04 caravan pulls left

[jholt28]

hey guys newbie here

Got a quick question about my wifes caravan. Recently had new firestone
tires put on with a 4-wheel alignment. Since then the van pulls left pretty bad. Took the van back 3 times to have it checked out rotated all four tires around and even switched all four tires to a different brand. The alignment was checked a total of 6 times by firestone and everytime checked out good.
They checked the brake calipers thought maybe they were sticking, all good.
These guys are scratching their heads at this one. Took it to a Dodge dealer
same thing. They acknowledge that it has a bad pull left and did everything that Firestone did and all checked out good. I asked them for suggestions they pretty much waived me out the door and said good luck.

Any suggestions???

[RickMN]

Did it pull before you took it in for tires? Even though the calipers may not be sticking mechanically, the left side may have residual pressure from a bad master cylinder or proportioning valve. The easiest way to check that is to remove the wheel covers (if you have steel wheels), drive the car with lots of stops and then use an infra-red thermometer to compare the hub temps left to right. If one side is much greater than the other, you have brake drag on that side. Or, you have a bad wheel bearing on that side. Neither is good.

Is the pull worse on acceleration? Coasting?

[jholt28]

The van didn't pull before the new tires. They replaced the new tires with a different brand and I have the same pull. Both Firestone and the Dodge dealer checked out the brake calipers and said the brake system is fine.

Could I have a bad C/V or Ball joint on the Left side?
Neither company mentioned anything about that.

[mfahey]

A few months ago, I helped a neighbor with his daughter's Neon which had the same problem. I thought for sure it was the caliper because the wheel was hot after driving but it wound up being a defective brake hose that was acting like a check valve and not releasing the pressure when the pedal was released.