My new-to-me XFS has had a slight pull to the left since I bought it the other week. I didn't think much of it an took it to my reputable alignment shop for an alignment. It still pulled to the left afterwards. I knew I needed some wheels repaired and new tires so I addressed those items. Car still pulls to the left. I brought it back to the alignment shop and asked that they check the alignment, suspension components,.sub-frame, etc. (the car was in a minor accident with the previous owner.) They said they checked everything and the car looks solid and they think it has to be something electrical at this point.

I'm just curious what people's thoughts are on this.

 

electrical???? did you lol like I just did? do you have a printout? is it a drift or pull? pull=a lane change if you let got of the wheel. A drift is a slow move when you let go of the wheel. Have you tried different road crowns to the left or right? Does it do it all the time? If it is a tire pull you will not fix that with alignment. To check swap the front tires left to right. If it then moves right it is a tire pull and 1 or both need to be replaced.

 

You said the car was in an accident. I woukd have the alloy wheels check. One or two or all four is/are brobably bent. Bent alloy or steel wheels would make a vehicle unstable and would pull from each direction, Check the front struts, If one is shot and the other is still good it would cause the car to pull or veer to a different direction. Also, go in front of the car parked at ground level in Concrete at about 10 feet the distance between you and the car and observe. Is the front of the car parralel or horrizontally correct? If one side is taller than the other even with a slight difference, then you need to have it fixed.

If all I mentioned were all OK, then I would inspect on all of the front suspension components including tires. Do you have the CarFax report? It might give you an indication which side of the vehicle was in a collision, if there's an info, then concentrate and inspect on that area alone.

 

It's a drift pull. It's not the wheels or tires as I mentioned it did it prior to the wheel repair and after as well as with the previous tires and the new tires.

​​​​​​After speaking with a friend who works on JLR products (but not locally) he also believes it could be electrical and the vehicle's steering angle sensor needing a zero learn performed.


The shop took an extensive look at the side of the vehicle that was bumped and found nothing wrong at all with any components.

 

Confirmed: bad steering angle sensor.

 

Thanks for the update. It will help others on this forum

 

hmm forgot and should have looked at your car info on the footer lol. the 2020 has electric power steering racks(well vin split in 2020 on whether it has or not) and yes it looks at the steering angle sensor and can compensate for road crown and make the car go straight and have a centered steering wheel. BUT when you change the toe setting a bit too much you have to calibrate the steering angle sensor so it know what straight ahead is. Usually this is not a issue but if the sensor fails it can't compensate correctly. It should have thrown a fault code also as this is a critical sensor for not only steering but abs/stability control. So maybe they just replaced so they could calibrate and be paid..shrug

 

My alignment shop was puzzled as to why the car wasn't throwing a code given they were seeing a reading of -730* from the steering angle sensor. The tech said while troubleshooting it "corrected" to no better than -60* while the wheel was centered. Since the car is under factory warranty, I picked it up to bring into the dealership. About 300' after pulling out of the shop it threw every warning light pertaining to stability/traction control, active headlights, adaptive cruise, etc. I guess this is a "good" thing since the dealer now has a code to pull.

Got a call from the dealership today and they said they ordered a "module" for the car and it will be here next Thursday. I asked the SA what module was ordered and he wasn't sure.

 

Update: well, I don't suspect the part they ordered will fix the pull. They ordered a "multifunction switch" because that's what they were told to order based on the code that came up. When I asked if they looked into the steering angle sensor they said no because they have to follow a procedure and that's not what the code is telling them to do. You gotta love dealer/warranty work!

 

I suppose I should provide a final update: the clockspring was replaced and now the vehicle tracks straight! I suspect Jaguar has the steering angle sensor built into the clockspring on the X260.

 

Someone help me understand how/why the steering angle sensor keeps the car going straight. How does it know you want to go straight? I can see it being used for damper adjustment, braking forces at individual wheels, and lane keeping assist, but not going straight. I'm ready to learn something new.