Hi guys,

I have a 2006 TL and when I am accelerating at full throtle the steering turn roughly at right and the car turn obviously in the same direction. Also, when I am cruising the car pulls a little bit at right and if I don't press on the gas it will not pull (it goes straight). I rotate the tires and the car had an alignment wednesday. At the honda dealer they said that it was because that an axle is longuer than the other. Is that really the reason? Do you have the same problem with your TL?

Sorry for my "bad" English I am French!!

Thanks!

 

Can you show us the alignment sheet?

 

Don't fear torque steer

 

Yup, unequal axles and torque steer.
Catch it right on a right hand turn and get ready for the steering wheel to be pulled out of your hand.

As long as it drives straight when on the highway at a constant speed, you're good to go.

Don't know how accurate, but tried translation:
Ouais, les axes inégaux et le moment de torsion se dirigent.
Attrapez il directement sur un assistant tourne et s'apprête à la roue de barre à être tiré de votre main.

Aussi longtemps qu'il conduit directement quand sur la route nationale à une vitesse constante, vous êtes bons pour aller.

 

Sorry I don't have the alignment sheet but the fronts side where equal for the toe but the camber was -0.03 at left and -0.06 at the right side. So this is what you call "torque steer" and it is normal that it pulls when accelerating and when cruising in a straight line, but it ALWAYS pulls at the passenger side?!?! Nerver at left.

Thanks for your answers and congratulation for your forum! It is really helpfull

 

Torque steer is when you give a lot of gas and the steering wheel moves back and forth because of the torque. This happens at full throttle and is made worse by the limited slip diffrential of the manual transmission. The auto transmission, where you don't change the gears yourself, does not have as much torque steer. The roblem you describe may require you to check the brake rotors, though unlikely, and look for stuck calipers. The other thing you want to check is the wheel bearing in the front. Warped bearings can stick and cause one tire to have more resistance to movement than others. I am working under the assumption that you are experiencing this issue when going straight and the car wants to pull to one side. If you are cornering hard, pulling is normal because it is a front wheel drive with plenty of torque. Have an experienced machanic, not jiffy lube or some alignment place, check your brakes and your front wheel bearing. You can also jack up the car and pull at the tire at 3 and 9 o clock and at 6 and 12 o clock. Then spin your wheel with your hand and see if it sticks at certain points. If it sticks, remove your brake pads (easy on manual trans) and see if still sticks. If it still sticks at certain points, replace your front wheel bearings. If it no longer sticks, your rotor or your brake caliper is the problem. Also look at your tires for unusual, uneven wear. Go to a better mechanic. They should not tell you that pulling to one side when accelerating is normal. I have a 6mt TL and it did the same thing because of the front brakes. It does not pull to one side anymore. It does pull the steering wheel at full throttle in first and second gear, but that is torque and normal.

 

Ok I will check all the points that you mension but I dont think that the brakes and the bearings are the origin of the problem because the car did not pull when I put it in neutral, it just pull when cruising or accelerating.

 

Alignment. Post the sheets up. You're toe is probably to blame.

 

The did the alignment recently and the toe is exactly the same on the 2 sides. I verify the brake and the bearings, everything is ok!

 

I did the alignment recently and the toe is exactly the same on the 2 sides. I verify the brake and the bearings, everything is ok!

 

Did they test drive it at the dealer? If there was some sort of problem, you can believe they would be trying to get your $ by offering to fix it. If they drove it and said its just normal torque steer, then you should be fine.

 

It's torque steer. Nothing is wrong with your car. You should never have to accelerate at full throttle. This is dangerous in a car with this much torque steer. If you legitimately need to pass somebody, just be careful. If you're trying to drag race the TL from every stoplight you probably picked the wrong car. Get a rear wheel drive if it's that much of a problem. I don't think I've ever had to use full throttle to pass somebody. Sometimes even half throttle from a stop can cause my car to swerve, you just have to learn to accelerate slowly.

 

That's really weird. Even with spacer's on and screwed up scrub radius the wheel self center and the car drives fine. Do you have aftermarket wheels? New offset? And how old are your tires?

 

I did not go at the dealer for the alignment, it is an independant garage but they have a really good reputation. If you said that it is normal I will live with it, I ask the question because I was thinking that it was not normal. My tires have 8000km (+-5500 miles) and I have the original wheels.
Thank you for your help!

 

Yes, they test drive the car but the mecanic said me that I should go at the honda dealer (acura dealer is at 150 miles of my home...) and this is what I did and they said that it was because of the axle of right was longuer, they did not had an other idea of what it could be.

 

I dunno I have a 2002 CLS and even under WOT acceleration torque steer is well controlled...

mileage on car? might be time to check suspension and the related rubber parts for wear. I know when my bushings and end links went out torque steer was more pronounced...after I fixed all of that, problem is gone.

 

It doesn't matter how many miles are on the tires. How old are they? They have the month and year of production stamped onto them. Look for it and check it. If the rubber is old enough that could be the cause of all your issues.

 

WTF? Sorry, but if you think the TL has lots of torque steer you either haven't driven many FWD cars or have issues with your TL. I have driven many other FWD cars with much much worse torque steer. Full throttle acceleration on a heavily rutted road when turning...yeah that could be dangerous.....but it can be in any FWD car.

To the OP, if you are driving on a very flat, non rutted, and straight highway and you lightly accelerate the car should not drift/pull either way. If it does, then there is a good chance something is not quite right with the car. As others have already said, check your alignment, tires, and bushings.

 

The car had a complete inspection at a honda dealer this winter and they change a few bushings and an A-arm (not sure if you call it like that in English), so I don't think it can be think it is the origin of my problem. I will verify the "age" of my tires! The car has 70kk miles. I will see in 3 weeks if I have the same problem with my summer tires.

 

Usually the older the tires if too old will not provide the traction your car needs which makes it look like you're experiencing very bad torque steer. I dealt with that for a little while and it sucked!

Makes a really big difference.

 

Let me clarify my statement a bit here. I hit a big arse pothole several years ago which damaged my passenger front tire, bent my rim, and knocked my car out of alignment. The dealer replaced my tire and rim, but didn't align it initially. Driving in the city at slower speeds, the car drove fine. I pulled onto the highway and immediately noticed that something was wrong. Cruising along at 60mph in 6th gear, the car went perfectly straight. If I mashed the gas in 6th, it would start drifting right. If I downshifted to 4th and mashed the gas, it headed straight for the right lane. I took the next exit and headed right back to the dealer.

 

My tires were made in July 2012 so their age is not the problem. Jackass, my problem look like yours so if your dealer find your problem inform me of what it was!

 

Look at tires for wear. Tires will wear funny if the alignment is off. The dealer should have done that. They should have looked at your bushing, too. You may have bent a part in the front end. Rotate your tires front to back. See if that fixes it. It should not pull to one side. Torque steer usually goes both ways, not just right. If it was a manual, Id say look at LSD, but you don't. It sounds like only one wheel is pulling your car. Try it with traction control off, too.

 

Mine was the alignment which solved my issues.

 

Yes I will try it with the TCS off. The alignment is good!!

 

I tried it yesterday with the TCS off and it did not change anything...I hope this is not a differential problem but the 2 wheels have traction (I did some tests on the snow).

 

I think some confuse torque steer with breaking traction. Torque steer is when it pulls to one side, the same side every time under heavy throttle due to unequal length axles.

The steering wheel jerking side to side is when you're breaking traction and each front wheel is taking a turn slipping. Mine did this when stock. With a set of good tires I can punch it off the start and it only pulls very slightly to the right, no drama, no shaking of the steering wheel, and I can almost let go of the steering wheel. If you want to get rid of the steering wheel shaking in the lower gears, get better tires that won't spin.

On the highway you shouldn't notice torque steer.

I would recheck the alignment. I've had to literally take it back 4 or 5 times for them to get it right. I got the spec sheet each time and finally took it to a different place without telling them about my previous problems and the before settings showed it to be way off. I did my last alignment myself and for the first time I have no camber wear on the rear tires and it drives nice. Most alignment places suck. The employees are lazy and the equipment is not calibrated correctly. If it pulls at WOT at 70mph, you have a problem.

 

Torque steer goes only one way if you're on an even surface. You're talking about spinning the tires with the back and forth, two different things.

 

My winter tires and all the sand on the roads probably don't help my problem. I think I will just live with it!

 

Now I have to turn the steering at left to go straight...I did not hit any potholes or something like that and the tire's pressure is good. I will change of place for an other alignment. I begin to hate this car...

 

So sledneck, did you ever resolve this issue, it did you just give up?