pulls left, steering wheel moves

[KempoDavid]

When I brake, the steering wheel actually moves to the left, and when I let off the brake it moves back to the right. I've had cars pull to one side or the otehr on brake before, but I don;t think I've ever felt the steering wheel move like that. What causes that?

thanks
-David

 

[Roadboss]

You could have brakes dragging or it could be front end suspension issues.

 

[logres]

Most likely a sticking caliper pin.

 

[J]

+1 for sticky pin or a bad tie rod/alignment.

 

[ma351c]

Does it squeak if you bounce the frt, end ?

Does it squeak if you bounce the frt, end ?

The first two winters after I bought my '97 Mark with 52k I stored it. The balljoints rusted and caused it to not want to return to fully centered after turning. This slowly got worse and you could tell it was slightly dogtracking.
When braking it would pull to the right then to the left then back right as you released.
Drove me crazy the brakes checked out fine. Finally,I drove onto my ramps and I heated all 4 balljoints with a propane torch -it was the 3rd winter about 72k- just enough to get the grease melted -the boots just start to swell up a little from pressure- and bounced the front end. It cured it for a week. Then, which one was it? One upper was new, tried the other, then put both lowers on.
Just a thought, it's tough when pulling isn't from the brakes.

 

[whiplash15]

I just sold a 95 Ford Thunderbird Supercoupe. When driving back home from where I bought it, I became very aware that mine was pulling rather hard to the right. I decided to take it in for an alignment. The shops estimate for the repairs and 4 wheel alignmment was over $1000. It needed 1 upper, 1 lower control arms some tie rod ends, and most of all, control arm bushings. I bought all the parts at my favorite NAPA, and got by for less than $700, 4 whl alignment included. Your problem is (as stated before) worn suspension parts. It sounds like you have shot bushings in the lower arms that hook to the control arms and the K-frames. Common problem, commonly misdiagnosed. (sorry for the long winded answer).

 

[jamies98lsc]

i'll rule out the caliper, although it could happen, its very rare for our cars, i'll tell you the 3 most common problems when this happens, the first one is the inner bushings on your upper control arm on the side its pulling toward, easiest way to see if it is this, jack up the car, remove the tire, unblot the upper ball joint from the spindle, grab the upper control arm and try to move it back and fourth, not up and down, if it has any play, replace it, the second thing it could be is bad strut rod bushings on that side of the car, way too common failure on these cars, the 3rd is tie rods, again, jack up the front end and grab the wheel and try to wiggle left and right, any play, find out which tie rods are bad and change them, doing all 4 really isnt that expensive, might as well do them all!