I’m now bringing my Ford Fusion in for the forth time for an alignment issue. Previously they have replaced a control arm, nothing has changed. The car continues to pull to the left.
Before I bring it in again, I want to be sure the car really has an issue and I’m not crazy. What’s the best way to check alignment? Driving around town the car is fine. On the highway it seems okay, until I drive in the left lane. I know the highway is crowned for water runoff etc. The highway I drive on is two driving lanes in addition to a breakdown lane. Driving in the center lane seems okay, maybe a slight pull to the left, but not really an issue. On the occasion I drive in the left lane, I have to keep slight pressure on the wheel to the right. If I let go of the wheel for a second to “test” it, the car immediately veers to the left hard. Given the crown in the road, is this normal? Any cars I’ve had in the past I haven’t noticed this issue.
The car has 11,850 miles on it, the warranty cover the alignment until 12k.
Thanks!
Not to insult your intelligence but have you checked your tire pressure?
If it’s covered under warranty, just keep taking it back until they get it right.
Yes Jeff, that’s the first thing I checked! Thank you though, it was a good point.
Have the tires been rotated front to back or side to side?
This may be a tire issue. I have a 93 Caprice that had a bad pull to the right. Two alignments and a front to back tire rotation made no difference. I then switched the front tires side to side. After that the car tracked straight. Often than the pull, I had no problems with the tires.
When those tires were replaced last year, the car had a slight pull to the right. Another front side to side rotation fixed that pull also.
Ed B.
I agree, have the front tires rotated from side to side as this could be caused by tire bias and they should have considered this.
About half a dozen years ago I took my old Lincoln Mark in for a new set of tires and it was pulling horribly to one side immediately after I left the tire store.
Since I knew going back was going to involve another wait of several hours more than likely I just drove the car home and rotated the 2 fronts side to side myself.
Problem solved.
Something else to keep in mind. Unless you actually saw them perform this alignment there is a possibility that it was never done at all, or not as many times as claimed.
Since this is allegedly a warrantable issue I have a very difficult time seeing FOMOCO paying for an alignment 4 times while under warranty.
It’s been my experience that a repeated warranty claim (even 2 times) is going to lead to some serious questions from the manufacturer because they do not leave the doors wide open on these matters.
I note that the Ford site has a section where you can register and supposedly view your vehicle service history. Maybe it would be worth the time to check that out and see if these alignments are all listed there. If it’s a legitimate warranty issue then there should be claims on file.