I took the car in last Thursday for the B2 servicing at 28,000 miles; while it was in, they also performed a portion of TSB 05-050 involving replacing the rear bump stops and doing an alignment (they didn't replace the tyres since I had already done that). I noticed last Friday that the car was pulling more than I had experienced before. Didn't do anything about it immediately because I was driving my other cars, but on Tuesday the pull seemed annoying—frequent pull to the left, often but not always while accelerating. So yesterday morning I decided to check all the tyre pressures on the TL, figuring that maybe the dealer didn't do that after the rotation. Sure enough, the fronts were at 28.5 and 29 (should be 35, per the sticker) and the rears were at 30.5 and 31 (should be 32). I inflated them all to the correct amount and the car felt somewhat better yesterday.

Driving to work today there was less traffic, so I was able to play with it a bit more, and it feels like I'm getting a slight push from the right rear. Don't know why that would be on a front-wheel-drive car. Does anyone have any ideas before I take it back to the dealer to have them check it out? I'm wondering if it could be a symptom of uneven tyre wear (caused by the issue that was to be corrected by the TSB procedue) or something like that that will even out over time. Alternatively, I'm wondering if this might just be a more generalized torque steer and that I'm noticing it more after driving my RX-7, which is rear-wheel-drive. But if it's torque steer, why does it consistently pull left when I nail the accelerator? Wouldn't it go either way? And why is it suddenly far more pronounced than ever before?

(I should clarify that the pull when accelerating is consistently to the left....if I take my hands off the wheel at a steady speed, sometimes it gradually drifts right, sometimes it tracks straight, but sometimes it pulls hard left. Left is never gradual!)

Thanks in advance for any advice.

 

Since pulling left is against the crown in the road, I would say you have a problem. Take it back. It may be part of the alignment or it may be a tire. Either way, they should fix that for you.

 

if they just aligned it and rotated the tires, it's probably the tire wear from the tires being swapped either front/back or side/side cus of the wear patterns. there has been at least 1 dude on the forum that had a pulling problem that just turned out to be his tires. he found out after he was complaining to the dealer and had everything else checked out first.

check out the tread on the tires and see if they are uneven. it's a cheap and easy way to start diagnosing the problem at least.

 

It's in the shop today to try to figure it out. I'm guessing it's tyre wear, as wasupdog suggested, but the steering wheel was slightly off-centre anyway after they did the alignment, so I wanted that fixed given the buttons and controls on the wheel.

 

Hey I just posted a reply on another thread about something similiar to your situation.

https://acurazine.com/forums/showpos...24&postcount=2

 

Well, to update the story, the dealer swapped the front tyres and it started pulling to the right. The alignment specs are all correct, so they said I have a "radial pull." I'd never heard of that, but Google confirms that it is a real phenomenon and the symptoms described in discussions of it match what I've been feeling.

So I guess what I have to determine is—do I just move the front tyres back to the back even though that means an improper rotation, do I call the place where I got the tyres (Pirelli PZero Nero M&S....three of them were installed in January and one in July after the fourth of the January tyres was damaged when I got a flat) to see if there is anything that can be done, or do I just live with it? Anyone got any advice? My initial reaction is to call the tyre place to ask about the situation and see what they advise. If that doesn't work out, my inclination would probably be to swap the front tyres to the back and leave them there. On my previous car (an Accord) I got a severe vibration after a rotation and they said that it was due to "cupping" (uneven wear), so they swapped them back the way they were and it was fine again.

 

I am having the same problem after a tire rotation on my 04 TL, my first rotation with the P-Zero's and its pulling to the left (more severe under acceleration). Icindently had the same issues with tire pressue, I check them after returning from the dealer (a Honda dealer as unfortunately there is not an Acura dealer near my workplace), so much for their check list.

I did call the service guy and he mentioned radial pull as well could be the issue. I do think I had the same problem when I rotated the stock EL-42's but I replaced them soon after with the Pirelli's and the issue went away (plus I actually had traction)

What is the point of tire rotation if this happens.

 

you can also cross rotate the tires which will sometimes solve the problem instead of doing the traditional front to back. i've also had to do a lot of cradle shifts on tl's to get them to track straight.

 

Further update....I talked to the tyre shop in late September and they were going to call the Acura dealer to try to verify how they determined the radial pull diagnosis. I hadn't heard back when I left for a trip to Mexico, and there was no message when I got home, so I guess I'll try contacting Pirelli directly. Meantime, I went to the dealer today and had the front tyres rotated to the back. Problem solved. I suppose I can just have the tyres rotated cross-wise only in the future, but at the same time, I'd like to do it properly.