I bought my new S from an insurance buy back knowing it had some things to fix. I just got some SSR Professor SR1 and I'm dying to throw them on and go drive the thing but the car pulls hard to the right. You can easily go straight by holding the wheel maybe 10 degrees left of center, but cornering obviously is less than predictable. Viewing the car head on, the driver's side wheel is perfectly straight and flush with the side of the car, but the passenger side wheel points slightly to the right, as if the steering wheel was turned 5-10 degrees.

I took the wheel off and looked around, suspecting it was the LCA but nothing looks bent. All the attachment points to the car are seated correctly, the arms don't have any noticeable bends, the bolts/bushings holding control arms all look normal, etc.

Yeah, I could go to a shop and figure it out but I thought that someone might have an idea I could go by, plus I try to fix whatever I can on my own. You know, buy tools, not labor. I'd of course get it professionally aligned after, I just want to replace the bad part first.

For reference I'm not completely clueless; I'm a decent "home mechanic" that has done auto to manual swaps in 240s for people, can pull motors, do my own valve adjustments, etc. I'm just not a trained ASE mechanic and so Youtube, FSM's, and online DIY's are my besties.

Thanks for any help!

 

It's almost impossible to visually see something bent on our cars since nothing is really straight to begin with.
You may have a bent knuckle so look at that and compare with the other side. It'll either be bent where it attaches to the upper control arm or at the lower control arm where it bolts to the ball joint.
Use straight edges and tape measures to locate issues.
Good luck

 

Tape measures - great idea. I figure it has to be off a good bit somewhere for it to be 5 degrees-ish pointing to the right when driver's wheel is straight. And I suspected it was somewhere near the ball joint after not thinking it was the LCA.

Thanks for the reply, I'll take a look at the car tomorrow.

 

It won't be much due to the distance of the two points that would cause that. It's like a V vs a v the further out you go the greater the distance between the two lines.
I just don't want you to discount a small discrepancy thinking it should be a larger value, keep an open mind and think about the angles involved.

 

Great advice, thanks so much. I'm hoping I'll find this quickly

 

If the passenger tire looks like it's pointing to the right (tow in) but the tire still looks like its straight up and down (camber) I would look at the tie rods. The tie rods are what adjust your toe. If it was bent it would pull the tire in. It could just be a bad alignment. If something is slight bent causing the tire to go tow in, your tie rod might have enough adjustment to push it out and everything will be honky dory. Its hard without seeing it first hand though.

 

Thanks for the input - I'll take some pictures of it. The car was curbed while making a right turn. The old owner took the turn too quickly and both passenger wheels were scraped to hell as he hit the apex of the turn. Both passenger side tires had gashes in the side walls and the wheels are ready for the aluminum recycler.

 

Ouch!

 

Have you thought to take the car in for an alignment? That's where I'd start. It could just be that something slipped with your alignment, especially if you haven't been able to find anything bent.