My 2010 XF Premium, now with 820 miles on it, still pulls to the right and I have to hold the steering wheel slightly to the left to keep it straight. It has done this since I got it when it had 40 miles on it. The dealer has done the tracking twice and tells me that it’s as perfect as they can get it.

Since the dealer is an 80 mile round trip, I’m going to rotate the tires (pressures are all correct) myself to see if that helps. Maybe it’s a case of “radial pull”. If it’s not that then the dealer states they will have to contact the factory as they have nothing else they can do.

I’ll keep you posted on my quest to have my $60k car drive in a straight line with a centered steering wheel.

 

Swap the front tires side to side only if its truely a tire pull. This will either confirm if it is or not. If not the issue they, can always put more negative camber on the right than the left. Ive said it before and ill say it again, an alignment machine is a tool, not the end all. I have and do setup cars out of spec to correct tire wear issues and pull/drifts. You can have a car "in spec/in the green" and still wear tires drift and pull.
Tell them to fly me out to cali and put me in a hotel and ill align your car and it will go straight

 

Hey Brutal, thanks for the advice, I will be swapping the front wheels L to R then testing. After that it will be a third trip to the dealer and another day or more without my car. I’m going to print out your advice to “put more negative camber on the right than the left”.

Oh, and I’ll work on that plane ticket and hotel for you! J

 

As long as youre on a flat road when your checking and dont have road crown(which is to the right)then youre fine. I almost always put alittle more negative camber right front to combat road crown as this "pushes" the car more than caster will.
I remember back to the 03 and up stype days when were were replacing front tires right and left under 10k miles and the cars were "in spec" for front toe. I started toeing the front ends into the red out of spec and they quit wearing the insides out and then sent this is along with others im sure and jaguar changed the specs for toe in on the stype...
The bad thing about this is that the software that still to this day that shops have for alignment spec on the s type are the old incorrect specs. The dealers have to set the "corrected specs" manually into the computer. This is why i tell people to go to the dealer for alignments unless you take the corrected specs to an independant and have them enter the info...otherwise youll always end up with specs that will wear out your front tires prematurely.......
Alignments on jags are so easy i gladly spend time with a customer if theyre having an issue as yours as they communicate with me what theyre experiancing instead of just thinking an alignment will fix it. Yes but let the tech know what your experiancing so he/she can address it specificlly. We have our ways...............

 

I have been testing it on all kinds of roads at all kinds of speeds. The faster I’m going the worse it is. Even on a road that slops off to the left it will slowly move right. Funny thing is that when I let go of the wheel, it (the steering wheel) will go dead centered all by itself, but the car unfortunately is not going straight at this point.

I called the dealer again this morning and told them, they told me they will have a factory rep come out to the dealer and meet me there to review it. I told them I’ll be swapping the wheels around tonight and they want me to call them tomorrow to tell them if it helped or not.

 

Sounds like you do have tire pull since as i understand it...."you need to turn on the right turn signal cause when you let go of the wheel youre changing lanes "
thats pull for sure and useally tire pull, drift is a slow and gradual change. Alignment changes will useally not help or correct tire pull enough to where it wont do it...so when you swap front wheel(this is why i dont like directionals) side to side it will do 1 of 2 things
1) it now goes straight
2) it now goes left

 

Pulling Tire Diagnosis

Step 1

Action to be Taken

Rotate the two

Results

1. If the vehicle pulls in the opposite direction, the defective tire is 1 of the

2. If the vehicle pulls in the same direction the problem is either with one of the

Step 2

Action to be Taken

Rotate the

Results

1. If the pull no longer exists or diminishes greatly, the tire that was moved to the

Step 3

Action to be Taken

Rotate the two

Results

1. If the vehicle pulls in the opposite direction, the defective tire is 1 of the rear tires.

2. If the pulling tire does not change, the problem is

Step 4

Action to be Taken

Rotate the

Results

1. If the vehicle pull becomes more severe, the defective tire is isolated to the tire that was rotated to
the

25% of tread wear. The defect is caused by the belts being incorrectly aligned during manufacture.

 

See, now have have plenty of info to go back and get it fixed right the first...er 3rd time

 

Hi Brutal

That is the best piece I have seen on tyre and alignment problems in all my years driving, (around 40). Hope you don't mind if I copy and keep it on my PC hard drive. I changed tyres on my last car, a Rover 75, and it pulled to the left ! (we drive on the left here ). The pull was not much really, but was a nuisance. Tyre place said alignment perfect, which I suppose it was as there was no problem with the old tyres.

 

^^^THATS BUT GazUK posted the tire pull info

 

Pulling is caused by one of two things: incorrect camber or a defective tire. Of the two the defective tire is by far the most common cause. Tire defects arise from belt misalignment in manufacture which shows up immediately, belt deterioration due to defective manufacture which shows up later and usually gets progressively worse or physical damage to the tire from hitting obstacles like deep potholes. This last is pretty obvious to the driver at the time the damage occurs. The symptoms are always the same, the alignment cannot be done correctly, no matter how hard the shop tries, and moving the tires around changes the driving characteristics.

It is very easy to check for correct alignment: drive along the crown of the road (usually dead center) until the car tracks straight. If you have to drive to the left of center then the problem is the left wheel and vice versa if to the right. If you cannot find a balanced place to drive on one side of the crown or the other then it is in your head not the car.

Correction: for independent rear suspension it is possible for incorrect rear toe in that differs from left to right to cause the car to feel as if it is pulling to one side. If one rear wheel is toe'd differently from the other then the rear of the car will "thrust" away from the wheel that is toe'd in more (or toe'd out less if the static spec calls for toe out, very unusual on a road car). This will require that the driver steer in the same direction as this thrust and the whole car will crab slightly down the road.

Toe in the front always evens out through the steering which may cause the steering wheel to be off center but will not cause pulling.

 

Well last evening I swapped the two front wheels arround and went for a road test. MAJOR improvment! It would even drift left if the road leant that way. So there must be somthing wrong with the front right tire since moving it to the front left stopped the pull to the right.

So then I moved the front wheels to the back, keeping the bad tire on the left, drives great, even the streering wheel is within a bugs dick of center.

My next move then I guess is to get that tire replaced under warranty. I will have this car perfect yet if it takes me to the end of my lease to do it!

 

And the Choir Rejoiced