Escalade pulls to the left - Replaced almost everything!

[Jimxms]

You can't do it safely. The closest you can get is to remove the wheels, pry the pads away from the rotor (both pads) and go around the block without applying the brakes... unless you're in the country, not likely.

Yeah I couldn’t get off my driveway without applying my brakes sadly. I didn’t trust consider removing the caliper and zip tieing a block of wood between the pads…but then decided against it

 

[Pressureangle]

It was a US export so steering wheel is still on the left.

I didn’t trust the specs he was pulling up for the car so I gave him this:

View attachment 440674

Told him to swap the L/R caster settings and use the 4WD toe.

Here in South Florida I'd use that, neutral settings. I see the 2500 has more, presumably because they expect it to tow more and more often. I haven't had my '04 2500XL on a rack, so I can't say where it is. Too bad, I like the way it drives everywhere.

 

[Dustin Jackson]

Just adding that the "in the green" is a wide range, I've gotten terrible alignments that were visually ugly and destroyed my tires very quickly but were "in the green" and I didn't know any better at the time to do anything about it.

 

[mikez71]

Being driven in a RHD country, not something I would have ever guessed!

 

[NELLY1947]

My new to me 07 Escalade wants to pull to the left. If I let go of the steering wheel, the wheel will turn left on its own about 20degrees. If I hold the wheel straight, the truck drives straight.

I've replaced:

Upper control arms
Shocks & Springs (they needed doing anyway)
Tie rod Ends
Sway bar Bushings.
New wheels (bought some new OEM wheels as the ones it came with were ugly)
New tyres

I had the car professionally aligned to spec on a Hunter 4 wheel machine and got everything 'in the green'. However it still pulls left.

What else could it be?

and remember years ago and state inspector pulled over a frie ds brand new pick up for an inspection. When they checked the alignment they gave him a citation with 48 hours to fix it. The truck wasn't wrong their specs were out of date. YES agree check another shop and maybe even an approved GMC shop

 

[KC 2013 Tahoe]

My new to me 07 Escalade wants to pull to the left. If I let go of the steering wheel, the wheel will turn left on its own about 20degrees. If I hold the wheel straight, the truck drives straight.

I've replaced:

Upper control arms
Shocks & Springs (they needed doing anyway)
Tie rod Ends
Sway bar Bushings.
New wheels (bought some new OEM wheels as the ones it came with were ugly)
New tyres

I had the car professionally aligned to spec on a Hunter 4 wheel machine and got everything 'in the green'. However it still pulls left.

What else could it be?

A tire with a broken belt will also cause a bad pull towards the side with the bad tire.
Have you tried swapping the front tires R to L and L to R to see if the pull follows?

Curious why the alignment shop didn't diagnose this for you after they aligned and it still pulled.

 

[houstontaylor]

Is the steering wheel or the pitman arm on the steering gear we're installed off a notch it would make the wheel be off but the car would still track straight down the road. So I think, as suggested, there may be a brake problem on one side or possibly a bad wheel bearing on one side causing drag more on that side.? Or else problems with the lower control arms, also as suggested by others.

 

[Adam Boyles]

I should probably mention that I'm in the UK so drive on the left and probably caster settings will need to be reversed?

So...full story... I purchased the car and from day 1 it pulled left. I assumed it was just alignment so I took it to get aligned. When they got it up on the ramps everything was rusted solid so they couldnt do anything. I took the car home and replaced everything listed in the original post myself. Then I took it back to get aligned with the new parts installed.

First alignment printout was obviously waaay off because i'd just eyeballed everything.
They dialled everything in to what their computer said and took it for a test drive (I watched this, but didnt get a printout).
It was pulling left, but as it was the end of the day I had to bring it back the next day.
Next day I got the car to them at 9:30 and by 11:30am they called to said it was fixed.
I got there and they then said: " we took it out for a drive, but while parking something went clunk in the suspension so it might not be aligned again."

So basically, yes I know the shop is sh*t and I need to take it somewhere else, but my main concern is that its always pulled left. No matter what suspension parts, tyres, wheels etc I put on it, it always wants to go left. Has me concerned that its something more than just a bit of alignment

Caster is definitely your problem. That’s why all the parts you have swapped didn’t fix it. The vehicle will pull towards the lower caster angle. Positive caster means the upper pivot point ( upper ball joint, strut mount)is more towards the front of the vehicle relative to the lower pivot point (lower ball joint). Caster only affects drivability. Newer vehicles have positive caster because it makes vehicles drive better and steering wheel will tend to return to center on its own after making a turn. Positive caster takes more effort to steer but with power steering that’s not an issue. Too much positive caster can cause stability issues. Ford has what a lot of people refer to as “death wobble” which is an uncontrollable shake of the steering wheel. Ford uses steering dampeners to try to control this but it doesn’t always work. Lowering caster fixes it, even if it’s not in the “green” according to Fords spec. If you have ever had a shopping cart that had a front wheel that was shaking it’s the same principle. Shopping carts have a much higher degree of positive caster. Older vehicles that didn’t have power steering had negative caster because it’s easier to steer but they didn’t drive as well. Being in the green when it comes to caster doesn’t mean much. As long as it drives ok I wouldn’t worry to much about the caster angle as much as I would worry about the 2 degree difference. That’s way too much and that’s what is causing the pull and the crown of the road is only making it worse since you drive on the left over there. Get the caster on the right side of the vehicle about a half degree or less lower than the left and it should drive pretty good. The half degree difference is just to compensate for the crown of the road. If you were in the states you would want half a degree lower on the left. Get a real steering and suspension mechanic that actually understands vehicle steering geometry and he will tell you the same thing.

 

[petethepug]

07 Escalade so it has z55 AutoRide suspension.

Did you replace the struts, springs, UCA & tie rod ends with OEM units?

Do you think the truck has any suspension mods to level or lower it?

 

[Jimxms]

Thanks for the info guys. I'm leaving the car with a company that has a much better understanding of suspension geometry. When I pulled up they instantly noticed that my drivers wheel wasn't centred in the arch, it was much closer to the rear of the car so the caster is definitely waaaaay off.

@petethepug springs, uca & tie rods are all acdelco or delphi. No lowering mds, but I did bin the autoride for bilstein shocks. The left pull pre-dates all of these suspension changes though. I'm just refreshing everything on the truck as its all original 17yr old parts.