lukelikespizza3

So since I bought my car I've had a slight pull to the right. Its noticeable cruising, but much more noticeable under acceleration. I figured it was just an alignment problem so this morning I went to a local shop to have that fixed. After I checked in the guy test drove it to see the problem then put it on the lift and started measuring everything. Before he started adjusting anything he came up to talk to me. He asked how long I've noticed the problem, I stated since I've had the car (2 1/2 weeks). He then asked some more questions basically trying to see if this problem occurred after a tire rotation but I had no idea whether it had or not. So he said that he notices small imperfections in the alignment but nothing significant enough to make the car pull as hard as he felt, he said after the alignment the car would most likely still have the same pull to the right. He believed the problem to be a bad tire. I'd never heard of this before, and appreciated his honesty so I still gave the ok for the alignment. He did his work and took it for another test drive and came back and confirmed the car still had the same pull to the right. He suggested either switching the front two tires to see if that fixes it or just rotating them normally, but said the pull would just come back again after the 2nd rotation. So my question is what are my options to try and solve this problem? Should I just rotate them normally, or just switch the front 2? I always thought switching the tires in any other way than the manual suggest for a proper rotation was bad, but what do you guys think?

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

if they are non-directional tires (no arrows pointing a certain direction) then you can try moving the fronts L to R.
you're just troubleshooting any way, to find if moving the tire around will cause the same pull

thoiboi

All in all, alignment is pretty good! It could very well be tires or even LCA bushings.

justnspace

iTrader: (1)

tires are funny in a way; since they are rubber, you can "wear them down"....
your bad tire was worn down in a way that is causing it to pull, if you swap it to the left, you might be able to "even out the wear"

if that makes sense?
i've done it once...I swapped from Rear to Front and for some reason, tire was pulling.
i swapped it and it took an additional week or two to "even" out the wear and it drove straight..but by then, i bought new tires

lukelikespizza3

Yeah, he also stated it could be axles, LCA bushings, CV joints or even brakes? but hoping just the tire is the culprit.

thoiboi

a dragging caliper on the right CAN cause some pulling. You can easily tell if your brakes are dragging if you look on the rotor and see discoloration or the rotor is extra hot after driving. YOu can also use an infrared thermometer pointed at the rotor.

horseshoez

iTrader: (2)

Just another thought...

Disclaimer; I've never disassembled a Honda/Acura steering rack so I don't know how they're built internally.

The above in mind, I have come across a few damaged power steering racks (either because of tampering or impact with something) which cause a pull. Not saying this is the issue, but if everything else fails to point to a culprit, I'd be thinking about this one.

thoiboi

I didn't want to start off with that and ruin his hopes and dreams if he came back and said nothing else fixed it, rack and pinion would have been the next suggestion

Turbonut

iTrader: (1)

Measure the distance between the center of the right front wheel and center of the rear wheel, then do the same for the other side and see if the measurements are equal.