Why Is My Car Pulling To One Side?

A pull that appears only when you brake almost always points at the brakes rather than alignment. The usual cause is one brake gripping harder than the other, from a sticking caliper, a seized slider pin, or contaminated or unevenly worn pads on one side. A collapsed flexible brake hose can also stop one caliper releasing properly.

This one is worth acting on quickly, because uneven braking makes an emergency stop unpredictable. Book it in and we'll strip and inspect the brakes to find exactly which side and part is at fault.

A mild, steady pull from alignment or tyre pressures isn't an instant emergency, but you shouldn't leave it, as you're constantly correcting the wheel and it wears one tyre out fast. Get it checked before it costs you a set of tyres.

A pull that only happens when braking, or one that's sudden, strong, or comes with a vibration, knock or warning light, should be looked at straight away. Those can affect how the car stops and steers in an emergency. If in doubt, call us and we'll tell you honestly how urgent yours is.

In most cases, yes. Wheel alignment, sometimes called tracking, is the single most common cure for a car that pulls while driving. If a kerb or pothole has knocked your settings out, resetting them to the manufacturer's figures brings the steering back to straight and stops the pull.

We measure your current alignment on our gauges, show you how it compares to the correct specification, then adjust it and road test to confirm the pull has gone. If alignment isn't the cause, the check tells us that too, so we can look at tyres, brakes or suspension instead.

Yes, and it's more common than people think. Uneven pressures between the two front tyres will drag the car towards the softer side. A slow puncture does the same and is easy to miss until the car starts wandering. Mismatched tyres, or one tyre worn far more than its partner, can also cause a pull.

Occasionally a fault inside the tyre itself, known as tyre conicity, pulls the car even when everything else is perfect, and swapping the tyre cures it. We always check tyres and pressures first because it's often the cheapest and quickest fix.

It depends entirely on the cause. If it's a tyre pressure or a wheel alignment, it's an affordable, quick job. If it turns out to be a sticking caliper, a worn suspension joint or a new tyre, the cost is higher because there are parts involved. We can't be honest about a price until we've found the fault.

That's why we diagnose first, then give you a clear, upfront quote before doing any work, so there are no surprises. You can also spread the cost with Payment Assist over 3, 4 or 6 monthly payments at 0% interest, no hard credit check for bills up to £1,000.

A hard pothole or kerb strike is one of the most common reasons a car suddenly starts pulling. The impact can knock the wheel alignment out in an instant, which is usually a straightforward reset. It can also damage a tyre, bend an alloy, or bend or wear a suspension component.

Because a pothole can cause several of these at once, it's worth a proper check rather than assuming it's just the tracking. We'll inspect the tyre and wheel, put it on the alignment gauges, and check the suspension so nothing gets missed.

The pull itself isn't a direct MOT item, but the things that cause it very often are. Uneven or excessive tyre wear, brake imbalance beyond the allowed limit, and worn or excessively free suspension and steering joints are all MOT failures in their own right.

So a car that pulls is often carrying a fault that would fail, or is already close to it. Getting the pull sorted usually clears the underlying MOT problem at the same time. If your MOT is due, it makes sense to have both looked at together.

We work through it in order. First a road test to feel when the pull happens and whether it's under braking. Then we check tyre pressures and condition, because that's the most common and cheapest cause. Next the car goes on our alignment gauges to compare against the maker's figures.

If tyres and alignment are clean, we inspect the brakes and suspension for a sticking caliper or a worn joint, and where a fault isn't obvious our diagnostics equipment helps pin it down. That order means we find the real cause without charging you for parts you don't need.

A very slight drift to the left can be down to road camber, as UK roads are built to slope towards the kerb for drainage, so cars naturally lean that way a touch. That's normal and nothing to worry about. What isn't normal is a definite pull that needs a steady correction to hold a straight line.

If you have to keep a constant grip against the pull, or it's got worse over time, that's a genuine fault worth checking rather than just camber. Bring it in and we'll tell you straight whether it's road camber or something that needs fixing.