My car pulls while driving. I am usually in the left lane so I feel like I am always pulling left. However, it will pull to the right in the slow lane on the highway as well (crowned roads) I feel that it follows every little ridge, slope, imperfection in the road. I also have the misaligned steering wheel problem that I have heard others speak of.

My friend is an acura mechanic and he aligned it the other day (it was just a tiny bit out of alignment). Steering wheel is a little straighter but car still pulls when the road is sloped. Either way, right or left (although left is a little more prominent)

I never had this problem in my other cars (most recently an 01 accord) I also never had 17in tires either. I would blame it on the profile of the tire, but there are plenty of people that do not have this problem with their TSX. The tires that are on the car now are dealer throw-ons and are crap I am sure but they are at least newer.

It is just annoying to have to constantly correct the direction of the car.

Any other ideas or fixes?
Thanks!

 

If its properly alligned and tires are properly inflated then there isn't much more you can do. Maybe get different tires. Don't know if better tires would help the pulling problem but the stock tires have so many other things wrong with them.

 

Yes, it's a known issue. I recently got my car aligned after lowering it, and it's still pulls to the left.

 

My previous VW also did this on highways; I always had to maintain a slight "right turn" when driving in the passing lane (aka cruising lane for stupid dumbass retards).

So, I assume all cars, more or less, do this and I imagine wider tires exaggerate (sp?) this phenomenon.

 

They sure do, as this happend to me when I went with 18's.

Is it strange that when I do a rotation, the pull changes direction? In other words, right now my car will mostly pull to the left. But if I do a rotation (Directional tires so, front/back - back/front), the pull will pre dominatly change to the right...

 

wider tires do pull more...i've had 18's on my VW back then, pulls whtever the roads gave it...

 

That makes sense. But what about the other TSX owners out there that don't have this problem? Could it have something to do with the roads they are driving on? I drove my friends subaru in FL with 17's and there was no evidence of pulling... all the roads in south FL were flat though too.

 

I'm leaning more towards the crowned roads explanation (no pun intended) that pulls my car more left.

 

I am just finding this dissapointing. I saved up and finally bought my dream car and I am having a hard time enjoying it when I am constantly having to correct the direction it is pulling in. My accord was so much easier to drive...every car I have ever had was easier to drive for that matter. I expected more from a car of this stature I guess.

I guess I'll take it back to the dealer and keep complaining but when I hear so many other stories on the forums where people have the same situation and the dealers just give them a "can not duplicate problem", it is discouraging.

I can't remember it doing this on the test drive. Maybe because I was super excited and was not paying attention, maybe it was the roads I drove on, I don't know. But it is all I can focus on now when I drive. I can't even look down for change at the tolls or I am out of the lane. I just have a hard time accepting the fact that this can possibly be normal for 17" tires or crowned roads to cause this to happen so much.

 

Take it to the dealer, have them drive it and continue to complain until it is fixed. There is a solution, Acura just hasn't chosen to spend the $$ to fix it. Simple as that. Direct that dissatisfaction at them and their service rating until you are satisfied.

 

If it helps I was annoyed by it when I first got the car and I don't even notice it anymore

 

I don't know what the dealer can do. If it pulled in the same direction all the time then I can understand it. But if it pulls in the direction away from the crown of the road then its just the characteristic of the TSX with wide tires (wider than what he is used to).

 

Hmm...based on what you've said so far, the crowned roads are definitely contributing to it. Also contributing to it would be the TSX's steering rack ratio and the wider tires than on your Accord.

Tramlining is always going to be more prominent with a wider tire. However, it should be minimal pull in either direction as a result of the crowning. If you're making very minor adjustments (i.e fractions of degrees), then this is normal behavior for a car with this type level of driver feedback. If you're having to make large corrections for seemingly flat roads, then you definitely have a serious problem. If that's the case, then one to is to have the dealer inspect all of the suspension arms/links as one of them may be bent.

 

had/somewhat still have same problem with my 04. Dealer did put on a new control arm on the back right. I think it helped a little, but it does still pull more than I really like (but again, new control arm did improve it some). My steering wheel is a bit off center too, after dealer re aligned, they probably did some over compensating for the pull.

The new 06 has a "tighter control arm" (I think I read that somewhere)- does any one know if this helps with the pulling??

 

Agreed. I must have read it too quickly. I thought it was a pull in the same direction.

If it is a response to a crowned road, get used to is also my answer. I mean, that's the trade off when you have wider/larger tires and a suspension setup for gripping the road.

 

My car pulls to the left a little bit. Since it's lowered on TeinSS I decided t check the hieght at each wheel and found that the front passenger side is about 1/4" lower than the front drivers side. That would be the problem!

 

Well I just drove my wife's car (mazda tribute) back from her company Christmas party (haven't driven her car in months) and I did notice a small amount of pull as well on the same highways I drive with the TSX.

I guess this is "normal" to some extent given the amount of crowning on the roads here in PA. I just don't recall my Accord doing it and that very well may be due to the fact that I had 15" tires.

I made an appt with the dealer because it can't hurt for them to check it out.

I am only making small adjustments to correct the pull, but it is constantly and it becomes annoying and IMO, unsafe to some extent.

I'll see what the dealer has to say, maybe I do have an issue with a control arm.

 

Good Luck. Let us know what the dealer says.

 

I recently had an alignment performed at the dealership to address this problem. Didn't solve a thing, I am still pulling to the left on crowned roads and now I am getting about 3 miles to the gallon less than before. My Girlfriend's 2006 VW Jetta has absolutely no pull on crowned roads. There must be SOMETHING that can be done.

 

Yeah same thing here, my friend at another Acura dealer looked at it last week and said the alignment was a bit out of spec. So he aligned it and at least it put the steering wheel back to center again, but still pulling. And I also just noticed a drop in MPG...2-3 to be exact...since the alignment.

Of course, I think we get oxygentated gas here in the winter months and I saw the same dip last year in my accord.

 

Read these threads.....this is a known TSX issue admitted by my dealer...and fixed by my dealer with aftermarket adjustable control arm:

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26673

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26070

https://acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22442

Good luck!

 

Check out page 4 of this post. Would this work on our cars?

http://cartalk.com/board/showflat.ph...0&fpart=4&vc=1

 

I just uninstalled/reinstalled my TeinSS up front because I hear a noise from time to time and wanted to ensure my install wasn't to blame (I didn't do it exactly right the first time around because I tried to preset the ride height before assembling the coilovers). When my car is parked out in front of my house my front passenger side also appears to be lower than the front driver side by about 1/4" so I drove the car to a parking lot to measure. They measured out very close to each other and visually appeared the same so I'm guessing the parking space in front of my house is to blame. Maybe it's just crooked or something.

I forget the measurements so I'm going to do it again in a different parking lot just to be sure both sides are of equal height. I'm sure the front Teins are set equally (I set them to 35mm this time instead of the default 30mm to combat some rubbing that occured) and the tires both have a pressure of 32psi, so if the height is different, I will be at a loss as to why. The only other thing that I can thing that might affect ride height is how far the strut is pressed into the fork but I have both sides in as far as they will go.

I really wish I measured the height of the stock setup before I installed the Teins. Maybe it was not equal from the beginning and it was just harder to tell since the gap was so huge. Now that the gap is nearly gone it's much easier to tell if one gap is larger than the other.

 

I was just reading up on alignment and would caster angle have anything to do with the pulling? Because mine definately pulls in all directions. Every little zip in the road pulls the car. It just seemed to describe what is happening to me. The car just feels "light" in the fact that I have a hard time making it just go straight.

I believe they said a positive caster angle would help the car track better. Is this possible and can it be adjusted on the TSX?

The site I was reading about this on is:

http://www.familycar.com/alignment.htm

 

damn i thought i was just imagining things... i have this problem too. i know where your comin from jackacc, its the most frustrating thing and it makes it really hard to enjoy the car. hopefully a solution is found

 

Well I just got back from the dealer and stupid me forgot to specify online that I needed a loaner when I made the appt so I have to reschedule... (of course the salesman when I bought the car said they had 14,000 loaners in their fleet and it is never an issue...) They are a week out on loaners the service rep told me... oh well.

However, I have been test driving a few of my friends cars lately and am realizing that all cars drift to some extent. The TSX just happens to be more pronounced that I am used to.

It definately has to do with road crowning no doubt (and that is the 1st thing the service rep told me, along with the 17" tire helping it along) both responses I expected.

I was in the slow lane today and it was pulling right a little, then as I approached a downward lefthand turn, the car straightened out, then pulled left to follow the banking of the road.

I have a feeling that I may just have to get used to it like other people have. And I do wonder... if I never read about this as a problem on the forums... would I have even noticed it? Maybe, maybe not. But now I think about it too much. Luckily, there is so much more "awesome" in the car to focus on.

I do still wonder if the caster angle has anything to do with how easily this car follows every groove and slant in the road, or if my crappy dealer throw on tires could be affecting it too...

 

Well...in my case, when the dealer did the alignment they gave me a spec sheet showing all of the readings. The readings for the right rear were out-of-spec and could not be brought into spec unless an adjustable control arm was installed.

Have your dealer do an alignment and ask for the spec sheet to see what the four corners read.

Look closely at the right rear.

 

Just a quick update...

I just got my car back from the dealer. They looked at the car, checked the tires and alignment, and everything was aok. Alignment was in spec (and it should be since my friend at another Acura dealership just did it for me a week ago). They just blamed the pulling on the tires.

Honestly, I have tried not to pay attention to it and now I barely notice it. I think reading about all the people that had the pull to the left problem made me over-analyze and overreact. The main times I do notice it is when I am in the fast lane and I loosen my grip on the wheel a little...then it drifts to the left. However, I also have the same results with my wife's SUV on the same roads. So I am closing the case on this one I guess. I just need to keep a firm grip on the wheel, no more driving with my thumbs on the bottom of the wheel from now on.

 

Not sure if this was related or not, but I just had my front wheels balanced at 25K because of some shaking, and I had also noticed it had been pulling a little before the balance as well. After the balance, all is good again. Front wheel balance was an easy $45 and it fixed the problems I was having.

 

If the alignment and tire pressure are correct, then the crown on the road is probably the main reason for pulling. However, the tires are also an important factor. When I switched the stock wheels/tires to TL wheels/Yoko ES100 tires, the car would follow any cracks on the road and it was not comfortable to drive. Recently, I replaced them with different wheels and PS2 tires and no more pulling. Even the crowning issue is much reduced.

 

Yeah my tires are not great, they are "American Platinum" or some no name, so who knows how the performance is affected. I am going to save up for a good set once these are exhausted. I have had god luck with Michelin Hydroedge tires in the past. Very good in the wet weather, and they got me around in the snow pretty well last year on my accord.