General Maintenance & Repairs - Help..car intermittently pulls hard to the right??

Hey guys i just bought an o1 ws6 and every once in awhile....i'll hit a bump in the road(nothing major) and the car will pull HARD to the right....then hit another bump and it will be fine and i can track straight with no hands??? i thought maybe alignment but intermittently like that..maybe a tie rod..??

also the only place that seems to do an alignment around me here (plattsburgh nY) im at college is the local Warren Tire or Sears...i duuuuno if i trust sears with my car....honestly they make good tools but eh im skeptical..

any ideas or similar problems?? thanks guys

Maybe a tierod. Jack up the car and see if you can move the wheel at all.

Maybe a tierod. Jack up the car and see if you can move the wheel at all.

Thats what im thinking too.....i remember right before i bought it that the guy said he just had the left tie rod replaced .......maybe the right one needs it now too...i got caught up in the fact that i was actually finally goin to own one of these cars and forgot to ask about the other tie rod....

i'll jack it up later and find out ...thanks

Well i jacked up both sides of the car and the front right (the way the car pulls intermittently)....has minimal but definatly noticeable side to side movement....doesnt move up and down though....looking at where it connects to the wheel it looks as though that bushing is shot....does that explain the hard pulling to the right ? as well as probly an alignment?? (car has 56,000 miles)

Yeah if the tierod end bushing is shot, the car is going to yank in whatever direction the wheel moves.

Yeah if the tierod end bushing is shot, the car is going to yank in whatever direction the wheel moves.


Alright that makes perfect sense now because i payed alot more attention to it today and it seems that it will pull to the left sometimes as well ...and when i hit a bump again it tracks straight or sometimes right...its not horrible yet but scares me sometimes out of the blue it will do it lol....

im looking at replacement parts right now...dont really know where to get them because im going to attempt this myself....should i just get that new lower ball joint and end bushing or should i get the lower and upper and tie rod and replace it all?

thanks for all your help tainted meat :drive:

I have compeletly shitty roads around here, I found out that since we have wide tires it gets in the groves alot and about jerks me off the freeway sometimes. I put some different rims on it, and now it's gone.. go figure.

I had the alignment checked and made sure there was no play. BMW's have the same problem around here.. it's not a slow drift but a sharp jerk to one way or the other.

Before you go replacing a bunch of stuff... take it to a road with no ruts in it... see if it does it there

Mine does the same thing on a bumpy road, but on a smooth black top road it is fine. I am doing the tie rods hopefully this weekend I will let you know how it feels after I am done! :drive:

The tie rods or inner tie rods could have looseness that is causing the car to strafe every now and then. If they dont have any slop in them, causing the wheel to move then they are not the problem. I would check all of your front end, especially your lower ball joints for looseness as well as your front struts, perhaps they are sticking? A follow up with a good alignment would be beneficial too! I hope you find the problem, it sounds like you might have already! G/L

when i go over those little indicators in the middle lane i do it all the time dealership told me my outer rods are shot and charged me 40 for a bullshit alignment i didnt get ohwell..

i know where to get some online for $34 shipped (both outer's) they got like 10-11 sets left hit me up ill pm ya :judge:

when i go over those little indicators in the middle lane i do it all the time dealership told me my outer rods are shot and charged me 40 for a bullshit alignment i didnt get ohwell..

i know where to get some online for $34 shipped (both outer's) they got like 10-11 sets left hit me up ill pm ya :judge:


PM'd You....im pretty sure its my right lower ball joint ( i think thats what it is)....the little ball that connects to the control arm on the bottom side of the wheel.....it has a little bit of play from side to side and doesnt look greased at all

thanks for the help guys