Last week, I traded my '03 TL for a new '04. Perhaps like many of you, I have a long-ish commute and drive mostly in the left lane. I've noticed that my new TL seems to want to "pull" to the left much more than my previous TL at freeway speed -- and depending on the road and pavement, it seems like sometimes I have to actively steer to keep the car tracking straight.

Brought it in to the dealer to have it checked, and (surprise) was told that this is normal. The explanation was a) roads are crowned and so the car follows the left slope in left lane, b) that this following the slope is made worse with just driver-on-board (left side weight bias), and c) that the 245 tires are more prone to following the road slope than the smaller tires on my old TL.

So, is this normal? If you folks are driving 70 in the left lane and let go of the wheel (carefully!), does your new TL seem to quickly drift left?

 

I was told the same thing when I took my car in to the dealer. They even put it on the machine and gave me a printout of the wheel alignment (camber, toe in, etc...). Drove in the right land and the car pull to the right. In the center lane the car tends to go straight without pulling in either direction. Based on my own findings, I accepted the dealership answer.

 

other people, including myself, had this problem. if do you a search, you'll prob find some answers.

for me, my tire pressure was really low. i had assumed they filled it up when it was prepped, but they hadn't. the front two were like at 28psi. i would check that first. i felt like it helped.

your dealer said "left side weight bias" - haha, interesting!

but ya, have a look around the threads.

 

Yes, mine pulls to the left rather noticeably. I have to keep the steering wheel turned significantly to the right on the highway to stay straight. I am most often the only person in the car and I am usually in the left lane. I was actually thinking about taking it in for an alignment, but it sounds like it may be "normal".

 

Yep first step is to check tire pressure. The much maligned EL 42 read the pavement significantly at regular pressure. If you inflate them to the high speed pressure 39F/35R many of the EL's vices disappear!

 

With my falken 512's, I notice the left pull as well. With my HPT's, there was no pull. I'll check the tire pressure this wknd.

 

I had the dealer put Falken 512s on my car before I took delivery. When I picked it up, the pull to the left was very noticeable. The dealer rotated the tires and the situation was improved somewhat. They did tell me that the problem was really caused by my "aftermarket tires," which is of course utter BS. I drove the car home, figuring that I'd drive it a little and see if the problem was road dependent, or maybe the tires just needed some road time. On day 2, I checked the tire pressure, and all 4 were about 28 - 30 psi. I have the 6MT, so the recommended pressure is 35psi front/32 psi rear (I think the Automatic pressures are 32 psi all the way around). I immediately got the tires inflated to the correct pressure. The alignment improved dramatically, to the point where I think it is solved.. I will also have them recheck alignment at the first oil change.

I did buy from Auto Zone some valve stem caps that will give color indication of pressure (green=ok, yellow 4psi low, red 8 psi low)......cost $10 per pack (I had to buy two packs because of different pressures fore and aft). This gives me a quick visual check when the tires are cold. I don't have any reason not to trust the caps, but I still check the pressure with a gauge every week.

 

In most cases it is the fact that the tires are high performance, wide and low profile. Because of this, the tires tend to follow the imperfections of the roads. If you went dead in the middle of the street, you probably wouldn't have the pulling..
Ed

 

I had the same problem, and it pulled left in every lane, and every road condition. I brought it to the dealer and they fixed it by alignment. They said it was a real pain in the ass, but it's much better now.

 

I would take it to a couple of different alignment places. A lot of the dealers there don't even know how to do it properly. The dealer will tell you any story he can just to get rid of you .

 

Thanks to everyone who responded. As was suggested, after I picked the car up today I checked the tire pressure, and it was slightly low. Even raising the pressure up to 32 all around made a difference, although the low profile tires do seem to follow the road more than I'm used to. Will try the even hi-speed tire pressure suggestion this weekend.

The lesson learned: check your tire pressure. Those little caps sound like $10 well spent.

 

I actually brought my car in to get that left side pull checked. The dealer switched the right front to the left front and the left front to the right. The car amazingly pulled to the right proving that the Bridgestones on these cars are total crap! Acura is going to recall these tires supposedly in early March as per the dealership but my dealer is absolutely horrible.

 

Yeah, I had the same problem as cma04tl. After I met with the District Service Man., he had the dealer order me 2 new tires for the reason of "radial pull"

 

I have the exact same thing (pull left). Dealer said everything was fine. I also wanted dealer to check the gps alignment, since it seems to put me a bit south of where I really am. Both things, dealer just said "everything checks out" which I took to mean "I don't want to deal with you now that you've bought the car". Oh well. I'll check tire pressure, though.

 

to diagnose if it is a problem, just drive in the middle lane and see if it pulls. This car does pull more in the right or left lanes than any of my previous cars. Probably due to wider tires, and somewhat lousy tires. I was lucky enough to drive a Hennessy Viper once, and that car was frightening to drive on the highway. Wanted to go everywhere.

 

My car pulled to left (against the crown) and also had a vibration that everyone here talked about on EL42s. I took the car to the dealer and they took all day realigning, rotating and balancing. The car now tracks true and does not have any road vibration. The behaves very well now.

 

I don't have any vibration issues with my EL42's (knock on wood), with a 21xxx VIN. But the left-pull is anoying.

 

Mine pulls to the left.

I brought it in 3 times... no perfect fix after the last time but it is a lot better and hardly notriceable.

This is NOT an alignment problem....

Personally, I would NOT worry about this.. it does nto affect the car.. tthe wheel is just off. The crown will make u pull however.

 

What did they do to make it better, then?

 

Mine pulls to the left too.... I have performed hundreds of alignments and have witnessed the tires themselves causing a pull. If alignment is off a total .5 degrees between both sides in camber/caster you can notice a pull. If it pulls to the left, it is not road crown, that would only be a pull to the right. It is possible they put in a slight pull to the left on purpose to compensate for crown. My car rides right over the crown and onto the other lane within 1/8 mile so that's somewhat severe. I won't worry about any of the problems I have noticed with my 3 day old TL until I go in for my first oil change. Then I will give them "the list"

 

mine pulled. checked inflation of left front tire. it was low. filled it. fixed.