[Mr.Boss]

1) Make sure Conti UC6 is designed for RHD. Tire design have some unique parameters for LHD & RHD (I leave to tire experts for better explanation)
2) Take support from either tire dealer or VW to have a swap analysis with OE tire. If the phenomena is still same, leave it to VW for swap analysis, root cause analysis and countermeasure.

If the issue is sorted out with OE tires, you have below choices
- Live with OE tire
- Swap with something else (other than Conti UC6)
- Play with alignment values to make the car go straight (this may have some after effects)

[ChoosetoCruze]

Originally Posted by Turbo Diesel

It pulls gently within a distance of 200mts.
I am settled in Mumbai and new roads in the city may be designed for proper drainage. I am monitoring tyre wear, checked tyre pressure issue as well.
I was thinking that I should book a test drive to assess whether the problem is genuine or not. It could also be possible that I am overthinking.

Gentle pulling over 200m sounds like a normal case of a gentle left slope inbuilt in the road.

Go ahead & book that test drive & compare it to your vehicle.

[Sen]

Originally Posted by Rahul Bhalgat

Hi Sen,

Please check the rear wheel alignment too. The following diagram shows an example of the effect of rear wheel misalignment.

Have the alignment shops seriously checked the rear wheel alignment or did they mainly focus on the front wheel, taking the rear wheel for granted?

Thanks for this advice! Unfortunately, they checked the alignment of all 4 tires each time, so this was quickly ruled out.

Originally Posted by R2D2

Some cars will pull to the left on a road banked to drain rain water. Have you tried testing your car on other roads including those that are relatively flat to check if the car exhibits the same behavior? Some unexpected tram-lining maybe a pecularity due to the tyre tread design not a defect.

Thanks for the advice! I tried it on every single road I normally commute on, and drove about 1000 kms in the last 5-6 days overall, so believe me, it's not the roads or the bank angles causing it. Tram lining doesn't seem to be the cause, I've felt that while driving before, didn't feel that way.

Originally Posted by R2D2

Also, don't expect the car to be travel in a perfect straight line at all times. There will be anomalies in the road, tyre, steering geometry that cause it to behave otherwise. You should be worried only if it pulls to the left on all roads which causes you to compensate using the steering wheel. That can cause driver fatigue.

Yep, agreed and noted. The veering is very subtle, starts after 3-5 seconds usually around 60 kmph

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

If you cannot drive at all even for a short distance with your hands off the wheel, then don't do a long trip on it. You are going to wear out the new tyres.(also check if all new tyres are mounted in the correct direction of rotation). Sometimes it's the cross winds on highway.

Go to an old and established alignment shop, have them test drive the vehicle and make necessary adjustments if needed, that should fix it.

Thanks for the tips! The veering was very subtle in it's start as described above, wasn't much trouble fortunately on my trip to Bangalore, so we're good. Gonna have Madhu's look at it, although third time's the charm and it seems to have lessened after that last alignment, maybe the machine was better or it was a slight tire defect that got worn down after the 600 km highway run? (Heshbon alignment at VW Secunderabad Service, then a Hoffman/John Bean machine at Stunnerz Madhapur, Hyderabad, the last one was a John Bean at VW Palace Cross Mysore Road Service center). I'll never know.

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Ah... I guess I misunderstood when you said...

Sorry about my vague terminology, and thanks for your time! I'll go to Madhu's this week and hopefully have it sorted.

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

1) Make sure Conti UC6 is designed for RHD. Tire design have some unique parameters for LHD & RHD (I leave to tire experts for better explanation)

These Contis are "specifically designed for Indian conditions" I read in multiple places, leading me to the assumption that LHD tires were out of the equation, maybe I thought wrong. I'll have to check the tire specs and see if this could be potentially a headache to look at.

Originally Posted by Mr.Boss

2) Take support from either tire dealer or VW to have a swap analysis with OE tire. If the phenomena is still same, leave it to VW for swap analysis, root cause analysis and countermeasure.

If the issue is sorted out with OE tires, you have below choices
- Live with OE tire
- Swap with something else (other than Conti UC6)
- Play with alignment values to make the car go straight (this may have some after effects)

Thanks for the idea, but unfortunately, I'm going to be stuck here for at least a month in Bangalore (potentially six months) so this option is a bit difficult. Maybe I'll let VW handle it to see if it's indeed a deeper-rooted problem, I've given two different service centers a chance to fix this at this point.

Originally Posted by ChoosetoCruze

Gentle pulling over 200m sounds like a normal case of a gentle left slope inbuilt in the road.

Go ahead & book that test drive & compare it to your vehicle.

Generally if it was just the road banking I'd be fine with it, but it seems to happen and visibly flat roads as well as slightly-right banked roads as well. I'll observe the issue and get a detailed alignment report from Madhu's, hopefully I find at least one answer for this peculiar albeit minor issue.

Thank you everyone for your time and suggestions.

[Kosfactor]

Originally Posted by Sen

Maybe I'll let VW handle it to see if it's indeed a deeper-rooted problem, I've given two different service centers a chance to fix this at this point.

In general the dealerships are clueless about alignment, at best they would know that something needs to be done. If you are in South Bangalore meet Rajesh the owner at Vijay Wheel alignment (JP Nagar) explain to him the problem and let him assign a tech to help you. They do thorough test drives in my experience before handing the vehicle back to you.

[fluidicjoy]

Hey!

Experiencing the exact same thing on our new Polo 1.0 TSI AT. I also did the following things :-

• Checking tyre pressures.
• Checking tyre allignment.
• Swapping tyres.
• Inspecting the tie rods for bends etc.
• Inspecting torque steer.

So would like to share that the exact same phenomenon was occurring on our Tiguan. It's now driven about 7000kms in a year and now the pull seems to have gotten slightly better. The Volkswagen dealership told me that it is quite normal for a new car to pull left for the first 1500kms. Honestly, this is something which bothers me too. It is definitely quite noticeable and hasn't gotten any better as I crossed the 500km mark yesterday.

Another small observation is that this does not occur when you accelerate hard and the car as a whole, holds the line correctly. I have a gut feeling this is something to do with the unbalanced nature of the 3 cylinder 1.0 TSI engine since I've ruled out the suspension components for any stray play or bends. The alignment on the Hunter Machine was just spot on.

Temporarily, I've kept the left front tyre at a higher tyre pressure compared to the right, but that has not made the situation any better. Would be following this thread.

[Sen]

Originally Posted by fluidicjoy

Hey!

Experiencing the exact same thing on our new Polo 1.0 TSI AT. I also did the following things :-

• Checking tyre pressures.
• Checking tyre allignment.
• Swapping tyres.
• Inspecting the tie rods for bends etc.
• Inspecting torque steer.

So would like to share that the exact same phenomenon was occurring on our Tiguan. It's now driven about 7000kms in a year and now the pull seems to have gotten slightly better. The Volkswagen dealership told me that it is quite normal for a new car to pull left for the first 1500kms. Honestly, this is something which bothers me too. It is definitely quite noticeable and hasn't gotten any better as I crossed the 500km mark yesterday.

Another small observation is that this does not occur when you accelerate hard and the car as a whole, holds the line correctly. I have a gut feeling this is something to do with the unbalanced nature of the 3 cylinder 1.0 TSI engine since I've ruled out the suspension components for any stray play or bends. The alignment on the Hunter Machine was just spot on.

Temporarily, I've kept the left front tyre at a higher tyre pressure compared to the right, but that has not made the situation any better. Would be following this thread.

Hey fluidicjoy,

Sorry to hear you're facing this too, but I'm glad I'm not the only one noticing this.

You are exactly right in saying that this does not happen when under hard acceleration, and it's annoying but not dangerous to the point of being undriveable.

The car as a whole held the line correctly provided my hand was on the steering wheel at all times (as it should be) during my Hyderabad-Bangalore run, and I concur with your assessment that it could be the engine itself causing the weight distribution/3-cylindered nature of the engine itself. 3 different wheel alignment stations overall cannot be wrong, is my assumption.

Having one tire at the front on a higher pressure didn't sit right with me, and was advised to me twice out of the three times I had this issue looked at.

I'll keep everyone posted if I can find a solution to this, but most likely, it's going to be unsolvable if it's a design defect.

[HolyStig]

Originally Posted by Sen

The tire dimensions are the same, swapped Goodyear assurance triplemax tires for the Continental UC6s in 195/55/R16 the other day..The camber, offset, and toe values were tuned at the factory before I took delivery (assumption), so if the tire dimensions are the same, would these values not be correct for a different set of tires anymore?

Thoroughly surprised to see this thread! I have a 2012 Honda City and I too had swapped my 24k run 8yr old tyre to new on November. I rode back from my hometown (Trivandrum) to Bangalore, and during my drive through the highway, I felt the exact same sort of veering feeling! Like you mentioned, this is very very subtle and only comes into effect between 100-110, I was very worried since at these speeds even the slightest of error would get amplified.
What surprised me more especially about this particular thread is that, my old Tyre was Goodyear GT3 (8yr old) and the one I swapped to is Continental CC5 (2020 Sep made)!!
I should point out here that, I had upgraded my tyre from a 175/60 R15 to 185/65 R15.

After changing to new tyres, I have done wheel alignment as well.

Originally Posted by fluidicjoy

Hey!


Temporarily, I've kept the left front tyre at a higher tyre pressure compared to the right, but that has not made the situation any better. Would be following this thread.

Did this work? By changing the tyre pressure at left?

[Akshay2010]

I faced the same issue in my 2019 Vento TSI HL+. Take your car to the authorized VW service center. There is a nut close to the front tires' suspension setup. The service technician will tighten or loosen it. You'll need to take regular test drives after this is done. The issue can be resolved in 15-20 minutes.

[a4anurag]

Originally Posted by Sen

I'll keep everyone posted if I can find a solution to this, but most likely, it's going to be unsolvable if it's a design defect.

I don't know if this has been suggested earlier or not, since you own a Vento, can you connect a VCDS to it and check if the steering angle sensor (provided the car has one) is calibrated correctly?

[chaudharysaab]

Hi,

I have SCross 1.6 2015 model and I was facing same problem. I had the alignment done at 4 different places but still no respite.
Then I had to go to my local private workshop, they put my car on lift and check from bottom.
They found out that my car's shocker mount were not in good shape. They changed them, I had alignment done again and now problem seems to have vanished.
I know your car is new and mine was old, but please have your shocker checked once. Hope that will help.

[PearlJam]

It seems as if the issues are cropping up only for those folks who have up sized the tyres (not rims) from stock dimensions.

Will the reference toe values have to be re-adjusted when an up size is done?

[Sen]

Originally Posted by HolyStig

What surprised me more especially about this particular thread is that, my old Tyre was Goodyear GT3 (8yr old) and the one I swapped to is Continental CC5 (2020 Sep made)!!
I should point out here that, I had upgraded my tyre from a 175/60 R15 to 185/65 R15.

After changing to new tyres, I have done wheel alignment as well.

Did this work? By changing the tyre pressure at left?

Now I'm confused where to point fingers. However, multiple reports indicate that the car's balance at low revs could be contributing to this.

Originally Posted by Akshay2010

I faced the same issue in my 2019 Vento TSI HL+. Take your car to the authorized VW service center. There is a nut close to the front tires' suspension setup. The service technician will tighten or loosen it. You'll need to take regular test drives after this is done. The issue can be resolved in 15-20 minutes.

The first time I went to VW Secunderabad service, they said they swapped the front wheels (which was a lie), the second time I went back to them with the same issue, they went out on a test drive with me (experienced SA + Mechanic) onto the Kompally highway and tried adjusting the nut you talk about on both sides to try and get it to go straight, to no avail. After 30 minutes of troubleshooting, they gave up, and since I had no major issues, I was forced to as well.

Originally Posted by a4anurag

I don't know if this has been suggested earlier or not, since you own a Vento, can you connect a VCDS to it and check if the steering angle sensor (provided the car has one) is calibrated correctly?

Don't have a VCDS cable, but I was going to visit Code6 Bangalore to get some tweaks done via VCDS, maybe I'll follow-up on this too.

Originally Posted by chaudharysaab

Hi,

I have SCross 1.6 2015 model and I was facing same problem. I had the alignment done at 4 different places but still no respite.
Then I had to go to my local private workshop, they put my car on lift and check from bottom.
They found out that my car's shocker mount were not in good shape. They changed them, I had alignment done again and now problem seems to have vanished.
I know your car is new and mine was old, but please have your shocker checked once. Hope that will help.

I'll have this looked at, thanks for the heads up! In the unlikely circumstance that this is the problem, it could help.

[KkVaidya]

Issues that I have experienced (other then what you have mentioned) for car veering in one direction :
1. Check the front wheels for free rotation. Jack up the front end - rotate both wheels with your hand and check the speed and time. Both wheels should be similar. If not, adjust the wheel bearings or check brake bite
2. Check ride height. Should be same left to right.
3. Check Camber angle. Usually the vehicle will veer to the direction which has more positive camber

The above points may or may not work in your case. I just mentioned what i have experienced in past.
They symptom of veering after 3-4 seconds at speeds above 60kmph makes me point it to camber.
Do not believe the workshop guys - see for yourself on the alignment machine. The set parameters would be displayed there along with current readings.

[ike]

Putting the car on a lane tester would help. MRF tyredromes in Chennai have lane testers that check for side slip. I have seen it in Nexa service centers also, but not sure if VW service would have it.

[AnInternetUser]

Glanced through the thread but couldn't find this mentioned. I'm not sure if this is the problem in your case, but it might just help someone else facing a similar issue. In the video, ChrisFix says that worn engine/transmission mounts can cause the car to veer towards one side.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTRV5GXWpo0&t=124s