Hi,

I'm in a bit of a mess with my 09 with the dealer and ask you to consider trying to reproduce my observations before you post up.

I often drive 1000 miles in a 24 hour period and have had 4 HD Duramaxes. I know how these trucks feel and get to know them well from a behind the wheel perspective.

The ROAD ENVIRONMENT to reproduce the issue: Roads have "crowns" to shed water. Right lanes to the right and left lanes and generally left lanes to the left.

THE ISSUE: If I put my truck in a right lane of a right hand crowned road, the truck runs true and straight.

If I put my truck in a left lane (center of a 6 lane or left etc) she pulls HARD and IMMEDIATLY to the left into oncoming traffic.

This is VERY noticeable at highway speeds. If you run in the city, it is much harder to pick out.

Often if you are pulling a trailer it is nice to cruise middle lane and for hours I have to hold the wheel hard to the right to keep the truck straight or run in the right lane where the semis have devoured the road and deal with that to run easy.

4 dealers have aligned my truck multiple times each, moved the tires and wheels 6 ways from Sunday, different sets and so on. Torsion bars up, down and so on. It has had the steer box replaced @ 10k miles per GM tech to try and resolve the issue with no change.

The techs have been in contact with GM engineers since the 2nd efforts and doing what they advise to correct the issue.

It now has 19k on it but it has done this since mile 0.

The latest "fixes" are to align the truck "out of spec"

They currently have the it sitting at 0 degrees and pointing right to make it go more straight which has made it floaty and in the words of a regional GM Service representative "It handles like a bowling ball" meaning it has a brief point of happiness or you are constantly adjusting it to keep it straight.

The Regional GM sales guy drove it, agreed it is "wrong" and we were talking about lemonning it to a 10. We drove 2 2010's and they both did the same thing so now he says it must be how GM wants the truck to handle and there is nothing to do?!?!?

If the truck drove equally bad in both lanes, I'd keep my yap shut but it is good right lane and bad left lane. Another dealer said they are seeing a lot of this issue.

Again, please before you post up "your 09 or 2010 truck is fine", please try this if you run your truck over the road. Put in on a right hand crown and let go. Left lane do the same. My truck is over the left lane line instantly as were the two 10's I drove.

Thanks,
Rudy

I would find an alignement shop and see what they say. There must be at least one shop who knows more than just what the machine tells him to adjust.

I Have a two week old 2010 2500Hd 4x4, I havent had it on the HWy as of yet but I will give this a shot and get back with you. Seems like GM has some work to do. I do agree with Joey D, I would find a good alignment shop outside GM and see whats up. DOnt lemon law just yet. If the new trucks are doing the same!!!

I have an 09 2500HD gasser and havn't had any steering issues. Hell, i've been surprised at how well the alignment holds up after i've done some wheeling where im bouncing all over and steering side to side struggling to get traction.

Note: Mud Grapplers are not your friend in clay-like mud.

Actually, GM trucks have had this issue for a while. On some, it's more noticable than others. Upon a very very close inspection of the front steering/suspension components, you will notice things are not the same on the left and right sides.

To counter the negatives of IFS, GM has designed the suspension to attempt to offset the results of the wheels pointing inward when the vehicle is not at the ideal or perfect ride height level. The vehicle changes front ride height under heavy acceleration, braking. cornering etc. Below are some things they have done to counter these effects. Also keep in mind that one side of the vehicle is heavier due to gas tank and other variables; plus the vehicle torquest to one side due to the rotation of the engine. Also, as you already seem to be area of, GM has to design the vehicle considering Road Crown (slope in the roads)

The centerlink is not centered with the frame which means the tie rods are of different lengths. This equates to the front tires towing inward at different amounts upon acceleration and braking (natual occurence for wheels to point inward on an IFS suspension).

The space between the jounce/bump stops is not the exact same when the vehicle is sitting at equal heights on right and left side.

The right/left torsion bars have different spring rates.

Some full-time 4WD and AWD vehicles (Cadillac and Hummer) experience even a greater dilemna due to the pull introduced to the front steering as caused by the torque on the front right wheel of one of these type vehicles. This really gets crazy when traction control kicks in and the torque moves to the left front wheel.

All in, GM has done a great job dealing with all of these things that can become noticable as "pull" to the customer/driver. However, quality control can not get it 100% perfect as would be ideal in a perfect world. There are many factors that can make it more noticable - such as the torsion bar spring rates varying from torsion bar to torsion bar. This is only one example, but you get the picture.

here is where it gets worse....let's say a customer increases the tire height (as we all like to do). This causes the problem, if one noticably exists, to get worse due to the "leverage" efffect of the taller tire.

Also, what if your Idler arm or Idler pivot has the slighest amount of wear in it's joint - so slight of an amount that it's not detectable using standard check of just physically turning the wheels by hand? What this does is causes one or both wheel/s to have more of an effect by road crown. Just a slight bump into a curb can cause such a slight amount of wear in one of the steering components that may not be detected using standard checks. Not saying this is the case with the new ones you test drove - just covering all bases.

Always make sure to check this problem thorougly, by driving both ways down a road to ensure side winds are not contributing to what you are feeling at the wheel. Sometimes, play in the steering gear box, will feel like "pull" at the wheel.

raising the front ride height can increase the "pull" as tie rods get into increased angles. Differences in tire pressures can also make the "pull" more noticable.

Worn or loose sway bar connections can cause the problem. It is always best to check the front ride height with sway bar disconnected. I have seen people (even GM techs) not understand the IFS geometry and how this can attribute to the problem. You see, it's the sway bar's intention to keep the front end level. If it is connected when the front IFS ride height is set/adjusted or checked, it could be masking an incorrectly set ride height. Even the rear sway bar can affect the front as it counters the overall left to right position.

The bottom line is there are many different things that can effect it. With variances in all the many components, it takes a highly trained and knowledgable tech to correct it. You are not going to get this level of sophistication/education from an assembly line worker or dealer tech unless you get really lucky. However, hopefully the above information will provide you with some insight as to what to ask the dealer to do and check.

Good luck...if it were mine I would some of these checks myself. If under warranty, I would start asking them if they checked the things above. Btw, there are other things that can cause it but I am tired of typing right now - after only sleeping 2 hours last night.

if you get to a point where they ahve exhausted all their efforts, let me know what they tried and I will catch back up with you later....

Sheeeeze, GM still having that problem? My 02 pulled to the left. Took it to the dealer soon after I bought it with this problem and the retard just cranked the toe on the left. Kinda fixed it, but my steering wheel was off a bit and when I got another alignment done at a shop a couple years later they fixed it and said the dealer is dumb when it comes to alignments.

LA DMAX

First..."Thank you" for the replies.

This is my 4 D-Max and while my 08 started doing this later in it's life, my 09 is really bad.

My truck is a an over the road vehicle, not a city or farm truck. I see 95% highway use and am aware of the winds and have found a left to right wind very soothing as it helps me track straight!

I am starting to see the GM alignment techs seem to be more driven by what is in the book and after that, they are dumfounded. I went to a big truck alignment shop yesterday and he adjusted things that he said you shouldn't have to adjust and made progress.

It was windy yesterday but it seemed better although I am now afraid it goes right. He did say because of the IFS that there is a lot of adjustment available to fix it.

It stil seems odd that the two 2010 trucks I drove were exactly the same AND that GM doesn't have a fix in place for this.

Thanks again,
Rudy

The Service Manager at the last place I have been has now advised me "GM is having this trouble across the board with these trucks". We agreed a fix will be coming...eventually.