vibration happens more at higher speeds... its not the calipers or drive train, happens more so at maintaining highway speeds 75-80. Tires were new when i bought it on Nov 08, some whatever brand (Nexen or something). I'm almost positive its the 2 rims in the rear since the last mechanic stated the 2 rears were slightly bent.

Its more so the steering being off that really annoys me. Has acura or anyone developed a solution for this?

 

It wouldn't matter if the 2 rims were slightly bent and in the rear. It sounds like balance of the tires. You can still balance out a bent rim and have no vibration.

Acura wont do anything. Its just how the car was engineered.

 

hot damn i have the same problem.

i got a new power steering rack at ~20,000 miles due to groaning noise. i'm at ~22,000 now. my car definitely drifts to the right if i hold the steering wheel dead center. my car was aligned by the dealer to spec after the power steering rack was replaced.

ironically, i never noticed the problem before with the old steering rack...

 

are you serious?? so thats why for all these years i have had the same thing on my 04 tsx. wow, i never knew that was done on purpose by acura. lol. i thought i was missing a filament in my bulb or something.

 

 

i'm just gonna' toss in an observation:

the parking lot at my condo is a slight slope. only recently have i parked so that the passenger-side is sloping down - coninciding with the recent right-side drift...

i used to always park driver-side sloping down - the car never had a drifting problem.

i'm not sure what this means but i tested this theory out the past few days and went back to parking driver-side down - no drift!

so what does this mean???

 

Absolutely nothing.

 

I've got a theory too:

My 06 has only swayed left with directional tires. My OEMs never caused the problem. My winter tires (Dunlops) and new all seasons (Yoko V4S) both lead to slight drifting, although the winter tires are worse. Does anybody have this problem with regular bidirectional tires?

 

Try cross rotating your tires. See if that helps. Many people have had this problem with all kind of of tires.

I personally never had it tell I installed my new tires.

 

Directional tires cannot be cross-rotated without un-and-re-mounting and balancing, which becomes an expensive routine.

EDIT: Also, my car seems to have a slight left pull tendency on all stock parts including tires. I got used to it. then again, my right rear tire camber is out-of-spec negative, so I can't say my alignment is squared away.

 

Yes I know. But he stated biodirectional tires. Some tire places will flip the tire for free if you bought them there.

Also rear camber has no effect on pull. More on tire wear and that is minimal without toe.

 

He actually specified directional, then asked if anyone had seen the issue on their bidirectional

OK I didn't think the camber would cause that but thought I should mention it just in case. All other aspects of the alignment are in spec (it was done recently).

 

Yeah, I just noticed that since I've used directional tires, no matter how I've rotated them (not removing them from rims), I seem to have the drift. Just wondering if anybody else noticed the same thing...

The tire shop will not flip (remount) tires without getting paid. This problem doesn't bug me enough to pay for remounting all the time, but in the future I could avoid directional tires, if that's what was causing it.

 

I have problem too. Car drifts to the left. Have had the dealer do alignment twice. still the same.

Guys, what is difference between directional tires and bidirectional tires??

The stock tires that come with the car, the Michelins, are they directional or birectional?

How do you tell them apart? Will the tire say it or have a symbol on it?

 

The OEM Michelins are bidirectional--they rotate either direction and maintain optimum traction. Directional tires typically, but not necessarily, have better traction, particularly in mud/snow. Usually you can tell just my looking at the tread, but directional tires also have an arrow on the sidewall indicating the correct direction for rotation.

 

stock parts, 44k miles on '06 tsx

same problem here.. drifts to the left. just had an alignment done by the dealer and it's still there. i don't notice any chance except that now my steering wheel at default points slightly to the left where it used to point slightly to the right.

 

meh. i blew up my own theory. after trying to park my car driver-side sloping down, i still have the right-side drift. back to square one...

based on a lot of people's posts, if alignment are straight and true... where else can the problem lie? my car was also aligned by the dealer and it still drifts... tpms says my tire pressure is correct. visual check on tire wear does not indicate any crazy wear issues.

i'm starting to guess maybe the steering wheels are machined incorrectly such that when they are mounted they are off-center or something... *shrugs*

 

I have an 05TSX with 60k km's. The car drifts to the left since I got it 2 months ago. I've had it realigned twice and couldn't understand why it kept pulling left on the road. So I asked the dealer and he told me the cause is probably the tires. Not trusting anyone at Acura delearship, I wanted to get a second opinion, so I asked my brother-in-law whose an engineer at honda. He said that the cause is most likely directional tires. Especially since we have fairly thin tires, we can feel the pulling effect even more.

 

It's probably the tires, but it still shouln't pull with a perfect alignment.

I have some sticky tires on my car and wider than stock. I gave up on this issue and stopped letting it bother me so much. As long as my tires wear evenly I don't car any more.

 

I resolved my issue with my car pulling to the right. It was my tires the whole time(Just like I thought). I had some high performance summer tires Dunlop Direzza Z1 Star Specs in a 225/45/17( I love these tires). They were almost brand new and I put about 2k miles on them. I had a constant pull to the right at freeway speeds. I had given up after getting multiple alignments and other misc things checked out. Just recently I came across a good deal on wheels with tires(Shitty Nexens in a 225/40/18). I couldn't pass this deal up.

I put the wheels on and took it for a drive. I'm happy to say that for the last 2 week I have had no pull problems. The car tracks straight as an arrow.

Solution for most of you.
What I would recommend is trying a different set of tires or cross rotate you current set and see if anything changes. If something does change you will know exactly what the problems is, the tires.

 

Are the new tires directional?

 

Yes, but they are all season.

 

update:

foreman at the dealer drove the car and confirmed that my car did pull to the right.

he said its probably "radial pull" aka tire problem.

problem is gone after rotation. looks like ya'll with the problem should rotate the tire to the rear and see if the pulling goes away.

 

I have been having the same problem, and it only arose after the steering rack was replaced. The steering wheel is ~3 degrees rotated to the left when I am driving in a straight line. The alignment and tire rotation may be the culprit. I am going to try rotating the tires and seeing if it goes away.

 

Same here. I thought when I bought my 05 TSX it needed an alignment, but I haven't done that yet. Guess I won't bother now.

 

When I bought my car it was not holding straight. But in my case all tires on the car were different and all on horrible condition. I bought 4 brand new tires did alignment and balancing at a good shop after that now it's just great, like a new car basically

 

Unless you know for sure that the car has had an alignment recently, you can be sure it needs one regardless of the drifting issue. If you live where there's no winter, you could probably go a couple of years between alignments, otherwise it should be done once a year.

 

I just bought a 2006 TSX and felt the same thing drifting to the left I took it to Good Year dealer and they told me my alignment is good, but they also showed me that I have a bad passenger side tie rod and the rack and pinion bellows boot shows signs of fluid leaking this might be might problem hopefully covered with the extended warranty!

 

My car's had this issue for sometime, based on my experience with this issue on my previous car (94 accord) I can say the following affects your car's tracking:

1. Alignment. Get it checked, ask for a printout. If you see variances from side to side, chances are it well likely affect your car's tracking

2. Crown in the road - almost all roads are angled to allow for rain water drainage, your car will almost always drift with respect to this

3. Camber, any amount of negative camber will cause this issue as well, Especially if you have more negative camber on one side of the car (ie if its lower on that side) Think of a styrofoam cup on its side, and what happens when you roll it along a table. Your tires will do the same thing if you have negative camber

4. Tires. Almost always you will have difference in tracking if you get new tires or get your existing ones rotated. My car used to hook to the right, ever since I rotated them I now track to the left :laugh:, Quality tires shouldn't do this as badly. I have some crappy Dunlop uni-directional tires which came with my car (CPO)

5. Engine Mounts/Bushings- Worn out engine mounts will cause torque steer. Worn out bushings will exaggerate any suspension movement or travel. Get your mounts and bushings inspected!!

 

Had new tires put on my 04 a couple months ago. Pulled hard to the right with the new rubber. Had the alignment done ($84), still pulled. Took it back to Discount tires, they swapped front tires side to side. Still pulled to the right. Put the fronts on the rear, rears on the front, stopped pulling. Put the LR on LF and started pulling again. Discount ordered a new tire and replaced LF. The new tire actually pulls more to the right than the one they just replaced so calling them again this week to have them order another one. Botton line, if your alignment is good and you just put new tires on, you probably have a defect tire in the mix.

 

one way I found to test/rule out a couple things. drive slowly in a parking lot (like 10 mph) and turn the wheel all the way to one side and then let go. You'll notice the wheel snapping back toward center. Do this with the other side as well and see how much it snaps back toward center. For example, when I turn mine all the way to the right and let go, it comes back to center and continues to go left, but when I turn it all the way to the left, it only comes back about 3/4 to center and the car keeps going left. you can rule out a bad tire if there is a huge difference like this when only going this slow. I think there is a larger problem going on here because I was researching this for awhile and it seems to be VERY common. I have never found a good solid solution though...only theories. good luck all!