Car pulls to the right (LHD), especially with brake regen

[puckernutter]

Hi guys,

Since I've got the car, almost one year ago now, I had a sense the car always pulls slightly to the right. It's seems more evident when I have full break regen on (B5) and the least evident vice versa with B0.

You can tell that the steering wheel isn't quite centered and it always seem to wander slightly to the right rather then center on acceleration from a red light or something. Yes, I have checked if the road was level. :lol: This is of course a nuisance, especially when using ACC on the motorway as the gear selected is always D which applies a bit more breaking force than B0. You have to counter steer with a small force to left most of the time.

I had it in the workshop last week to have the front chassis adjusted as a recommend fix from the workshop (and also had to pay for it) but that didn't do anything.

I wanted to check if anyone else experienced the same, and if the workshop got it figured ou?. My guys don't seem to know what I'm talking about. However, my seller experienced the same thing with his car.

 

[Titan]

Assuming the tracking is spot on, have you changed the tyres? I had this once in a BMW and it turned out to be the tyres were to blame. A quick switch and all was spot again.

 

[puckernutter]

Yes, same issue with both summer (18 inch) and winter tyres (16 inch studded). And tyre pressure was checked and also had all rebalanced. At first I didn't think that much about the pull, and just highlighted it to the seller which confirmed it. But now it's really starting to bother me.

 

[jaapv]

Yes - there have been quite a few complaints on the Dutch forum.
The most likely cause is Cross-Camber and/or Cross-Caster:



http://yospeed.com/wheel-alignment-explained-camber-caster-toe/

 

[puckernutter]

So according to that page, they added cross-caster intentionally to pull to the right as a safety measure? I'm not sure what to think of this. My workshop told me they made very little adjustment, "minimal". But if they did it according to recommendation or spec from Mitsubishi, it wont help me.

Do you have links to the dutch discussion?

 

[PolishPilot]

I have the same problem since I changed to 16' winter tires.

First, it came out, the pressure was too low, after fixing it, it got little better,
but still pulling to the right, especially by higher speeds.

I also checked the suspension geometry twice, nothing wrong found,
rotated the tires, and still have the same feeling of pulling right.

I haven't noticed any relation about regen braking setting and the drift.
The same by all values from B0 to B5.

Will change to 18' summer tires soon, will report the effect.

 

[gwatpe]

Looks like AUS shpped PHEV's have normal camber and caster. None of the 3PHEV's I have driven showed any left / right pulling during normal braking or REGEN. Different story if a wheel speed sensor fails.

 

[jaapv]

So according to that page, they added cross-caster intentionally to pull to the right as a safety measure? I'm not sure what to think of this. My workshop told me they made very little adjustment, "minimal". But if they did it according to recommendation or spec from Mitsubishi, it wont help me.

Do you have links to the dutch discussion?

http://www.outlanderphevforum.nl/forum/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=2671&hilit=caster

 

[puckernutter]

gwatpe, it pulls even without brake regen (b0) but it's more evident when you have full regen on. You have to apply more counter steering force.

 

[puckernutter]

Update: Problem is solved.

Turns out that the problem is a combination of the electric steering servos diffuse center position, and poor factory alignment of the REAR(!) chassi/carriage (is that the right word?).

My Mitsubishi Workshop scratched their heads for a few days before taking it to a chassi specialist down the road and they measured up inconsistencies in both front and rear, which was unexpected.

It is now dead straight, but the diffuse feeling of the steering wheel center position remains. That's just how the electric servo is.