Steering wheel not straight on a new Forester

This seems to be a common problem with new Subaru vehicles.

Do not try the bicycle handle bar approach. It will not solve the pulling to one side. Is the car brand new or new to you?

In the past I have found the following causes:

1. Defective Tires: Is the problem more noticeable at higher speeds? Move the front tires to the rear. If this solves the problem, try to get the defective tire replaced under warranty. Good luck!!!

1. Alignment problem. It seems that the alignment could be lost during transportation due to an incorrect vehicle tie down procedure.

2. Frame problem. Lets hope this is not your case.

Take the car back to your dealer a.s.a.p. If you cannot do it right away, call your dealers service advisor and let him know about the problem. Have them solve this issue.

snipped-for-privacy@ix.netcom.com wrote:

yep, it's a matter of adjusting the tie ends... get your dealer to fix it... should never have passed the PDS like that...

Thanks for the advice. It had about 150 miles on the odometer when I picked it up because it had been driven from another dealership in another city. But I don't think anybody could have driven it so bad to create this problem during the first

I'll call the dealer tomorrow to make an appo>This seems to be a common problem with new Subaru vehicles.

I would first check the tire pressure with a good digital gage. A soft tire will result in pulling but, not explain the steering of set. Roads have crowns that can cause drifting. Does the car drift on all roads? Try the other lane to see if the drifting is caused buy the road. eddie

Unless you have one tire (RF) very low on air, I would suspect that somebody hit something with the left front tire ( curb, rock, center divider), pushing it rearward. This moves the caster in the negative direction). If this is what happened, that same rearward motion will always change the toe settings, which will cause your steering wheel to be off center.

Unless it was never aligned after manufacture, something is almost certainly bent under your Forestor. If you're so inclined, get a tape measure and carefully measure the distance between the front and rear wheels on each side of the car. I'm sure you will find that the left side wheels are closer together than the right side wheels. A difference of 2mm will cause a slight but noticeable pull toward the side with the shorter measurement. Differences bigger than that will be pronounced.

Good luck with the dealer. I hope everything works out.

Regards, Steve Hansen

He didn't say that it pulled to the left, he said the steering wheel was off kilter. This should be just a tie rod adjustment. Tonyrama

You're right, he didn't. He phrased it like this:

"If I hold the steering wheel straight while driving on the freeway at 65 mph then the front left wheel will go into the next lane in about 5 seconds or so."

=============================================

I went back to the dealer yesterday but the service manager said that Subaru wants their customers to wait until the car reaches 1,000 miles (or wait until the 3,000 mile oil change) because the problem could have been caused by the way the car was transported and may correct itself after a while.

Thanks for all the suggesti>

Unacceptable... Tell them to fix it... if it is pulling to one side, it hasn't been predelivered properly.

having worked in the tyre industry whilst at university, a wheel alignment problem will never rectify itself...

And depending what is causing it, waiting may be wearing off your rubber -not the dealers.

F. Plant

I don't think it's pulling to one side but will have to check again.

A dealer told me the Forester in particular was susseptible to alignment changes during transport, and they check the alignment on each one during the pre delivery inspection. Ed

I had the same problem with my WRX and the dealer told me that 4WD cars can be up 7 degrees out!!!.(I said mine was about 5 degrees out). I took it to a good tyre place and they rectified it by doing a proper wheel alignment. By the way the car never pulled to one side either. It will definitely not rectify itself. You can either push the point with the dealer or pay for it yourself which I did for $38 (Aussie dollars) Hope this helps

Thanks mate.

I checked mine out on the freeway yesterday and it pulled to the right very slowly when I took my hands off the steering wheel but this could be because the freeways here in the U.S. are lower on the right side than on the left.

I'll just wait until it reaches 1,000 miles and then get the dealer to fix it.

If you have access to another dealer take it there.

The wife's Outback is still drift> Col>

I would not wait because the "you could have caused it" by hitting something. ed