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Hello-
My wife's '97 850 pulls to the right. If you hit the pedal real lightly or somewhat firmly, you don't notice it. Inbetween though, and watch out. Especially with the weather turing icey.
Maybe this part is normal, but what seems odd is that with no hands on the steering wheel, the steering wheel turns slightly left while the car heads for the boonies to the right. This makes me think that it is the rear brakes- stay with me here. Lets say that the left rear brake is not working. It will pull the front end to the right (the car's center of gravity in the middle still trying to go straight while the right rear wheel is off to the side causing the car to want to turn as a whole to the right). However, the caster in the steering will resist the sideward loads and and tend to make the steering wheel turn the opposite way (Under normal conditions this is a good thing. To get the opposite effect, try driving a car backwards fast a long ways; at our own risk of course). So it ends up being a battle between the two and the brakes generally win. The fact that it happens only within a range of brake pressure would tend to support this too. Finally, if it were a front brake, doesn't that tend to snatch the wheel out of your hands?
We've had a front end alignment and the tire pressures are fine, to no avail. At the suggestion of our mechanic/salesman, we've used half a dozen bottles of brake fluid bleeding the brakes several times, none of which has made any difference. He also assures us that the calipers are free because they don't have excessive drag when spinning a wheel while it is in the air. Is that a reliable critieria? He wants to put new calipers on the front at our expense, but even he admits he's not sure it will make any difference. I'm skeptical.
Any ideas?
Dave
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