat highways. Let go of the steering wheel and it will completely change lanes in 100 feet. GM engineer checked it and collaborated with his team and came back with it will probably eventually go away but other than that they cannot fix it. I find this to be a major problem for head on collision if distracted for a short period of time. Anyone have advice on how to figure this out because I been to the dealer 4 times and now got the answer "live with it". A truck that cost this much should not have to be tolerated in my opinion. But feel free to set me straight if I am wrong. TIA for input.

Update: Took the truck to a reputable company that does alignment all day long as well as front to back alignment. The dealer agreed to pay for it if they could fix it. 2 hours after I dropped it off they called to pick up. Took it for a drive and the problem was still there but worse and to the right. Returned and asked if they actually test drove it at highway speeds and they had not. They went over all the adjustments made and most of what the dealer had set it to was out of spec. the service guy asked me for ten minutes to try something and returned my truck to me and asked me to drive it and let them know. Well it was perfect no pull either way. He did point out to me that the right front tire had a bad date code on the outside of the tire yet it was right on the inside of the tire. His 10 minute fix was to swap that tire to the right rear and the right rear to the front. All of this tire swapping was supposedly done by the dealer including 2 new front tires and that changed nothing but the front back swap fixed it all. It appears I should never ever put Goodyear Wranglers on this truck as they cant be relied upon. They are the stock tires that came on it new although it has a Michelin spare from the factory.

Edited April 25, 2023 by ideajim
Update

SteveP45 · April 5, 2023

Keep taking it back to the dealer and insist the entire truck be replaced via the “lemon” law.

swathdiver · April 6, 2023

James, did the dealer give you a readout of the alignment?

A pull is usually the toe setting or the tires and in rare cases a ball joint or camber issue.

Take it to another dealer. Maybe go around back and speak to the guy with the biggest tool box. That's what I always did.

SteveP45 · April 6, 2023

Excellent point by swathdiver.

If the person doing the alignment cannot give you a before and after printout, then go to another GM dealer because the alignment equipment at the dealer you are going to is out of whack or the person running it is.

Keep the lemon law in mind..... you might have to resort to it if GM does not step up and intervene and get this resolved.

Bikerjon · April 8, 2023

I would say the same as others. Take it to another dealer and have the Service Manager drive it with you. You do not have to "live with it" on a new truck. Lemon Law is messy and time consuming but make it clear that you are willing to go down that road if your truck will not track straight on a straight level road. (No crown).

64BAwagon · April 8, 2023

I call BS on "they cant fix it"

I had this issue on a truck in the mid 90's. It had a pull to the right. Took it to the dealer and they supposedly aligned it. A few days later I notice the right front tire is already wearing funny. I looked under the truck and the only thing they had touched was the right tie rod, they had cranked the right wheel toe inward to compensate and it would have ate that tire up had I not investigated it. I took it back and told the service mgr that I wanted an actual full alignment done along with the before and after spec sheets. It needed a complete alignment with caster and camber adjustments as well as toe. You might try asking your dealer when was the last time their alignment system was calibrated/serviced ? I would avoid taking it to another dealer. Once a repair has been warrantied for a vehicle it starts to get sticky about the new dealer being paid for the same work. Sort of a disincentive for the new dealer to dive into since they may or may not even get paid for their time.

My 2021 3500HD had a pull when I picked it up. Seeing as they dont road test during a PDI, no one had really paid any attention to it. Since the factory only does toe adjustments on the trucks I figured it was a bigger issue and possibly a tire. I took it to a reputable alignment shop that I know the family (been in business for 60+ yrs) and they swapped the front tires to the back and it didnt fix it. They then aligned it and found the caster was off on the right front. A straightforward fix but not something I would have trusted my dealer with, given their history of lying to me.

I would start a case with GM customer care and get everything in writing, also acknowledging that any real resolution wont come from the person at GM customer care but rather a member of their resolution team. Polite but firm requests will rule the day in this arena.

Your other choice would be to find a reputable alignment shop that comes highly recommended and just pay the money to have it done right. It should be less than $100 but if they find something really wrong you would have paperwork to take back to GM.

Edited April 8, 2023 by 64BAwagon

Mike Duhaime · April 12, 2023

I've done hundreds of wheel alignments and seen just about everything. Toe in has nothing to do with pull, but everything about tire wear. The Camber angle of tire ( tilt in or out at top) causes pull if not even. Caster (angle of upper ball joint in relation to bottom) ( like your bicycle fork, bottom ahead) causes pull if not even. However, the road tosses you in ditch if caster and camber are even. So, all rear wheel drive vehicles have .5 deg more camber on left to keep straight, or .5 deg less caster on left, to track straight. FWD doesn't matter...just toe-in

What are the settings? they need to produce

Bear in mind, 9 out of 10 vehicles only get toe in done. And they get anybody to do it now like the oil change guy. It is tricky to adjust those settings and requires more skill. Sometimes, we needed to give more than .5 deg difference to keep a car straight (RWD) They need to give a printout, or take it to a specialized alignment shop.

Tires are huge culprit for pull. If they swapped left to right and pull is still there, not the tires. But if they swapped front to back, that's not a valid test. But sometimes they might be directional, so they wont cross them,....but you can cross to test, direction is no issue if they rotate opposite of arrow on tire. See people run like that all the time, no issues.

I've seen both tires pull front or back. So ask if they swapped left to right.

Last is power steering. It will cause a nasty pull. This is electric assist, but it doesn't matter, torque sensor in steering shaft can be bad, like in power hydraulic steering. 2 ways to test, start truck with hands off wheel and verify it doesn't kick on start up. Other is shutting off engine on strait road and seeing if pull stops...bit dangerous though!

I have altered caster or camber by 2 degrees to make up for power steering pull. It drove fine. But you have warranty and they must fix it. Please let us know how they fixed it