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Pulls to the LEFT under Acceleration, pulls to the RIGHT under Regen.

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My 2016 P90D was just at the SC for a steering rack replacement, they performed an alignment as part of the service.

The steering wheel is now about 5 degrees off-center to the right when driving straight, and it drifts to the left on its own. More alarming, though, It now pulls to the left when accelerating, and pulls to the right under deacceleration. I'm trying to figure out what could be causing that.

Some other details:
  • Only aftermarket component is adjustable rear camber arms.
  • Alignment is within specs with the exception of the RR camber.
  • Rear camber is currently set to -1.6 and -1.2 degrees respectively to get both wheels sitting flush to the fenders.
    • Not sure if my rear subframe is slightly shifted or if the wheel position is slightly off from factory
I can adjust the front toe to center the steering wheel myself, that's not a big deal. But the pulling and rear end feeling unstable/loose is alarming. It felt this way before the service as well, but I thought it might be the steering rack. So, my questions are:

  • Could cross-camber of 0.4 degrees cause the car to pull in one direction or another in acceleration/deceleration?
  • Any ideas on what else I should be checking?
MY ONLY OTHER THOUGHT: Maybe I'm chasing nothing with the rear end, and the front end is so off that it's causing the pulls? Just a theory...During hard acceleration, vehicle nose lifts, and during deceleration, it dives. Front vehicle alignment changes with height changes. Maybe this problem is caused/exacerbated by the bad front end alignment??

I already have yet another SC appointment set up, but I'm trying to see if I can correct this on my own.....having it in the shop is a major inconvenience on the wife and family.
 

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Sounds like a loose component since it pulls opposite directions under acceleration/deceleration

That's what I think too, but I've had a hard time finding it.

The front feels rock solid, though it's definitely improperly aligned.

For the rear, I have a liiiiittle bit of forward/backward slack in the RR suspension, but we're talking a couple millimeters. RL is fine.

With that said, my rear subframe has shifted towards the driver's side by a couple mm, maybe that's indicative of bad subframe mounts?
 
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Check this topic:


It could be the rear toe links.

They SHOULD have noticed that when adjusting the alignment, though..
 
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Check this topic:


It could be the rear toe links.

They SHOULD have noticed that when adjusting the alignment, though..

i read through that thread the other day. My toe links feel solid, no readily observable play - though I’m not the hulk and can’t apply that much force to them to check in my own.
 
i read through that thread the other day. My toe links feel solid, no readily observable play - though I’m not the hulk and can’t apply that much force to them to check in my own.

Here's my test setup.. I couldn't feel any play using "normal" methods, so I bolted a bar to hub bolts to get more leverage. It's not very big movement in the toe link, but you can see how wildly the hub is moving..

 
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Check this topic:


It could be the rear toe links.

They SHOULD have noticed that when adjusting the alignment, though..

This is your issue. I had the same symptoms, which were remediated after getting the toe links replaced on both sides.
 
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This is your issue. I had the same symptoms, which were remediated after getting the toe links replaced on both sides.

Thanks for your help! I read that thread a few days ago and wondered if that's what I was experiencing....

I sent a note to the Service Center asking that they specifically look at/replace the Toe Links when it's in next week. Looks like they have to drop the rear subframe to do that, so there's potential to have the subframe shift fixed as well, which would be wonderful.
 
My 2016 P90D was just at the SC for a steering rack replacement, they performed an alignment as part of the service.

The steering wheel is now about 5 degrees off-center to the right when driving straight, and it drifts to the left on its own. More alarming, though, It now pulls to the left when accelerating, and pulls to the right under deacceleration. I'm trying to figure out what could be causing that.

Some other details:
  • Only aftermarket component is adjustable rear camber arms.
  • Alignment is within specs with the exception of the RR camber.
  • Rear camber is currently set to -1.6 and -1.2 degrees respectively to get both wheels sitting flush to the fenders.
    • Not sure if my rear subframe is slightly shifted or if the wheel position is slightly off from factory
I can adjust the front toe to center the steering wheel myself, that's not a big deal. But the pulling and rear end feeling unstable/loose is alarming. It felt this way before the service as well, but I thought it might be the steering rack. So, my questions are:

  • Could cross-camber of 0.4 degrees cause the car to pull in one direction or another in acceleration/deceleration?
  • Any ideas on what else I should be checking?
MY ONLY OTHER THOUGHT: Maybe I'm chasing nothing with the rear end, and the front end is so off that it's causing the pulls? Just a theory...During hard acceleration, vehicle nose lifts, and during deceleration, it dives. Front vehicle alignment changes with height changes. Maybe this problem is caused/exacerbated by the bad front end alignment??

I already have yet another SC appointment set up, but I'm trying to see if I can correct this on my own.....having it in the shop is a major inconvenience on the wife and family.
Hi, I have this exact problem happening right now. I replaced my rear Toe Links last year when my car was really pulling to the left when I accelerated . What was the outcome on this issue. Now my MS is just like you described. My steering wheel is 5 degress to the left when driving straight, drifts lefts some times when I accelrate and will float left sometimes when just driving straight. Thoughts?
 
Hi, I have this exact problem happening right now. I replaced my rear Toe Links last year when my car was really pulling to the left when I accelerated . What was the outcome on this issue. Now my MS is just like you described. My steering wheel is 5 degress to the left when driving straight, drifts lefts some times when I accelrate and will float left sometimes when just driving straight. Thoughts?

In my case it ended up just being a severely bad alignment. I came up with the attached specs, and brought this to a performance alignment shop. Told them "i want EXACTLY this." No troubles since.

(note: my rear camber is different because my subframe shifted a couple mm to the driver side, yours should be identical).
MS AWD AIR ALIGNMENT FINAL.jpg
 
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HI, I had/am having the exact same problem. I took it to Tesla and they recommending changing out the rear toe links. Tesla wanted $700 per side for labor to change out the parts. The parts themselves were $80 each. I bought the parts from Tesla, paid the $200 diagnostics fee to Tesla (for an hour of labor) and took them to my local mechanic and he did the work for $400 plus another $100 for alignment. The car drove fine for a bit, but then the issue came back. In addition, the ride height sensors for my air suspension went out of alignment. I'm assuming during the swap so I had to take the car back to Tesla to get the air suspension recalibrated, this cost $200. I jacked up the car to see if there was any play on the wheels but could not notice anything. At this point I'm just driving the car with this situation, which is annoying, but I don't believe it poses a safety issue.
 
So your rear ride height went up randomly? Do you have a picture of your alignment specs?

Rear ride height is not affected by toe adjustment, it would only be affected by camber adjustment. If you're on factory control arms, that's not possible (they don't adjust). If one side went up and the other went down, maybe your subframe shifted....but that's not a super common thing.
 
So your rear ride height went up randomly? Do you have a picture of your alignment specs?

Rear ride height is not affected by toe adjustment, it would only be affected by camber adjustment. If you're on factory control arms, that's not possible (they don't adjust). If one side went up and the other went down, maybe your subframe shifted....but that's not a super common thing.
My rear left dropped by about 2 inches compared to the front right. The other 2 corners were in the middle, I assume being dragged down partially by the sagging rear left.

I think that they had to drop the subframe to change the toe links (I know there's a trick with cutting the bolt and turning it around), which is when it may have happened. The recalibration worked. I was actually worried that the air shock itself was blown. Attached is the alignment sheet. I have a P85
 

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My rear left dropped by about 2 inches compared to the front right. The other 2 corners were in the middle, I assume being dragged down partially by the sagging rear left.

I think that they had to drop the subframe to change the toe links (I know there's a trick with cutting the bolt and turning it around), which is when it may have happened. The recalibration worked. I was actually worried that the air shock itself was blown. Attached is the alignment sheet. I have a P85

check to see if they dropped the subframe by seeing if they actually reversed the bolts. Service doesn’t typically give them too many hours for the toe links, so many Techs cut the bolts and reverse them themselves.
 
just a thought…the factory ride height sensor arms are pretty flimsy, maybe yours got bent somehow? That would cause the height to change in one corner.

take the right rear wheel off and snap a picture of the sensor mount’s angle related to the control arm…they should be about parallel. Then look at the left rear. I’m guessing it might be bent forward a bit compared to the other side. Bend it back and your height should level back out.
 
Can I ask anyone is this a concern for something to break? I had my car in to service 9 days ago for this exact issue. They said the car was out of alignment (literally the ONE driver rear tire only) they fixed the alignment and everything was fine. Until today. Now it’s swaying out the back end so badly it gives me vertigo when driving. my rear drive unit is due to be replaced as they have the parts “on order” so I really don’t want to pay them for labor to do all this crap when I know they’ll get my DU and have to drop it anyhow. No one is able to tell me if it’s ok for me to drive the car until the DU arrives.