[whitrzac]

2015 model. 3.6 gas engine. 1500 short with raised roof.
55,000 miles on it.

Van pulls to the right just driving down the road and gets worst if it hits a bump.
It has new tires all around, and been aligned, but the shop can't figure it out...

Any ideas?

 

[RDinNHandAZ]

Does it track correctly? Does the back wheels follow exactly behind the fronts? If not the center bolt(s) in the rear springs may be sheared and the rear axle is skewed. It happens.

 

[mberk4]

track correctly is a good call, get it on a four wheel alignment machine, it would show up there if its out of whack.

 

[LargeTramp]

Sometimes it is just the crown or pitch of the road itself that makes it seem a vehicle is pulling to the right.
A way you can try to test it is to find a two lane road, and when it is safe to try, drive up onto the top of the crown is see if it still pulls one way or another.

 

[Kip-on-truckin]

Funny you mention it - my 136 has a problem with the right front strut. If you saw the wheel back and forth while not moving, you can hear a loud clunk, and you can actually see the coil spring bind and release as you are doing it. It affects the alignment when it's in one position, but not the other.

The problem appears to be the upper strut mount, strut bearing, or whatever you call it. Dealers are back ordered on this part, which tells me maybe I'm not the only one who has this problem.

But I agree with the others, if it's not the strut then it's likely a 4 wheel alignment issue.

 

[whitrzac]

It's not a road crown or alignment issue. It will pull right into a 30mph crosswind

It's been at a dealer for over a week now.

The independent shop aligned it and though the right front strut was leaking.

The dealer checked the alignment and said it was good.
They thought it was the steering rack and had to wait a few days for the tester.
They tested the rack and it came back fine.

I received a call today and they want to replace the ball joints and strut tops. $1500 estimate!

 

[whitrzac]

I just realized how vague my first post was...

It's a company leased van through enterprise. The company has 3 of them. I have never driven the others.
It's been a POS to drive since day one and is the most uncomfortable vehicle to drive I've ever been in.

A coworker that drove mine for a few months while I was training him got his own promaster a few weeks ago and commented that his didn't do any of the 'odd' things that mine does.

I drive his and find out that it drives halfway decent.

The van will pull to the right on a perfectly flat road. The best I can describe it is that the steering wheel 'flops' over about 1/8 turn when you let it go and it pulls to the right. While driving, holding the wheel steady, if you hit a bump or wind gust the van will pull to the right.

Anything over 20mph wind is closer to trying to fly it down the road than drive. On bad days I hold the wheel 1/4 turn to the left to keep going straight. (not exaggerating)

 

[30 Ounce]

Something is definitely wrong here. Take it back and insist that they find the problem. It could be many things from a cracked/broken coil spring or leaf spring to a bad set of tires! A friend of mine recently discovered that a tire shop had mounted different size tires on one side of her car! She'd been driving for a month with her car constantly turning right and when she'd brake she thought it would put her in a ditch! Her husband noticed the size difference. Now the shop is trying to figure out who has the other mismatched set!

 

[whitrzac]

It was at the dealer for 2.5 weeks. Dealer would not cover it under warranty.

Going theory is strut tops and/or ball joints.

It also has a radiator leaking from one of the end tanks.
Gas door is broken too.

 

[Kip-on-truckin]

The radiator leak (passenger side seam about halfway down) affected most all of the early build vans. Production start 10/13 thru maybe 5/14. It is absolutly a warranty issue. They did mine at over 50k with no questions asked.

Your right pull cpuld be a variety of things, but whatever it is is caused by defective parts or damage. Ruling out damage, nothing left but parts. You are out of warranty, but squeeky wheel gets greased! FCA fully covered my oil cooler at 105k, and I wasnt even the orig owner.

Once you get sick of the dealer, there is nothing fancy or oddball about the van. Some strut parts are on back order at the dealer, some are avail aftermarket. For reasons I dont understand, FCA doesnt sell a complete strut as an assembly, so you have to figure out whats bad, then chase parts. Sucks.

I'd consider a lemon law action. Several forum members got the dealer to buy back early diesels. A friend got them to do it on his, at over 80k. I suspect theyd rather be generous on lemon law than get the bad press. Worth a shot. To date, nobody has complained of wind stability or bump steer like you have, so its not the van, its just your van.

 

[847Videos]

PMC Alignment pulls to the left.

Funny, I’m dealing with the same thing with my pmc
Mine pulls to the right, camber was way off, but ram didn’t make it adjustable
So after 4 Alighments of $125 each. The last guy added a eccentric bolt... bam my camber fixed up front...

But caster is showing red in the front and the only way to tweet that is to adjust the sub frame

My rear camber is doing the same, but the adjustment is maxed out and the alignment machine still sees red....
Thinking unbolting and adjusting the rear sub frame as well....

Ram,,,,
Sells you a $24,000 **** box that has no interior and shiny suspension adjustments.
Great business model for them, because they can get the most profit and spending as little as possible on these vans....

Bullshit

And I think the camber issue in the front was a weak strut.... 14k miles... under warranty, dealer won’t do anything

 

[FCAsurvivor4now]

If the problem started soon after tire replacement, I'd look there. I have had problems like this on another vehicle; turned out the tire was defective. Maybe rotate the fronts to the rears and see what happens. Can also happen with directional tires that have been mounted inside out, making outboard sidewall flexion different from inside.

 

[charity's van]

ball joints and stuts was my 1st guess

 

[Craig T]

Does it track correctly? Does the back wheels follow exactly behind the fronts? If not the center bolt(s) in the rear springs may be sheared and the rear axle is skewed. It happens.

 

[Craig T]

Steering in my ProMaster was not returning to Center. Depends which way I turned last. Turns out upper bearing plates on struts had rusted out. Springs could not return to Center easily and retained memory of which way I turned last

 

[Craig T]

 

[Craig T]

I reported this to Nitsa this creates a dangerous condition for steering and control. Please do the same. Maybe we can get a factory recall. Cost me $1,500 to have both sides done on a three-year-old truck

 

[keeponvaning]

The strut mounts/bearings should always be replaced with the struts! It’s cheap insurance @ $200 for the parts and almost always the real problem not so much the struts!

 

[keeponvaning]

I reported this to Nitsa this creates a dangerous condition for steering and control. Please do the same. Maybe we can get a factory recall. Cost me $1,500 to have both sides done on a three-year-old truck

Poor diagnosis by your mechanic - see my post above.