If your Cobra pulls to the right read this

[Cobra Kook]

Well I just finished reading Speedster302's thread and I have a feeling I am headed down the same road. I have 980 miles on my White coupe and it has a terrible pull to the right. I brought it to the dealer this morning. I waited nearly 3 hours while they aligned the car. I was handed the keys and told problem solved, it had the same alignment issues as Speedster302. I got in my car and got no more than a mile from the dealer and noticed it still had a severe pull to the right.

I turn around and drive back to the service bay. I tell the service manager that it is still not right. He goes in the back to talk to the tech. that worked on it. He comes back 10 minutes later with the sheet saying it is all aligned. (Same sheet speedster302 got). I was told "not sure what else to do” I asked the service manager to take it for a drive with me. I let him drive; I can see him fighting to keep the car going straight right off the bat. I comment and he said I think it is just the road. We proceed to go on several roads and he keeps getting the pull to the right. We come across one stretch of road where he lets the wheel loose and she goes straight!! Cool may be it is ok (wishful thinking) I told him I was concerned that of the 8 times he let the wheel go it pulled 7. He said just take it home and if it is not better bring it back tomorrow.

I reluctantly agreed to do so. I leave the dealership, get on the Highway. I get the car up to about 80 MPH on a SMOOTH 4 lane highway and let go of the wheel. I am one lane over to the right in seconds. At this point I am starting to get pissed.

I immediately turn around and go back to the dealership. I parked the Cobra in the middle of the service bay floor, walked up to the service manager, handed him my keys and told him to call me when it was right.

I have a feeling it could be a while before I get the call. After reading what speedster302 has been through I feel as though I am on the same path. I bet the tires are next.

I LOVE this car. It is really fast, fun to drive and just a cool set of wheels. The car is perfect in EVERYOTHER way. I just want it right.

Wish me luck

 

[FINICKY]

i also had a pull to the right not reel bad put it was a pretty hard drift. i went nuts doing allingments on it [[[[im a mechanic]]]]] . i rotated tires and nothing... finally i alingned it today with someone sitting in it and it seems to have solved the problem.still favors the right a little but 100% better then it was. maybe you should look into having someone sit in it while you aline it. thats what we have to do with really fat people otherwise the angles will change to much when they get in.....good luck i feel for you im still trying to deal with the drive train vibration at 80..again im gonna fix it myself or at least try....hang in there the car is truley awesome ........keep me posted

 

[guille]

My 03 pullse to the right too. But the problem isnt so severe that I have to fight to keep the car straight. It will pull to the right on most roads but there are some where it will go straight. I did take it to the dealer and they did not find anything wrong with the alignment. In fact, they said that the problem should go away with time. My car now has 1000 miles and it still pulls to the right!

 

[SVTyballz]

Mine pulls to the right also. Not anymore than any other car that has 275 tires in the front. IMHO. It is present though, and if SVT ever comes up with a viable fix, I will take it in then. I can't stand to have any dealership hacks R & R'ing parts just to see what might fix the problem. I have been checking the tire wear and it seems even, so I can live with it now.

gary

 

[FLBuckeye]

Anyone ask SVT about this ???
I'm curious because the Quality Hold was to prevent things like this .......
.....but aligning with someone in the driver's seat .....how'd you figure that one out ??
....I just can't wait to see if mine really does get built and delivered to me ...
ETA week of 8/12
VIN 2919

Hang in there.......there is power in #'s.

 

[fangstang]

You guys with the "alignment" problems, list your production #'s, and production dates. It might have been a bad batch or something.

 

[Cobra Kook]

Vin #

Mine is 205

 

[i8u]

Originally posted by FLBuckeye
Anyone ask SVT about this ???
I'm curious because the Quality Hold was to prevent things like this .......
.....but aligning with someone in the driver's seat .....how'd you figure that one out ??
....I just can't wait to see if mine really does get built and delivered to me ...
ETA week of 8/12
VIN 2919

Hang in there.......there is power in #'s.

Somtimes you will get a large person 250+lbs that will choose to drive a geo metro or something. After you have done an allignment set to factory specs, they will complain of a pull to the left. The fact is a heavey enough load unevenly distributed will change your alignment angles and cause a pull. I have had to have up to 3 techs sit in a car in rare instances. I hope a change in the alignment angles is all that is needed for those of you w a pull. I would definetly keep track of vin numbers. Power is definetly in numbers. Good luck.

 

[Snoker]

I also have a slight pull to the right. Not bad and not real noticeable, but enough that it is somewhat disconcerting on level interstate driving.

I have an appointment Tuesday AM at dealership to have them check alignment and try to find a pesky tick-tick rattle in the rear seat area.

If the alignment comes back in spec, I am going to tell them to leave it. I'll monitor tire wear and if ok, deal with the minor pull to the right. Certainly better than pull to the left (into oncoming traffic).

Some of the pull is definitely due to the huge tire size. Have a friend who just purchased a WS6 TA, same size tires, and he is experiencing the same problem. He is a saleman at the Pontiac dealer and was told by service manager that pull is common with huge tires. Whatever, not sure that is good answer, but on some roads probably true.

 

[blown03cobra]

Snoker: I have heard many things like that,, about the huge tire size of course. I was going to deal with it (all of my cars have had 275 series or larger tires:thumbsup: ) and I have gotten used to the pull.... It was the slight knocking sound which IMMEDIATELY sent me into the dealership. I think you would be safe with having a good front end guy look at it without alligning it and then just monitor your tire wear. :beer: have a good day

 

[SikSnake]

Being that I dont have an 03, yet I am just going to add something that may help.

Me and a friend were talking about this last night. He and I both have 96 - 98 cobra's. I bought mine with aftermarket tires, he got his with stock BFG's. My car never had a pull problem for the time that I have had it. He on the other hand had a problems with the car pulling, even after multiple alignments, so He just dealt with it. Time came to change tires, he went with Nitto 555 in front, problem went away. So its time to change tires again, a friend of his had a 98 cobra and had a stock set of BFG tires with less than 500 miles on them, so my friend took them and had them put on. His alignment problem came back, it continued to pull again, alignment after alignment it kept pulling, well now he is back to another new set of Nitto tires and his problem is gone again.

I wonder if this could be the same problem>????

 

[Gabe]

So doesanyone have any idea WHY these cars are pulling to the right?

 

[black03]

pull to the right!!!!

I have a black 03 that has a pull to the right , not that bad but yes its does pull when I let go of the wheel. I have about 600 miles on mine and Im going to bring it to the dealership to be re-aligned and balanced. hopefully that will do the trick. I really dont want to have to deal with those idiots at the service dept.. but I definately want it fixed. besides that the only other prob I noticed id the plastic piece that houses the two middle a/c vents rattles when I go over 60, but if I hold it in it stops. maybe they can do somthing to tighen it up. and to close with, I had my first real kill today a 40th anniversary vette(silver) , he didnt even know what hit him. He was toast!!!!!

 

[Black2003Cobra]

Add another one that pulls to the right - mine does, too. However, it is very slight. Another observation is that it pulls a little stronger when I apply the brakes. My '01 did not do this.

I also have a vibration or shudder in the clutch. I can feel it only in the clutch pedal, mostly in first. Again, it is slight. I was hoping it would go away after a few hundred miles, but I've nearly 700 miles now, and it's still there. I'm beginning to wonder if this is an unbalanced drive shaft? I read a post from another fellow (Fred G, I think) that had this problem.

 

[Cobra Kook]

Let me know if the alignment does the trick for the other right pull Cobra's. They are going to work on mine more on Monday but I will be out of town until mid-week. It was WAY out of alignment from the factory. Only problem is when they set it right it did not help the problem a bit.

Good luck guy's and gals. Mine was a slight pull at first as well (hardly noticable) but once she got over about 800 miles her it became a real problem.

I also had the rattle in the center vents. It was bad when I first got the car but it has went away. Just need to get the pull thing corrected so I can start with some mods!

No vibration in mine I guess that is a good thing!

 

[03SoCalCobra]

Add me to the list, I think my vin is 263 or something close to that. The pull is light, it will drift right if i let go on a smooth road, but it's not terrible.

 

[i8u]

Originally posted by Gabe
So doesanyone have any idea WHY these cars are pulling to the right?

It is hard to say, but I suspect ford will eventually change some of there alignment specs to counteract the pull. Anyone try adding a little positive camber to the left front tire or negative caster to the front left. It could be an effect of road crown.

 

[guille]

OK, these cars pull to the right. Why to the right? What could cause so many different cars to pull in the same direction? Even if we had bad tires, you would expect cars to pull in all directions? Could there be something wrong with our suspensions - design, spec, or just a bad batch of a specific part?

 

[46stang]

well i hate to say it but mine also has a slight pull to the right, most of the time! On some roads it goes straight but the majority of them it slightly pulls right! i will probably take it in to get aligned soon! i have 900miles, same pull to it as when i picked it up at 3.9 miles. also vin#1293. the more people that take there cars to the dealer the sooner ford will hear about it and try to figure out a fix!
leon

 

[anteros511]

On most streets/highways there is a slight decline/angle to the right with such big tires on the 03 cobra it seems to drift into it. I noticed that too. I tried driving it on the extreme left side of a road and it drifted left. When I drove in the exact center on the road it stayed centered. Again, on most streets I feel the pull to the right. So far I don't belive it's anything I'll worry about until I believe it's an issue. My 2 cents.