Re: 03 Passat GLS persistent alignment (?) issues

Hi Woodchuck,

2 - Usually pulls. And the rental VW Jetta Wolfsburg edition they gave me pulls to the right just about as bad...I'm always having to apply opposite steering pressure and it gets old (just like in my Passat).

...snip...

Our 2002 Passat pulled to the right. It wasn't serious but irritating on interstate type driving. I told the service advisor at the 5000 mile oil change about the problem but after checking they said it was OK, within limits/whatever. However, after the 10000 mile oil change and tire rotation, the pulling went away. Thus, the tire rotation fixed the problem.

Bill snipped-for-privacy@cvm.msstate.edu

This is preceisely why I had such a hard time determining whether there was a problem...I'm aware that American roads lean a bit to the right so that the natural tendency is to avoid oncoming traffic. But, it occurs on both crowned and also very flat single lane country roads. There's definitely a problem - even on the dealers's flat garage floor it pulls to the right. It doesn't pull left unless the leftward slope is significant. They already replaced all of the wheels with new ones from another car on the lot and have ruled out all that is wheel-related, including the brakes. A colleague of mine suspects that a bushing is rotating out of place.

They replaced the struts yesterday to test - no call yet. At this point, I'm pulling (pun) for a new car... hoping to hear back from a few who were successful in getting a car replaced by the dealer after nearly 10,000 miles.

Ha, I would like to see how this can be put to the lemon test. You have

IOW, they can spend lots of corporate money before branding that vehicle a lemon.

It's probably your steering rack forcing it to the right. :0)

No. I would be freaking out much more than you. It might be reasonable to let them try to replace the struts, wheels, tires, etc. to try to address the problem. These would all be considered "wear" items that might affect alignment. Anything could have gone wrong when they put the car together - but it should have been caught by now. I would ask them what they plan to do the rest of the way, and ask the sales manager (or owner) if it is reasonable to ask for a new car if the problem is not resolved to your satisfaction within a specific time frame. That might at least set up some sort of window of time for them to fix it while you check out the lemon laws for your state. You ask about similar problems, I had an Audi Quattro that would wear out tires ever since new and I allowed my dealership to replace a part of the subframe after the warranty had expired. It didn't fix the problem and it cost over $500 for the part alone!

Yeah, that would make sense too...! I suppose it's safe to consider the tendency to avoid oncoming traffic a happy side-effect. I read that alignment shops (and we hope dealerships) compensate for the amount of crown prevalent in the area. Lots of heated arguments seem to surround the most desirable amount of crown.

Yeah, that was certainly my initial thought on the idea of getting the thing replaced / refunded. The lemon law in Tennessee seems to indicate that once the car's been in the shop, under warranty, for 30 days without resolution, things can start to happen. They've had the thing for 15 days and are clueless - how long should I have to make payments on a Passat while driving a dealer's Jetta and hearing about them swapping out the parts in my brand new car? Not that I'm complaining about the free mileage, but it really is BS and I'm getting pretty irritated.

Good Luck. Let RAMVW know the final outcome of your predicament.

I heard this about other non-VW vehicle. It makes sense especially in the Trucking industry where drivers can kill lots of people if they fall asleep at the wheel. I believe there is really something to this information.

However, what about the driving on the other side in different countries like the UK, HK, AU etc etc. :)

Actually, it does. In most cases it would be far cheaper to have all water drain to one side of the road, but due to oncoming traffic, this is not a real safe sollution.

Hmmm. Interesting theory. Why then is an Interstate crowned in the center of the two lanes on each side?

Clearly. I was responding to the poster who said that it was only because of oncoming traffic that there was a crown versus a single slope towards one side. If that were true, I'd expect the separated sides of a freeway to not have crowns, but they clearly do.