I recently replaced the suspension on my 99 lexus rx300. Even before then, even when properly aligned the car would pull and drift to the left. I just bought the vehicle to my local toyota stealership for some resolution. They did a complete suspension inspection, including over the work I did. I was at the dealership with the toyota tech for 5 hours. He added some "camber bolts" to try an get the RX to stop drifting to the left. Finally he checked the ride height. The right(passenger side) of the vehicle was 3/4 of an inch lower than the right side. They claimed they needed to take the entire strut assembly off and disassemble it and check the coil spring to see if it was bad. Is there any other factors that would contribute to this difference in height? And would that make this car drift and pull to the left?

thanks for your input in advance it is greatly appreciated!!

 

What is the air pressure in all the tires? You may have a bad tire with a damaged steel belt. Have you tried rotating the tires?

 

All tires pressures are equal. Rotated tires. Didn't change anything. Tires are brand new.

 

For suspension, the problem could also be in diagonal opposite side.

Salim

 

Can you post the print out of the alignment ?

If the passenger side is lower.
The this would add negative camber to the angle of the tire.
Meaning the pass. tire (looking from the top) is angled inwards. If the angle is extreme, it will cause the vehicle to pull left.

Now you said he put camber bolts in. If that fixed the camber, did he re-sweep the angle for Caster?
Remember...changing camber will quite possibly change caster.
To much off-set in casters will result in a pull to the least amount of caster value.
Say caster value on the left is 2.2, right is 3.2. This will pull to the left. Although not a tire wearing issue to a point.

I'm pretty sure you ruled out dragging brakes.

Ohhhh...Just post the ***n print out sheet...!

 

Nad- definitely no caster adjustment. Some have said they had camber adjustment (small amount) but when I had the suspension apart on my DIL's '99RX I definitely did not see ANY camber adjustment period. Bolts fit very precisely through the 2 holes. I do realize that T/L sells camber bolts to change the camber (per chart) from what it is to what you want. I can't imagine that installation of the bolt on the R side would change Caster. My experience is that most of the cars that are built with NO caster (and often NO camber) adjustment don't need adjustment unless there was collision work that was not done right. (I did heavy collision work as well as front end alignment and mechanical) I am still thinking it is in the brake system somewhere. I've seen plenty of radial tire pull, but he said those bases have been covered. One of the tricks I've seen some FE shops pull in a case like this is lower the pressure on one side and increase on the other to get rid of the pull. One of MANY reasons we brought the alignment work back in house.

 

I will post the sheet up later today. Any other suggestions on why this car would still pull. And could it possibly be to a low ride height on the passenger side due to a coil spring going bad?

 

Your right Rog..
No caster adjustment. But there is a Camber adjustment via bolts.
I just wanted to see his before specs compared to his after specs when they installed the camber bolt.
If the angle change was extreme, there might be a possibility of a caster change.

John...has the vehicle beed in any kind of collision before?

 

I am the second owner, I did get a carfax when I bought the car. The was a collision on record. The first owner, opened their door on a busy road and.......a car passing by ripped it off. The front drivers side door and quarter panel was replaced. This is the only accident that occurred.

 

Could the left quarter panel affect the shock housing? Just a thought....

 

Thomas- I'm betting in this case they (he) is calling the LF fender a (quarter panel). A lot of people do, although it is incorrect. I could be wrong, but if a car came by and took the door that he had opened into traffic off, It stands to reason that the damage would travel forward from there, not back.