Is your Hybrid Pulling to the right if you let the steering go?
 

Guys,

I need to now this. i've had a very annoying issue with my car which was pulling to the right. It has gone to the dealer 6 times and i think they have adjusted it arount 20 times. it has gotten better but my car still pulls tot the right on 85% of the roads the second i let my steering go.

The head repair guy has done a lot of research and called BMW also.
They say it is a Hybrid thing and they all pull a bit. Ny F56 3 doors road like a tank.

My question is, if you hybrid owners let your steering go, what does it do? I want to know if it really is an hybrid issue.

Thanx!

I didn't notice it at all yesterday
 

But I'm going out shortly the car is full charged I'll test that for you several times on different angles the road and see what it does.

-=>Raja.

The crown of the road will always cause a car to drift right slightly (Here in the US).

Find a flat (or as close to it) parking lot and let the car idle in gear, hold the steering wheel straight and see how far it wanders.

If you find it does actually wander then I would take it to a reputable alignment shop and have them check it.

Just came back
 

No drifting anywhere even if the road isn't 100% level. It seems to hold its direction for a reasonable amount of time I can't say it drifts at all so something is wrong with your car you need to check.

Hybrid or not doesn't mean anything. They are just pulling some wool over your eyes.

-=>Raja.

Mine isn't a Hybrid, and yes it pulls to the right.

Yes, I have posted video, responses from Mini, and such that should show up soon.

i know for shure, they all drift. Only if your roads are dead straight, which is almost never because of the water which has to go to the right, it will go straight. It is not the alignment. I noticed, very rarely, i get a straight road, and then it holds is position. But is not about alignment. It is something else. It is a characteristics which is totally different from normal mini's. What i mean by that is the following.
In my old mini cooper, on a highway, when i did a minor correction on my steering to the left, and let go of the steering, it would wander of to the left. On the same roads as now with the slope to the right. And if i did that to the right, it would wander to the right. The Hybrid, will never wander to the left with the slope to the right.
The steering characteristics is totally different. I know this for shure after hearing from 2 different dealers who tried another hybrid, they say they do the same, but i believed it the minute i drove one from an owner in my town. I rang his door and asked him about is car. Showed him my video. he said no definetly not. My car does not do that.
I went back to complain to mini. But after a couple weeks, i asked the owner if we could drive it together so i can film his, which should drive straight, so i have evidence to make my case stronger. What do you think? it has THE EXACT SAME CHARACTERISTICS. So sorry Raja and others, but i don't believe anymore that yours drive straight. Yours will have the same wandering off. But most of you don't notice it, which is fine. When you mostly drive with 2 hands on steering, you won't feel it. When you drive with one like me you notice it strongly. And if you say no, i would like to see a video of it to see it.
Here is my video with the car of the owner in my town which said, it drives straight!

Hello,

Our Mini hybrid has the same problem and drifts to the right as soon as i let go of the steering wheel. Has the issue been resolved in your car and have you found out what caused it?

nop and it won’t be resolved. It’s a product attribute. I am shure every one of them has it but not everybody notices it because of how people drive. In the end i sold the mini. I didn’t like this but also how far i could drive on a charge. It didn’t make sense for me. But i think of buying a normal countryman. They drive rock solid. The steering reacts totally different.

Ok, thanks for the quick reply. We have tried to get it fixed. It did improve a little after two alignment, but not disappear. The latest we heard from the dealer is that indeed all of them drift to the right and that this is due to the road angle. It seems that this is indeed the case then. However I still think it is kind of crazy that this can be considered an acceptable product attribute? Did you take any more action before you decided to sell?

No, no use. Actually technically they are right. When the road is dead straight it stays in the middle. So the alignment seems ok. But the power steering type i think is different so it pulls immediately when the road the tiniest off. And all the roads seem to be off to the right due to rain slope i guess. So it’s in the power steering i conclueded but nothing they will fix or can i guess. But too bad they didn’t tell when selling.

So... here is something interesting. I have followed this thread on and off for quite a while. In the beginning, my 2018 JCW didn't display this pulling-right behavior. I now have about 36K miles on the car (it's California, where you have to get into your car just to go to the restroom :) ). About a month ago, I had cause to bring the car to the dealer to have a number of things checked before the car's warranty ended. One of the things they did was a re-alignment. But when I drove away after the work was completed, the car was very obviously drifting to the right – I could also feel the slight but continuous pressure I had to put on the steering wheel to keep the car headed down the middle of the lane. I turned around after testing on streets and highway, and took the car back. (I won't go into my wondering about whether the mechanic actually drove the car after doing the alignment.) A day later they reported to me that the alignment checked out has having been done properly. But the mechanics thought that there might have been uneven wear on the front tires (there was less than 10k miles on the tires... BTW, I had replaced the run-flats with regular Michellin Pilot Sport 4s, which I like very much). So they said that they swapped the front tires left to right, etc., and like magic the car no longer pulled to the right... and I no longer had to maintain any pressure on the steering wheel to keep going straight. So... I don't know how big the effect of uneven wear would be, but it's food for thought for those with a chronic pulling-right problem... if you haven't already tried this front tire swap, just maybe the "uneven wear" could be a contributor (if nothing else)?
-Bob

Old thread, but I'll play! ;-)

Every car that I have "pulls" (drifts, really...) to the right when I let my hands off the wheel. 08 Audi TT, 18 Audi Q7 and 18 F60 Countryman. There are a *lot* of variables at play here and it isn't as simple as just the relative slope of the road. Suspension geometry is a big part of this. Caster, camber and toe will all affect the ability of the steering to self-centre when you take your hands off the wheel. The tires themselves: shoulder design, tread pattern, stiffness of sidewall, etc., will also contribute to the equation. Unless the wheel is actively tugging to the right when your hands are on it, I don't see an issue with a gradual drift to the right. By the way, I drive that TT at the track quite regularly and at *very* high speeds and I am not concerned that the thing is going to throw me in the weeds. :-)

No doubt the dealership re-aligned the car's wheels, checked for tire and wheel damage, and rotated the tires and road tested it. If they find nothing wrong with it, i would just live with it.

I feel your pain. I had a Honda minivan that would pull to the right. Was very annoying. Never had a car constantly pull like that before. Tried everything to fix it. I learned, online, that Honda had a rule that if it takes more than 6 seconds to cross the lane line they consider it good.

I ended up just putting more air pressure in the RH tires than the LH ones & that took care of it.