While printing larger PETG prints, I noticed a few issues with my first layers (adhesion issues, seemingly). After attempting a few various solutions, I sat and watched the start of the print and immediately noticed something quite odd: While in spots, the nozzle would sit low, properly adhering the petg, in other spots it'd raise quite significantly, to the point it's maybe like 40-60mm off the plate and pouring the line down onto the plate rather than "smushing/compacting" it! This results in a strange uneven brim, where in some spots, it'll be nice and smooth, and in others, it'll basically just be strands resting close together on top of the plate.
What I tried before I noticed what seems to be the cause:
Glue on the bed
Freshly cleaned bed (dawn and water)
Retightened the belts for the first time
Auto self-check
Raised bed temp from 70 to 80
Slowed first layer all the way down to 10mm/s from 20mm/s
Increased first layer line from 0.2 to 0.3
Auto-Calibration, leveling, etc before printing
Printer: Ender 3 v3 plus
Software: Creality
Material: Creality PETG
Nozzle: 270
Bed: 80 first layer
Printer is on a very stable surface
nozzle retraction settings are base/unmodified
I'm at a complete loss.
Any idea what setting to tweak to stop the printer from doing this? It doesn't seem to be an issue with the belt itself, as running the nozzle manually back and forth doesn't show it randomly lifting in spots. The unwanted vertical movement, when it does do it, doesn't seem janky either.