Hello all,

We recently became the (mostly) happy owners of a Focus Ghia 1.8 TDCi 51 plate. At only 48K miles it seems to be in pretty good nick. Mostly it feels really great to drive BUT...

It pulls to the right when you accelerate hardish. Is this a common fault and does anyone know what it is / how to fix it?

I've checked the tyre pressures are all OK, tyre condition is fair all round too. It stays straight under light/medium/hard breaking. I ran out of ideas after that so here I am! :)

Thanks,

The tracking would be my first point of call.

agreed, tracking is the best and cheapest way to start! presuming you have checked all the tyre pressures?

agreed, tracking is the best and cheapest way to start! presuming you have checked all the tyre pressures?

As I said in the OP the tyre pressures are correct.

We'll be getting the tracking checked ASAP. Thanks for the replies guys,

When you say they were ok, I presume you mean they are to the correct pressure for the relevant load? have you checked the tread across the surface? is it even across or different?

if there is more wear and tear on one side, the tracking is most likely going to be the issue, if not, it could be more to do with alignment.

When you say they were ok, I presume you mean they are to the correct pressure for the relevant load? have you checked the tread across the surface? is it even across or different?

if there is more wear and tear on one side, the tracking is most likely going to be the issue, if not, it could be more to do with alignment.

I have now had a closer look at the tread and it is an even depth across the whole width of the tyre.

It is going in to a garage on Sat now for balance/tracking/alignment checks. 'Wheel' know soon enough if it is any of those things for sure. :)

My Mk 2 that I recently bought was also pulling to the right when I first got it. On closer inspection of the tyres it was noticed that the drivers side front tyre was almost at the limit and the passenger side front tyre was practically brand new. The tyre dude said this was the cause as the passenger side was gripping more than the drivers and thus the car pulled to the right under hard acceleration. I've had the drivers side tyre changed and it no longer pulls to the right

One of the few garages I trust had a look at this for us last weekend. They ruled out balance/tracking/alignment and the tread depth is the same on both front tyres. Which, are also the same make/model as each other. They suggested that it was possible one of the tyres was manufactured poorly and to test the idea swapped them side to side. Now the car pulls the other way. Point proven I think. Solution I will try this weekend is swapping the front pair for the back pair. The back pair being 'Firestone' brand which I suspect is somewhat better than the el cheapo ones on the front ;) If that works then I will leave it be and replace the cheapo's when I have some wonga. Which may well be when hell freezes... lol :)

I had this problem before on my Focus ST170 and it was the wheel balance, could be that. If not check the tracking too. Wheel balance issue was only at high speeds though about 70 ish.

They ruled out balance/tracking/alignment and....

So swapping the front to back pairs over did the trick. :)

Note to self: Don't let the el cheapo ones get back on the front of the car.

Thanks to everyone that offered their thoughts on this. Some useful reminders, hopefully some others will find it useful too.

Can we mark posts/questions as solved?