Remspot

I know this has been discussed a million times else where but I feel my situation is different. It is a 97 integra lowered 1.5" on Eibach springs and Kyb struts. All suspension bushings having been replaced with energy bushings before I bought the car 6 years ago. I painted the engine bay and put a new motor in it last year so I had all the axles out and shocks down. Everything is back together now.

I recently put new Bridgestone Potenza r11s on it and it was pulling to the left plus I wanted an alignment to get everything straight.

I have taken it to get aligned three times at one shop and they had me change the upper ball joints and front brakes. I replaced them with Skunk2 Pro series camber kits and Hawk pads. We kinda left on bad terms cause they kept saying my alignment was in spec and kept charging me for alignments and giving me the car back with the same pulling issue.

I swapped the front two tires left to right and still same issue. I swapped the back two tires left to right and still had the same issue. I place my old rims on the front and it still pulled to left.

I took it to another shop and they said the toe was out 22 degrees. They looked it over with a fine comb and checked the temp of the brakes to make sure they weren't locking up. Toe and camber are back to stock specs they said. He said with everything straightened up it should drive straight because the way they do alignments.

Air pressure is exactly 38 psi on all 4 tires. Tires only have about 300 miles with all this going on since its garaged most the time.

Now on back and side roads the car rides pretty straight but on the highway, on either side of the road, I let go of the steering wheel and it pulls left.

I'm tired of throwing money into this so if anyone has any hellmary suggestions that would be great. Thanks...

Garage_Spec

Chances are it could just be the road, but increased speeds also multiply everything. Odds are it's probably still out of alignment, you have put new, more accurate bushings in so you need an alignment that is more accurate. Don't let them run you around with it being in "spec". One side of the car could be spot on and the other side within "spec" and it would be just enough to pull at speed. Just go back and talk to the manager and ask to have the TOE zeroed out, as close as they possibly can and get a printout of the specs or check out the specs before they take your car off the rack. Also what size wheels and tires are you running? 38psi seems a tad high and could cause premature wear in the center of the tire. For most sports car sizing it's suggested to run 30-33psi for street duty. Hope this info helps.

Remspot

Thanks for your reply. I am running a brand new set of 16" wheels with a 205/45/16 tire. The tires max air pressure is 51 psi but I may try to lower the psi a few. Most the forums show 34-40 psi for the re-11s. Here are the before and after readouts:



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Garage_Spec

Front looks good, it's gotta be that left rear that's throwing it off just enough. Quite a difference and more than double the toe than the right side. Have them redo the rear and I bet it will be dialed.

Remspot

Not to get technical but the left rear tire would only be sticking out .01218" more than the right. which is less than 1/64. If you look at a ruler that would not make me believe that the rear toe would cause such a pull with the front being pretty true.

I placed the air pressure down to 32 with no change. I even placed more air to the left side and no change. My mechanic said they can probably rig things to drive straight but he can't promise everything will be flat and straight and he will most likely charge me. I'm tired of throwing money at this... The more I drive it the more I feel it's pulling at low speed too.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Left rear is toed in...ableit within spec. Could cause some issues. The car will pull to the side with the most rear toe in.

Your rear trailing arm bushings are likely torn. As soon as you leave the rack, the settings all slip.

How old are your energy bushings? Are you using stock or energy rear trailing arm bushings?

Remspot

Thank you for clearing up the toe in which still only shows .01218" more in than the right.

The energy bushings were on the car when I purchase it 6 years ago. I will have to check the rear TA bushings though since I rarely look back there.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Ooof. 6+ year old energy bushings? They have a much shorter typical life span. Look at your bushings. I'm going to guess they're stretched at the eyelet/cracked/torn.

The RTA bushing should never be replaced with a solid poly version.

I'm gonna put a lot of faith in the "busted bushings" guess. If they are mutilated as I'm thinking....replace them with factory honda ones or hardrace rubber ones.

Poly bushings cause a lot of troubles over time.

Remspot

I'll check them over but everything up front seems solid and quiet. It is not a daily and has been garaged the past 4 years with only about 3000 miles a year.

Remspot

The rear trailing arm bushings look to be as old as the car. They aren't split but look to be cracking. Would these really make the car pull to one side. Also I have 500 whp and the car is almost undrivable at that level due to the car pulling all over the road. I was thinking it was torque steer in combo with the LSD. Do you think replacing these would alleviate my lack of control too?

B serious

iTrader: (1)

If you keep going in for alignments and they keep having to adjust everything....there's something that's not keeping it's position.

That would be bushings and chassis components. RTA bushings being torn causes all kinds of problems. I would closely inspect the front end bushings.

Has the car been in any accidents?

shermanyang

iTrader: (1)

don't you have shops down there where you can purchase lifetime alignments? I know in MN we have shops where you can pay $150 and get lifetime alignments for as long as you own the car.

anyway...I'm having the same issue with my 99 CRV and it's my rear tires. I couldn't tell at first with new tires and rims on....but after driving for a long period of time my tires were cupping and that's when you can really tell that the toe is off.

Remspot

The guy I take it to does not have unlimited alignments and I really don't trust other companies touching my car.

The car was said to have been hit in the rear right before. I'm pretty sure the rear body panel has been replaced. Even if it's been in an accident, all four tires are pointed straight, shouldn't it go straight?

B serious

iTrader: (1)

Your tires are "pointed straight" for the amount of time that the car is on the alignment rack. Then you pull off the rack and something is making the car turn left.

If you get an alignment and then go back shortly after and all the settings are off....that means something is allowing movement. They keep aligning the car and then something shifts.

Find what is moving. My first thought when someone says they have load bearing poly bushings is "well that sucks", followed by "they're probably ovalized by now".

6 years is an eternity for poly bushings. The weight of the car has been crushing and ovalizing those pieces of plastic for 6 years +.

B serious

iTrader: (1)

You're going to have to hunt this down by looking at the car.

-Front toe issues usually won't cause a pull. The tires are not rigidly pointed in any direction. Normal movement will cause them to split the difference. Your steering wheel may be off...but it will most likely go straight. The tires may also tug at the steering wheel and indirectly cause a pull.

-check tire wear. If one tire is wearing out funny...look at that corner for problems.

-loose tie rods? Ball joints? Camber adjuster? Wheel bearings? Bushings?

-rear toe INEQUALITIES cause a pull. Think of it as rear wheel steering.

-front camber and caster inequality will cause a pull.

-Try rotating tires front to back.

Loose tie rods are kind of the exception to front toe causing a pull. The changes in toe will be dynamic and uneven.

Does the pull change or increase or decrease with acceleration or decel or coasting?

Look more closely at your RR wheel also. Maybe the RTA bushing is worse than you think...or the toe arm bushings are torn. Or that accident in the RR corner did some damage to the suspension components.

The suspension articulates and has toe/camber curve relations. So no...even if something is straight when the car isn't moving or under load....it may not go straight when you drive it and things become dynamic.

Feel me?

Remspot

UPDATE: I have replaced the trailing arm bushings which was a pita. I set the toe bolt to the original position and have driven the car. It still has a pull to the left. The RR did not have anything visually worn out or bent.

The unlimited alignment shop could not fit my car on their rack. I may take off my side skirts for them to try again. They cracked the paint on them the first try...

Sorry for the long span before the update but I rarely drive this and I am losing motivation spending money to try and fix this. Thanks for all your input and next I will inspect my front bushings next.

revvolutions

Wait so what happened?

trm4life

I would check your rear upper control arm bushings and compensator arm bushings. They are a beeeotch to replace and youll probably have to cut the bolts to get the control arms off. If you can use the oem arms and put new bushings in do that. Oem parts are much higher quality!!

Remspot

UPDATE: I replaced my rear trailing arm bushings with stock ones. Yeah that was a PITA. I had to take the whole assembly off to press them out. I replaced every other bushing known to man with the hardrace kit and added a new konig yellow/gc setup. I let it all settle and then got an alignment. It still pulled to the left!! I had the guy tweak my alignment, not sure what he did, but it pulls straight finally. I don't care what he did I'm just happy it drives straight...