Greetings! 2012 Passat TDI SEL pulls to the right

[Sophie]

New member here but I have been looking at the site for several months, reading & learning prior to purchasing our 2012 Passat TDI SEL. We bought it because we wanted good mileage & have not been let down. Received in the middle of April, we only have 3500 miles so far. Our best computation to date is 45 MPG at 65, freeway driving. Great car! A little nose heavy, I think it could use better front struts. Sound system is kicking & we are still learning the navi stuff. Brakes are awesome & the antilock works straight & right now! We are quite pleased with the car but do have one annoyance that I'm curious if anyone else may have & that is the car pulls to the right & did so from day one & even on our test drive. We told the salesman prior to signing & since then have gotten VW of America involved. After numerous trips to the dealer, wheel alignments,tire rotations, speculation & approval, I just brought the car home again with four new tires. Time will tell if the old Hankooks were the problem & the new Continentals will solve it. Has anyone else had this same situation?

Thanks in advance. I hope I can contribute!

[JazzBeBop]

I only speak for myself and my SE (while I had it) did not manifest any tire pulling, what it did do was make a very loud metal-to-metal sound like it was missing strut mounts or something when going over a pot hole at very low speeds, like when moving from a complete stop. I'm going to ask the dealership if this is normal...once I get it back from the auto-body repair shop. It's almost been two complete months.

[shoremnj]

my 2012 TDI tracks straight. Perhaps your hit a curb prior to you taking delivery?

[Sophie]

The dealership checked the alignment several times by a couple of different techs & all found the alignment to be right on spec. As it turns out the four new tires had no effect & the car still pulls or maybe more correctly, drifts to the right. Even on a flat freeway. I called VW of America & am waiting to see what the Regional Case Manager has to say next.

[DubFamily]

Are you certain this is happening on a flat road, and not on a crowned road? Most roads these days are crowned, and unless they are multi-lane they most likely are crowned to the right (so the car would drift that direction).

My car drifts right as well (2012 Golf) and I had to work hard to find a road actually crowned left or flat, rather than crowned right; to show that it does indeed pull right and it isn't just the road surface.

[TDI_Ryan]

Mine does the same thing. Just the SLIGHTEST bit, but it drives me nuts.

[Sophie]

Confirmed the road is flat w/ no cross wind. Of course if the road happens to be crowned as on city streets or country bi-way, the drift is more noticable. I thought maybe the RF brake might be dragging but the wheel spins free & the car brakes straight.

[mikey108]

Originally Posted by JazzBeBop

I only speak for myself and my SE (while I had it) did not manifest any tire pulling, what it did do was make a very loud metal-to-metal sound like it was missing strut mounts or something when going over a pot hole at very low speeds, like when moving from a complete stop. I'm going to ask the dealership if this is normal...once I get it back from the auto-body repair shop. It's almost been two complete months.

JazzBeBop - I've got something similar. when i hit a small pothole or bump with the rear driver side wheel, it makes a bad thud, almost like hitting a metal pole with a stick. all the other wheels sound normal in these situations. i've brought it to 3 times to vw service, one manager heard it and claimed it was a suspension rebound problem, but they find no issues when up on the lift. told me to call customer service, they recommended a 2nd opinion from a different service station, 2nd service station found nothing but the problem persists. any luck on your side yet? i'm thinking maybe it's something loose in a door or somewhere else. their only answer is...bring it back when it gets worse

[BPofMD]

Check out this: http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthrea...k-in-the-trunk

Maybe you have the same thing.

[hhoffmano]

Hi, I knew I was not alone on this one. Looking at the post and other posts in the web it seems this is a serious issue from VW. My 2012 Passat is also pulling to the right since day one. I have taken the car back to the dealer twice. The first time, they told me the alignament was off and they had corrected it, however, as soon as I drove off I could feel the car pulling again (always to the right). I took the car back one more time to the dealership and they made me feel like I didn't know how to diferentiate straight from pulling. I have had new cars pretty much always and none (even an Audi A4 I had) ever had this problem. No matter how straight and even the road is, it always pulls to the right, it is like you have to be always correcting the car to the left and it is becoming anoying. I will call VW headquarters to make a formal complaint. One of the technicians told that based on the power distribution on the front wheel drive it is normal for the car to pull to the right during acceleration, however i have tried without accelerating and the car pulls the same way. I will post any new information. Thanks.