P38 steering pulls to the left

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Gump

Gump

New Member
Posts
11
Location
Kent
Hi everyone, my 2000 P38 pulls to the left, not violently, but more than the road camber can be blamed for. If I let go of the steering wheel it will gently pull left, and I can feel the pull on the steering all the time I'm driving.

The tyres are a new matched pair with the pressures spot on, I asked the MOT bloke last time it was done if he could see anything wrong, he said there was no play in the steering box and nothing appeared wrong. I took it to my local LR indy specialist, he reckons nothing's wrong, and I've had it 4 wheel aligned, still this slight pull to the left. For comparison, if I drive my vito van along the same bit of road, it will trundle along in a dead straight line, where the P38 will pull to the left.

I'm sure I saw something here about being able to adjust out slack in the steering box, but I can't find the thread now. A puzzler, any ideas?

Cheers
 
just put my p38 95 through mot today, clean pass, but i have the exact same problem. Had it to the local tyre centre twice in the last three months, my own mechanic says all bushes and track rod ends etc are fine......... dont know were else to look??
 
try swapping tyres front to rear, there have been several undesirable driving characteristics caused by tyres
 
I brought my 1998 dse 5 years ago and from that day it has pulled to the left, i have checked, replaced neary all the fron sterring ,bushes ect and its still doing it, it i move over to the other side of the road it pulls to the right so i think its the camber of the road or as Fanatic says it could be the tyres, i have changed my front tyres but i still have the pull to the left
 
same as everyone else one thing to look at is tyre wear once the tyres get below about 50 % trad the pull increases I have mucked about with tyre pressures but to be honest I have replaced everything on the front except the diff which I am thinking of doing and at each part changed the pull changes but has never gone away
 
Thanks for the comments everyone, much appreciated.

Michael, thanks for the suggestion on the radius arm bushes, I couldn't tell good from bad myself, but it's on my list of things to check now.

999mph - same boat eh? Where do we look next... aaargh!

Cheers Fanatic, I had some crappy worn out (although they didn't look it) Scorpion STs on it when I bought it and it tramlined like a nutter. A new pair sorted that but not the pull to the left. I now have Goodyear Eagles on the front (much more road tyre that the STs, thought it might make a difference) but no change.

Cossie David - if I do the same and drive on the other side of the camber it doesn't pull to the right, so it doesn't seem to be just the camber.

Sandyt, you haven't filled me with confidence ..... :(
 
Mine was pulling to the left too. When i had my new tyres fitted, they aligned the wheels, but still no improvement.

I went back to them with the toe-out figures quoted in RAVE, and having adjusted it, it's now fine.

Just a thought - hope it helps......
 
Hi.

Had the same trouble on mine until my local landrover mechanic (non franchised) set up the steering from the steering box (With it pinned) and all the pulling went away. Apparently you have to centre the box, pin it then move to the first wheel (passenger i think) set that up to the box and then set the other wheel from it and bobs yer firkin.

Cheers, Nick
 
Thanks fellas, Superingtango - I've had the tracking done twice now, once by my local LR specialist (who told me the usual figures are incorrect, so I suspect he was using the RAVE figures) and once by a motorsport place (the 4 wheel laser job) so I'm guessing it ain't that, unfortunately, and Nick - I'm still wondering about the possibility of the steering box being at fault in some way, but I hadn't heard of this setting up technique, something to investigate maybe. Cheers
 
Don't know if this will help but I had replaced all bushes to polybushes swivel joints wheel bearings suspension bags shocks track rod ends drag link and steering damper also wheels as well as tyres and still had the pull - was talking to a mate who suggested that the drag link may not be up to standard as it was a cheap one so changed the drag link and the steering damper to a bilstien gas damper and bingo pull has gone so not sure if it was a combination of everything but the biggest improvement came from the drag link and the bilstien steering damper - as i said hope this helps
 
I know this thread is a little old at this stage, but I wanted to just provide some experience.
I had the same problem of pulling to the left - the car failed the NCT (National Car Test - Ireland) with a pull of 19m/km. This was after getting the local tyre place to do laser alignment. Went back to them and they put hte ar on the machinery again, and came back saying the car is perfect. Took it for a drive and it was still pulling heavily to the left - they blamed the steering box as being the culprit.
I changed all bushes, checked track rods, drag link and hub ball joints - all of which were fine. Air bags changed, as they were well worn, new shocks to compliment, but no joy - still pulling. Went back to the tyre place and gave them the Rave figures, and while somewhat improved, still pulling left.
Put the car on the diagnostics and re-set the suspension target heights, as they were slightly different - huge improvement. Not totally fixed, but the re-test gave only 7m/km (fail figure is 14m/km).
On the basis of this experience, I would recommend that the suspension heights are checked to make sure the car is level before tackling any suspension issues - sounds like obvious information, but it is very easy to overlook.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully it will help some others out there.

Ken
 
Another point missed off here is the viscous unit failing innthe transfere box one of my customers had this problem he had aready had all the above done did it and it was almost perfect then rechecked and found the bearing had very slight movement replaced this and it was 100%
 
KMCE said:
I know this thread is a little old at this stage, but I wanted to just provide some experience.
I had the same problem of pulling to the left - the car failed the NCT (National Car Test - Ireland) with a pull of 19m/km. This was after getting the local tyre place to do laser alignment. Went back to them and they put hte ar on the machinery again, and came back saying the car is perfect. Took it for a drive and it was still pulling heavily to the left - they blamed the steering box as being the culprit.
I changed all bushes, checked track rods, drag link and hub ball joints - all of which were fine. Air bags changed, as they were well worn, new shocks to compliment, but no joy - still pulling. Went back to the tyre place and gave them the Rave figures, and while somewhat improved, still pulling left.
Put the car on the diagnostics and re-set the suspension target heights, as they were slightly different - huge improvement. Not totally fixed, but the re-test gave only 7m/km (fail figure is 14m/km).
On the basis of this experience, I would recommend that the suspension heights are checked to make sure the car is level before tackling any suspension issues - sounds like obvious information, but it is very easy to overlook.

Sorry for the long post, but hopefully it will help some others out there.

Ken
Click to expand...

Look under steering box centralisation in RAVE.
 
Wammers,

Thanks for the reply.
I centralised the steering box and went through the drill with the laser alignment guy prior to his final set up. Their computer was set up for almost not toe out, while the Rave recommends between 0.15 & 0.5 deg. It's currently at c. 0.5 deg, and the steering is quite fidgity - need to bring that back slightly!
Still not perfect, but it is easier to drive than before.

Ken
 
ive got the same problem with my p38, its pulling to the left ive read up on here about this problem but i wouldnt know where to look but going down my local indy on monday for a chat and book it in with them, got the mot due in a couple of weeks so getting that done while its in there!!!!! hopefully it'll pass!!! ill report back to see what they say/do to fix it.
 
I have had a tram-lining problem and reduced it by fitting a new steering damper. It still catches deep ruts but no where near as badly as before. Does't pull to n/s anymore.
 
KMCE said:
Wammers,

Thanks for the reply.
I centralised the steering box and went through the drill with the laser alignment guy prior to his final set up. Their computer was set up for almost not toe out, while the Rave recommends between 0.15 & 0.5 deg. It's currently at c. 0.5 deg, and the steering is quite fidgity - need to bring that back slightly!
Still not perfect, but it is easier to drive than before.

Ken
Click to expand...


Fidgity steering as you put it, can be caused by steering box not being centralised properly and/or play in steering box. Did you do it as per RAVE?
See Land Rover technical bulletins reference this.
 
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