To All:
I have a 2004 XG350L with 52,000-mi. This car was purchased new (plastic was still on the seats) in March 2004 from our local Hyundai dealer in Auburn, Washington just outside of Seattle. The car has been well cared for and perfectly maintained. Last week, I took it in to a local alignment shop - all they do is alignments and front-end work. The car has been in before and has had no problems. Recently, within the last five or six months, I've notice a tendency for the car to drift around on the highway, requiring more constant steering input to track straight. Whenever I hit any road abrasions, ripples or small bumps, the steering wants to track the bump or ripple away from a straight line - I can take my hands off the steering wheel at low speeds (35 mph - 45 mph) and watch it move left and right. And finally, there has been a tendency for the steering to pull slightly to the right. So, I thought it was time for a 4-wheel alignment. The original tire are always properly inflated to the cold temperature - I use an AccuTire Digital Tire Gauge - and they are always rotated every 8,000 miles. When I took the car in for it's alignment, the technician came into the waiting room and said he could not perform the alignment because the lower right-front ball joint was going bad. The other three were in great shape. I asked how that could be and he said that it could be a factory defect. So, I thanked him for his time and took it to another shop for a second opinion - same deal. Now, how can this happen? My wife and I are not hot rodders and we are very careful about how we drive. Most of the mileage is highway miles. Does anybody have any thoughts? The car is still under factory warranty.