People should not be narrow-minded, just because it is an expansion loop... doesn't mean it will move only in axial direction!

The sketch you've provided is only around the loop area, piping before this location is also significant to you entire piping displacement. For example, if your piping before the first guide is going to (-x) direction (including thermal disp) making the first guide causing a seesaw event (teeter-totter reaction), that is why your getting (+x) displacement on your bends? If this is so, your bend "to node" should add-up displacements to (+x) direction depending on the lenght of your bend...

Cheers!