Pennetta

I noticed a few weeks back that my car was drifting (not pulling) to the left when I let go of the steering wheel. I know I hit a few pot holes and figured the wheel alignment was out. I checked my tire pressure and they are okay. The car has never been in an accident and I never hit a pothole that was significant enough to think major damage. The car drifts left whether the street is graded to the right or left for drainage. The steering wheel is straight while going straight as well.

I went to the MB dealer and told them the car drifts left and please check the wheel alighnment. They completed the alignment and I asked to look at the align spec sheet which showed the front being out. They corrected it but the car still drifts left???

Any ideas?

nauticalx

could be your tires and the way they have worn while the front end was out, i would have them rotated and see if that helps it. this will not be possible without having them removed from the wheels if they are directional tires. let us know if this fixes it.

lee16

Get a wheel alignment

vroom

lots of merc fo drift left stock from the factory, it's a common problem

BenzMan369

And the winner is.........nauticalx!

If the tire pressures are correct, the dealer did the alignment correctly, there is no visible wheel or tire related damage, and you're not experiencing any unusual vibration or noises, his advice is probably the best thing to try at this point.

If car still drifts after that, make the dealer find the problem. Generally, these models do not suffer from directional stability problems absent an underlying cause.

I had this annoying problem many moons ago with a different car. Turned out to be a bad belt in one of the tires. Was not visible to the eye.

Good luck and, yes, please let us know the outcome.

dav461

mine goes left as well. its not such a big problem. wheel balance and tire pressure is okay. it may be roads.

BenzMan369

For sure, roads can cause a car to drift. He did say that his car drifts in the same direction no matter which way the road is graded though. I've also read that even the way a particular type of surfacing material interacts with a particular tire tread design can cause drifting. So I guess you never know.

My car is straight-arrow stable on most road surfaces and I've only read a few such complaints in these forums over the last year and a half. Unless people are just living with it and not reporting it.

With the vulnerable low profile UHP tires combined with the type of suspensions on these cars my first inclination is to suspect tire problems when there are directional stability issues and the car is within specs otherwise. It's fairly easy to test this and rule it out, as mentioned above.

nauticalx

thanks bro!