Tools For Steering System Noise Diagnosis: Drift/Pull

WARNING: This page is about a different car, the 2006 Mercury Montego, 2006 Ford Freestyle, and 2006 Ford Five Hundred. However, it is still accessible from the selected car via links, so may be relevant.

Pull is described as a tugging sensation felt by the hands on the steering wheel that must be overcome to keep the vehicle going straight.

Drift describes what a vehicle with this condition does with the hands off the steering wheel.

A vehicle-related drift/pull on a flat road can cause a consistent deviation from the straight-ahead path and require constant steering input in the opposite direction to counteract the effect.
Drift/pull can be induced by conditions external to the vehicle, such as wind or road camber.