M3P pulling to the right

[b4p1]

Hi folks. I picked up my M3P this week, and immediately it was pulling hard to the right. Tesla service appointment confirmed it was delivered to me way out of alignment. I personally spoke to the tech who did the new alignment, and he said that the new numbers look good and that he centered the steering wheel. It's better than before, but the car still pulls to the right.

Is it possible something forced the car back out of alignment? I took it into a tint shop yesterday, but I doubt that affected it. I also managed to scrape a curb the first time I parallel parked the car , but I was going slowly and didn't run over it -- just road rash.

Where can I go from here? I don't know what to ask for, and I can't read the before/after numbers outside of red bad/green good.

aligned it

 

[Clover]

Hard for anyone to say based on what you described. First off, did you curb the wheel after the alignment? That defiantly could have affected it and you may need to have it aligned again. Put simply, if you wheels were aligned and then you rammed one corner, sure that could knock that corner out of alignment. You don't need to be going fast, just at an angle the suspension is not designed for. Remember your car has 4000 lbs of force behind it.

Second, roads in the US are designed to slope slightly to the right for water runoff. If a car is perfectly aligned, on most roads it will go slightly to the right because of this if you remove your hands from the wheel. Most people automatically adjust for this without thought, but if you are looking for misalignment, many people will mistakenly think their car is misaligned when they are not actually on a flat surface. Maybe you are just hyper aware after your initial issues.

The car's toe and caster alignment will also help pull the car strait, but ideally you minimize this as the force that is pulling you strait is wearing your tires quicker and is inefficient. At the end of the day, if the car is pulling strongly to one direction, something is still off and it will need to be aligned again. Maybe they aligned it, then straightened the steering wheel. Out of order, but it could result in the problem you have. The car would be aligned, but not with the steering wheel centered. It is a dumb mistake, but easy to make. When I built my car, I had the steering wheel upside down when I did the initial alignment, so you still got me beat. But I'm an idiot with no training and plenty of bad ideas.

Good luck.

 

[tm1v2]

For taking road slope out of the equation, a nice big garage will usually have much less slope than a road. Still probably a slight bit for drainage but usually a lot less than a road.

Ideally find one that's big and has a mostly empty level, so you can safely get up to enough MPH to make it a worthwhile test. E.g. an office garage on a weekend. Or a shopping mall garage while the mall is closed, if you can still get into the garage then.

There's probably someplace better to test but that's what comes to mind.

 

[b4p1]

Hard for anyone to say based on what you described. First off, did you curb the wheel after the alignment?

...

Maybe they aligned it, then straightened the steering wheel. Out of order, but it could result in the problem you have. The car would be aligned, but not with the steering wheel centered.

Yeah I curbed it 5 minutes after the alignment. My steering wheel seems like it defaults to resting just right of center, so maybe I did knock it out of alignment?

For taking road slope out of the equation, a nice big garage will usually have much less slope than a road. Still probably a slight bit for drainage but usually a lot less than a road.

Ideally find one that's big and has a mostly empty level, so you can safely get up to enough MPH to make it a worthwhile test. E.g. an office garage on a weekend. Or a shopping mall garage while the mall is closed, if you can still get into the garage then.

There's probably someplace better to test but that's what comes to mind.

I'll try the garage idea soon.

 

[oaltay]

This is my 23 m3p alignment sheet. Since day one my car has been pulling right slightly. Took it to service 3 times for that, each time I was told It was normal. Last service visit they found out alignment was off. Now car drives normal but I have another issue with steering wheel vibration that wasnt addressed