Hello all. I've had an issue with the car pulling to the left for awhile. I finally began to get things checked out and started with an alignment. Got one done at NTB, but car still pulled. Got the tires remounted/balanced at Discount Tire and the car still pulled. Brought it back to NTB and they told me three of my shocks/struts are bad and need replacement. They said the tires were "cupping" on the inside on three of them.

I bought the car nearly a year ago as a certified GM car at 19k miles. It now has 31k and I have a 5 year warranty through GM on top of that. The car's been pulling for a little while now (that I've noticed) and I have newer (4k mile) tires that I bought late last year on the car. Do you think the dealer will help out since this seems really early for shocks to go out on the car? I baby the car by the way and am very easy on it. Thanks in advance!

Brian

 

Defective parts are covered 3 years and 36K miles. Struts and shocks included. The other warranty you bought will cover struts but not shocks.

I am curious how they determined they were bad. Were they leaking?

 

They didn't say actually. I think the way the tires were wearing was making them think it was the shocks/struts?

 

Take it to your dealer, or another shop, to say that NTB has a nationwide reputation for poor service and screwing people over would be an understatement.

More than likely its an alignment issue or a "tire pull", please take the time to have it looked at, or you will find yourself buying shocks and struts that you don't need.

 

Bad struts or shocks making it pull to one side? I don't see how. I think you've got other issues causing it to pull. Get another shop to look at it.

 

How about the dealer? I still have four years of bumper to bumper warranty on the car. I imagine they wouldn't charge me to look over the car, right? Also, I can get my poorly functioning brakes (upon cold start up) looked at too.

Brian

 

No charge to look at anything covered under warranty, and its the best place to take it really.

 

Does the car pull or is the steering wheel off center? ALOT of people confuse the two. Can you get the car to go straight if you turn the steering wheel slightly to the left or right? If so then when you had the alignment done the steering wheel was not locked at dead center and the they need to adjust the tow with the wheel straight. Sometimes this can take several test drives as the steering on our cars is very touchy. This is the reason that the alignment says all is good because it is, it is just set to a crooked steering wheel.

Only way of determining if its the tires is buy new tires or swap the two front tires. If this eliminates the pull or if it pulls in the other direction then its the tires. If it does exactly the same thing and you can't get the car to go straight in any steering position than its the alighnment of the car.

Hope this helps.

PS: The brake issue is easily solved with warrantied repair. Just be careful if you have a tune. They will reflash the car to stock with this repair.

 

The car will start off straight, then veer off to the left pretty quickly. The tires probably have 3-4k on them and NTB swapped the tires front to back and left to right. They are directional tires, but NTB wanted to try them left to right just to see if the car would pull the other way. They determined that the car still pulled to the left after trying the tires in different formations.

As far as the brake issue goes, I have the GM turbo upgrade, but nothing aftermarket. Hopefully their fix will not affect that.

Thanks for all of the suggestions so far! I am going to stop by the dealer this morning and see if I can set something up with them. I'll keep you all posted.

Brian

 

Chevymgr says the brake fix will not affect your GMS1 tune.