Help! 2003 cab 4 still drifts - photos

Hello - Long post but has details and photos. I�m a Rennlist member and the third owner of a Midnight Blue 2003 Carrera 4 Cabriolet with 137,000 kms (85,000 miles). I keep it in good shape and it drives very well. See photo. Tire pressures at 33 F, 39 rear for a less harsh ride. I�m usually the only one in the car. Looking to the knowledgeable 996 forum mind to offer any details and advice- I�ve read the expert help and experience over the years and now I�m hoping for your thoughts on my next step. I�m not a suspension guy by any means, but understand how it works. Here�s the issue: A quick turn into a driveway turned into me hitting a raised curb ( I was basically trying to prevent the speeding car behind me from hitting me, but entirely my fault). See attached photo of rim abrasion and gouged sidewall. Suspension work to date on the car: New B6 Bilstein shocks 7k ago, new front constant Velocity axle assembly, new motor mounts, new brakes 15k ago. Alignment done after new tires and refinished rims 7k ago. Car drove straight, no drift. See alignment specs of this time period in photos. First action: After the damage, the damaged rim was refinished and a new Continental Extreme Sport balanced right tire installed. I had all rims and new tires done 3 years ago- same guy refinished this damaged one. Test drive showed a drift to the right when hands taken off the wheel. Not a road crown issue- I drove over several levels and road angles. My tire guy said that the replacement tire was an upgraded newer model- on inspection the grooves and angles are different from my left front tire. So I bought a new tire for the left front side to match the new right front. No change- car drifts to right hands off steering wheel on driving it. Switched front tires sides to see if there�s a difference- no, still drifts to the right. Second Action: Wheel alignment at first local tire shop. Tech was eager but inexperienced and tried his best. Reported no damaged suspension parts. Tried to align- said camber could not be adjusted? Test drive- car still drifts. I Third Action: Went to Porsche Indy (20 years experience) for a second wheel alignment. Tech did a complete visual inspection of the cars entire suspension and reported no problems. Their alignment machine was calibrated by Snap-on just the week before. See attached photo of his specs. To my untrained eye they appear to be good. Test drive showed car still drifting right. But the car has honestly never felt better driving wise since I�ve owned it - smooth , no juddering, no weird noises, tracks well with hands on the wheel. Road feel the best it�s been. But the car still drifts to the right -hands off. So the tech took it for another test drive and used a thermography tool to measure caliper heat on both fronts. Right front showed 20 degrees hotter than left, leading us to believe I had a sticking caliper. So I went ahead with a caliper rebuild kit (Porsche parts) for both front calipers. Redid the heat temperature test after test drive- RF was now only 5 degrees warmer than left. So not very much difference, I think. But car still drifted right, slightly not as much, but still very noticeable. So still drifting right. Like off the road in 1-200 feet?? I�m probably way off in this guess as to distance driven before it would be off the road, but I hope you get the idea. Included is a photo of the wheel alignment shop that did it when I had new shocks, tires and wheel refinishing 3 years ago.Looks quite different to me, leading me to question the second shop from last week. Bu I�m no expert. I�ve researched the other threads on drifting on the net and this forum and am at a loss as to what to do now. Maybe a third alignment at a different shop? I�m really hoping that someone reading this has had a similar experience and can direct me on my next step or even better, know what it could be. It is AWD, something may be at hand here, but just me thinking. Any help is greatly appreciated and welcomed. I�m in Vancouver BC. 2003 Carrera 4 Cabriolet Original tire damage and rim abrasion from curb Alignment Specs from second shop last week- 85000 miles on odometer Alignment specs at 79500 miles - new B6 shocks, new Continental tires, refinished rims

Won�t the car - any car - drift to some degree no matter what you do? Or is this thing really pulling on the wheel? Seems like you were onto something with the brake caliper. Agree that 5 degrees isn�t much, but then again, that seemed to be the one item that made the biggest difference.

Have you checked wheel bearings?

Couple things. With the large amount of toe that had to be dialed out of the right on the first alignment I would bet you have a bent right tie rod. Also the alignment specs look wonky to me. Zero front camber and zero front toe results in zero directional stability. My opinion is that it needs some negative camber in front and I would use the most Porsche specifies if not more. It also needs a tiny bit of toe in up front. The specs may call for zero toe or even some toe out both of which will make it very twitchy. Adding, I can't tell if the rear toe is in or out. I really advise against rear toe out, that makes the car very darty when turning. If the rear is toe in it's not very evenly adjusted which is going to make the car drift to one side.

Thanks to all contributing members for their reply�s. I will re-contact the Shop who did the most recent alignment and suspension check and ask about the wheel bearing�s, a bent right tie rod and a conversation about settings. There is no discernible pulling right while driving, but if it�s there when hands are off, I guess it�s there hands on, but can�t really feel it. I did read in this forum that this is not uncommon and others have had this issue. I will update my findings when I get some more information. Thanks again

Quotes source post: 19491405

What percentage of your driving is done with hands off the steering wheel?

Only when my A & W onion rings try to get away on me! 😁 I guess my way of thinking to my limited knowledge is that Porsche didn�t build a production line car that drifts right, so I�m trying to get as close as I can to straight at all times, even in a 21 y.o. car. And also when it does come time to eventually sell it, I don�t feel right selling a car that drifts. Hopefully I can get it sorted.

Quotes source post: 19491441

Hilarious!

also consider the fact that the road crown will encourage your car to pull outwards. Some alignment places may differ the camber on the sides to account for this.

You're right Porsche (or any car maker for that matter) will not build a car that drifts to either side on a level road. As a plausibility check you could search the net for 986 and 996 wheel alignment reports like yours and check whether a correction of 0.6 deg of camber is even possible. The only front camber adjustment is at the top where the strut is bolted to the body and I don't think the difference in camber is more than 0.5deg of camber angle apart, between the two extreme positions in the elongated holes. Based solely on the 4 Times 0.0deg on the print-out after adjustment I suspect it is the number for the printout to make the customer happy but the actual values are different. The strange thing is, that the RHS negative camber would make the car steer to the left. Yet you still observe a drift to the right. Bent tie rod would lead to an off-center steering wheel angle whilst the car travels in a straight line as both front wheels will always have the same toe angle per wheel when driving namely half of total front axle toe. So that is not the cause for your observation. Having said that, I would replace it just to exclude it having an effect. Theprf is spot-on regarding rear toe and 0 front toe. The new tyres can also be the cause due to a trait of each tyre called conicity. It can cause side pull: http://www.agcoauto.com/content/news/p2_articleid/181

Quotes source post: 19491816

^^^This. Don't forget, the 996 will follow the road by nature. Even more so with additional camber. You will also feel some odd characteristics with different size tires and tire pressures. But certainly, bent suspension components won't help and can contribute.