# 1997 Volkswagen Jetta Pulls Right

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-volkswagen-jetta-pulls-right/73251>\
**Category:** Maintenance/Repairs\
**Tags:** jetta, volkswagen\
**Created:** [June 27, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-volkswagen-jetta-pulls-right/73251 "2012-06-27T23:09:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![jmeis982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jmeis982](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jmeis982)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2012, 11:09pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-volkswagen-jetta-pulls-right/73251/1 "2012-06-27T23:09:49Z")

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Yesterday, i bumped into the curb as I got home, and today when I went to work the car is pulling very hard to the right, and makes a squeeling sound when I get up to speed. The ball joint looks bad, but can that cause this problem?

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**Author:** ![the\_same\_mountainbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@the\_same\_mountainbike](https://community.cartalk.com/u/the_same_mountainbike)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 12:23am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-volkswagen-jetta-pulls-right/73251/2 "2012-06-28T00:23:56Z")

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Absolutely. And if you think it’s noisy now, wait 'til you hear the noise it makes when the lower control arm falls off!

PLEASE get this TOWED to your favorite garage. It is NOT safe to drive with this damage.

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**Author:** ![jmeis982](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/49beb7/32.png) [@jmeis982](https://community.cartalk.com/u/jmeis982)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 8:08am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-volkswagen-jetta-pulls-right/73251/3 "2012-06-28T08:08:32Z")

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Thanks for the help, had my mechanic look at it, wasn’t the ball joint, the engine mount cracked.

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**Author:** ![ok4450](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ok4450](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ok4450)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 8:49am UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-volkswagen-jetta-pulls-right/73251/4 "2012-06-28T08:49:52Z")

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I would strongly suspect the suspension has damage which is not visible to the naked eye so my opinion would be to at least get that car on an alignment rack and see if something shows up.

Curb strikes often tweak the lower control arm at a minimum.

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**Author:** ![the\_same\_mountainbike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@the\_same\_mountainbike](https://community.cartalk.com/u/the_same_mountainbike)\
**Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/1997-volkswagen-jetta-pulls-right/73251/5 "2012-06-29T17:48:05Z")

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+1 to Ok4450’s suggestion. A cracked engine mount won’t typically make a car pull “very hard to the right” when driving. It won’t typically make it pull at all. You have something else going on.