About one month ago, I purchased a set of new 18 " tires and rims. I decided to do this after experiencing my third separate flat tire on my 17" Michelin Pilot Sport AS tires. It was a little unsettling to know that three of my tires had been plugged or had to be repaired. Prior to this a had to have the Michelin tires aligned a couple of times. During one of these alignments I was told by the service advisor that he that my left front strut was possibly bent. I really didn't give it much thought at the time.
Once again I had to have the new tires aligned because it was pulling to the left. This time I decided to take it to the Acura dealership (Goodson Acura, Irving, Texas). The Acura technician asked me if the car had been in an accident of some sort. I quickly replied, no! He proceeded to tell me that the left wheel was not in the angled position it should be. Upon visual inspection it appeared to be somewhat correct. Suffice it to say, the repair came out to be $2,300. Acura replaced the left front knuckle, strut and the subframe. Fortunately or unfortunately, I turned this over to my insurance company, which promptly agreed to pay for the damages less my $ 500 deductible.
After having my vehicle for one week I received a call from the dealership that my car was ready. While driving home on the freeway, my car started now pulling to the right. I immediately took it back to the dealership and informed them that something was still not right? The next day my service tech said thy've checked the car from top to bottom and it appears that the pull to the right was caused by the aggressive tread pattern of my new tires.
The next day I'm off to Firestone to deal with them. I explained to them what the Acura dealership said. Firestone promptly agreed to take back the highly rated Avon Tech M550 A/S, which were ordered from Tirerack. I replaced them with Fuzion HRi tires. Well, just as my luck would have it, the Fuzion tires also pulls to the right. I'll be payng another visit to Firestone tomorrow.
I've become so gun shy and don't know what to do. Do I look for a tire with a less aggressive tread pattern? Am I being fed a line of crap? No other suspension problems have been identified to cause the car to pull to the right. Any recommendations for a less aggressive tread pattern tire? I'm not looking to break the bank if at all possible. My fustration level is now at code red. Please help!

 

How was the suspension messed up? If you bought the car new, and it's never been in an accident, this would be a red flag. Take it back to the dealership three times, if they can't repair it each time, lemon law it.

 

No, the car is not brand new. It's a 04 TL that I've had for about 20 months.

 

I think yes.

all acura owners here use all kinds of different tires. aggressive tread? that's very funny IMO. ask them to put some used tires that "they approve" to see if the car still pulls to the right and the go from there. I am sure they have some OEM in the shop. why are u bothering firestone for this? ha

 

I think your acura dealer is feeding you a line of crap.

as suggested, take it to the dealer, tell him you went through2 different sets of tires and the car is still pulling to the right...if they still give you crap about the pattern tell them to install tires that they want on the car and test drive..if the problem occurs then you can confirm that the tires are not the issue...

 

I have an '04 Acura that pulls to the right. I have Falken Ziex 512's on it. I've just gotten used to it, but my tires are pretty worn right now. I'll be buying a new set of tires in the next couple of weeks and will get another alignment done... hopefully they'll be able to fix the issue because the last alignment didn't seem to correct the problem.

 

O.K. now I'm getting worried as my car pulls to the right too with the OEM Michelins. I haven't taken my car into Acura because I figured I'd wait until my first A1 service that's just around the corner. What kind of b.s. is Acura going to say to me??

 

All tires are not created equal.

I have had cars that runs perfectly straight for minutes if I let go the wheel. But as soon as I switch to a new set of tires, they would pull to the right. Sometimes, rotating the tires may fix the problem, but you'll be pulling to one side once you rotate them back.

Of all the tires that I have gone through, I find this happening the most when I install new directional tires.

 

Here's an update :

I posted my previous post in this thread while driving on Falken Ziex 512's. Two front tires were somewhat worn, but they seemed to be worn evenly. The car was definitely pulling to the right even after an alignment (that probably didn't need to be done). I decided to get 4 new tires (Pirelli PZero Nero M+S). I no longer have the pull to the right and I did nothing other than switch tires.

 

These type of problem can happen to other tire brands.

The best solution to fix the problem is to have the wheel/tire road force balanced on a special machine. This Road Force Balancer (Hunter GSP9700) will apply up to 1,400 LBS of pressure on the tire as it is rotated at up to 70 MPH.

Cost is roughly $25 per tire and you need to find a shop with one as they cost approx. $20,000.

Do a search at http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/features/StraightTrak.cfm
for more information.

Best regards

frenchnew