'06 Arctic

So I got new tires last week from Sears. I got a set of BF Goodrich g-Force Super Sport A/S. The tires have been pretty good, although a little noisy. My old tires were Bridgestone Pole Positions. Both sets are 215/50/17. Since I got these new tires on, my car has a very distinct pull to the left. I got it aligned after I had the tires put on and it still has the pull. Any ides on what could be causing this? I thought for sure it would be the alignment, but its not. Could it just be the tires?

vollum

It could be the tires. I once had a new set that pulled one way only when I braked. Bring the car back to Sears, tell them about your problem and have them switch the tires from one side to the other and see if the car pulls to the right. That is what my tirer dealer did to determine that it was indeed the tires or a tire. He ended up switching out all four and sending the original set back to the manufacturer.

'06 Arctic

Yeah, I am going to stop in tomorrow and ask them about it.

SG81

iTrader: (1)

they probably weren't balanced properly

'06 Arctic

I called and talked to the manager. He said almost all tires have a small slope to them that he called something, which is not usually marked on the tire. If these slopes are facing the same way he said that the tires would pull to one side regardless if the care is aligned or not. So I am going to bring it in tomorrow and have them check it out.

pimpin-tl

One of your front tires has a bad belt. You need to have them replace it. Go to NTB instead of SEARS as they are the same company and talk to someone about them.

Have them swap the tires from the left and right side to see if then pulls to the other direction. If so, then you found the tires. Tires do not have slopes. All tires are perfectly round and should all track straight no matter what. Sounds like he is just trying to get rid of you. This is why I hate Sears.

'06 Arctic

When I went to the store and talked to the manager he did mention that it could be a bad belt. He rebalanced the tires and rotated them (front to rear) and it still pulled to the left. He mentioned that he would have liked to switch sides but since they are directional, doing that would not really tell him anything as the tire would want to pull due to the tread. He said if it was a bad belt, the tire would be vibrating as well as pulling and you would be able to feel it through the steering wheel. They checked the alignment and the left side was out. So they aligned it and it feels better, although it still pulls slightly.

pimpin-tl

You can safely run a directional tire backwards for a short period to run this test. And I have seen it on my own car where it didn't cause a vibration but it did pull.

Now if it pulls slightly, it could be the grain of the road. See if it goes straight on different roads that look level and some that aren't.

jswim99

I've had this exact same problem with both of my sets of tires (winter and non-oem all-season), and after going through similar motions as you (alignment, balance, rotation, put them on backwards) I have come to the conclusion that some directional tires cause a pull in the TSX. There's a thread from a few years ago that discusses this--a few other folks have had this issue, with no resolution. I've learned to deal with the pull--it's pretty minor, and I will avoid directional tires in the future for the TSX.

Vero_Golf_Champ

I just got back from the tyre shop with my 2002 Type S down here in NZ. They didn't charge me for wheel alignment and moving fronts to back because it still pulled to left after they were done. Technician said it was the tyres, probably uneven tread levels (they are wearing evenly). As the tyres are directional, they couldn't swap them over.

cober319

is this only a problem with the 06? i have an 04 tsx and just got the BF Goodrich g-force super sports as well and now I am significantly noticing that same pull to the left. I don't recall having it with my OEM michilens...

'06 Arctic

As jswim99 said, I think it may just be a problem with certain tires. My old tires, Bridestone Potenza PP, did not have this problem at all. I barely notice it now although it is definitely still there. Next time I need tires, I'm switching back to the Potenza PP's.

808havok_tsx

its most likely a radial/tire pull. fyi, there's a thread here about the pulling issue on the stockies as well... shop foreman at my dealership confirmed pulling issue and tire rotation "fixed" it... you need to isolate which tire is bad and get that replaced because eventually, the pulling issue would come back when the tire comes back to the front.

i have the same bfgoodrich tires and they are a dream to drive on. no pulling, hardly any weights on the wheel, and overall a humongus improvement over stock. once you change out your bad tire, you should be ok...

xenonhid

@06 Arctic Is it pulling to the left from an initial straight position?

Or are you talking about Front toe? Where if the steering wheel is exactly centered, your car starts to go to the left and to rectify that, your steering wheel is slightly turned to the right to go straight?

It might be that they didn't do the alignment correctly. You can't always trust them to do a good alignment everytime.

'06 Arctic

Well, I just had the tires rotated last week and the pull to the left is now more noticeable again. It is still drivable and not a big deal at all, but it does annoy me.

Xenon, its kinda hard to explain but it does both. I feel like I always have to compensate for the pull by holding the wheel to the right. But if I start out straight and do not compensate for it, the car will go off to the left, hence I think it is an alignment issue.

I may switch my front two tires and see if the pull changes to the right. Even if they are directional tires, as pimpin-tl said, running that tire against the intended direction shouldn't be a problem. Although it won't be a true test as the tire will be running against its intended tread direction.

Thanks for the info Havoc, I'm sure it is probably just one bad tire and not a problem with the tires in general.

TLAwesome

If you don't fix the pulling, all your tires will wear unevenly and prematurely.

Tangoman

Resurrecting this thread...

I had 2 sets of Super Sport A/S.. the first model and then the H/V model that came out a little later. I've used them as my winter tires mainly, as I have 18" wheels for summer.

I've always had a pull to the left since I bought the car. I'm out of caster from left to right by about 1 degree from a previous accident before I bought the car, so I always thought the constant tire pull was from that. But, I have just now put on new Kumo 4xs and wow, the thing drives as straight as an arrow.

I had rotated the tires around, flipped them, nothing seemed to fix it. I did have steering vibration but I thought I just had a tire that couldn't be balanced right because of old age... anyway, from reading this thread it seems like I might have had at least 2 tires with a bad belt.

I'm happy now though, Kumho 4x are asymmetric but not directional.

Tangoman

Alright, the tires were definitely what was causing it. I would not recommend putting G-Force Sport A/S tires on the TSX - your car WILL pull left. Because all the tires come out of one mold and they always get mounted on wheels one way because they're directional, I'm not surprised they pull to the left.

808havok_tsx

i ended up replacing my tires at about 27,000. the bf goodrich's deteriorated very quickly. both inside AND outside shoulders of all 4 tires wore down until nearly bald but the center tread was ok but was brittle. my alignments was true, my suspension is fine, and i regularly rotated the tires. i also had good pressure (always 37 psi front 35 psi rear) in them especially since i had 45 series tires. the road noise also became quite unbearable at highway speeds (above 55 mph)...

i ended up getting falken ze912's. we'll see how long these last...

SeaJay

I just came off the Falken 912's. I got about 30k miles on them in 2 years. Mostly highway.
While they had good performance during wet and summer, I found them loud, horrible in slush, and required a lot of care to wear evenly (rotations at every oil change). It is a fine tire if you don't put a lot of miles on each year and just want a fun tire.
I'm trying the Nitto Motivos now, so far loving them.