Ok so I am new to the Acura scene but have been around cars my whole life. i have read multiple threads on here about tl's pulling to the right. I recently got a 08 tl-s 6MT and i noticed that it pulled to the right when i test drove it but figured it just needed an alignment. it only had 33k miles on it and was a good price. I got the car then had it aligned 2 times at a Goodyear shop and they couldn't fix it. I took it to the acura dealer n had them align it and they couldn't fix it. I tried switching the front tires ..still pulls. everything on the car is stock. i had the acura guys look at everything from the brakes to suspension n they didn't report any problems. the car was in a front end collision but the car fax didn't say anything about frame repair or airbags so i assumed it wasn't a bad one. could be wrong...so if anyone has any clue how to go about fixing, please let me know! thanks

 

Also, the car goes straight when I'm not in gear just coasting but when i put it in gear and accelerate it pulls right.. could prob go across a 5 lane highway in 4 seconds if i let go..

 

Does it look like the tires have uneven wear? Could be a combination of a lot of things.

 

Accident can do a lot on aluminum cradle. You probably have a shifted Cradle or something tweaked with the suspension or lower control arms. This will cause a hard pull if damaged. It's something the naked eye won't be able to detect but the alignment machine will certainly say EXCESSIVE CAMBER, which is not adjustable with these cars. You can only set the Toe on these things but even then if the Toe is way out of wack chances are something is bent.

As for the car pulling to the right, it's a common issue for anyone with this TL. It's called torque steer, caused by the unequal length of the drive axles. This is a common problem with front wheel drive vehicles. If your car pulls excessive then Check the wear on the front tires your probably riding on the inside portion more so then the outside which is caused by negative camber which is also another common problem with these cars. The only way to truly correct the camber issue with this vehicle is by buying a camber kit. If I was you, take pictures of your tires and upload them here, a nice good shot showing the center groves from one side to another and I'll be able to tell you more or less what's going on. Tires say a lot, trust me.

Good basic Diag. Website to look at
http://www.ifitjams.com/steering.htm#steering%200

 

Thanks for the replys I'll pull them off later today and take some pics. Really appriciate the help thanks guys

 

can you take a snap shot of the alignment specs and post it here? That will give us something to go off of. If your front camber is off then that would cause the pull. swapping tires from side to side didn't do the trick so the next thing to tackle is the camber.

 

I agree with 04WDPSeDaN.

 

+1

 

yea apparently i can't upload pics from my phone so ill have to email them n do it the long way. ill have them up tomorrow. thanks for the replies

 

dumb question.how do u upload pictures onto here?

 

Use www.imageshack.us or www.photobucket.com and upload them there then paste them here.

 

Passenger Front


Driver Front

 

Just wondering... do you know if your tires are new or well used?? I had that same pulling issue as you where it pulled hard right but it happened after I got a new set of tires and found out it was a bad tire. I got it replaced and drove straight as an arrow from then on.

Edit: after seeing the pics it's probably not because of the tires, unless they've had a bad tire all along and the hard pull didn't bother them which is highly unlikely. Although it could be uneven wear

 

im not sure i just got this car about a month and a half ago. and to talk about me earlier post when i switched the tires..I switched them back to how they were when i got the car so the rim/tire that has always been on the front pass is back on the front pass in these pics. i figured it it was a tire issue or something i would move it back to the pass side so i wouldn't forget which one it was.. ill upload the alignment specs as soon as i get back from work later today

 

any ideas??
sorry about the shitty pic its from my phone

 

Something similar happened to me when i tried to be cheap and bought two used tires and put them on the front of my car. They seemed identical but because of the small difference in tread depth the car pulled to one side during accelaration. Hmm but you did say you switched tires. Have you checked motor mounts?

 

no haven't checked them. im thinking that something has to be bent cuz of the wreck. my buddy works at a body shop so I'm gonna take it into him n see if he can look it over for me and try to figure out whats wrong.

 

Thank you for uploading those pictures but if you look at the very last outside tread of the passenger tire vs drivers tire the passenger is wearing more this is due to POSITIVE camber which is excessive on your paper. The drivers tire center mark is wearing more then the passenger. You probably have something wrong with either the strut, lower control arm or cradle. If your not looking to invest crazy money I would invest into a camber kit and have the car realigned. Also notice your toe on the left vs right is different. You have ZERO vs 0.03 it's still in spec but in theory all 4 wheels have to be the same toe, it's sometimes hard to get them all at the center mark but being off one number (EX: Left side 0.04, right side 0.03) is a better thing to do. Worse comes to worse, new tires, camber kit and realign might fix this issue if not like I said you will need to chase things that could be wrong as I mentioned a few lines up.

 

thanks for the help guys.. I guess I'm gonna try to put the back tires on the front and get it re-aligned and hopefuly that'll fix it a little bit. if it is a strut or control arm or something any idea if it is covered under warranty? Car only has 34k miles

 

Crazy shit..so i switched my front tires left to right right to left and now she pulls left. When i said i switched them before i never personally did it the guys who aligned it at Goodyear told me they tried switching and it still pulled. LIARS. i would have done this a month ago if i would have known they didn't actually switch them..but anyway. so now i got the tires switched and it pulls to the left. Does that mean bad rim or tire? bad balancing? what should i do next. I'm going to put the fronts on the back tomorrow but i still want to fix that rim/tire so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

Bad tire.

 

would it effect it still if i switched my fronts and backs..would it drive straight then or do u recommend replacing the tire?

 

Will still be there but probably not as severe as it won't be on the drive / steering wheels.

 

Definitely bad tire!

 

yea thats what I'm getting at.. this guy i work with said that it could be the other tire pushing the car as in it wasn't the bad front right it could be a bad left front and its pushing car instead of pulling..i dunno hopefully in a few weeks i can afford some new tires thats what I'm gonna eventually do. but thanks for the help!