i have a 91 civic, and a year or so ago i put some new tires on it. i immediately had a bad pull to the right. figured i just needed an alignment so i had one done. they shop couldn't figure out why it still pulled. they did everything they could think of. one funny thing is when they rotated the tires, the pull switched sides. so the shop told me it was probably a bad tire.

Back to the tire shop. We replaced tire by tire until all the tires were replaced. they were not happy by the way. haha. still pulled, and would swap sides when rotated.

I went to a different alignment shop. Same deal, they tried everything. swore it was a tire...

Back to the tire shop, replaced all 4 with different tread type tire... a little less pull, but still there....

I drove it for a while because I was getting too pissed off. Then back to a different alignment shop. these guys told me that Hondas dont have a caster adjustment and this was probably my problem. Not much i could do. and the tires were not wearing at all. Just the annoying dam pull.

As you can guess I am rather pissed and tied of the constant pull. Even though a rotate from time to time to get the pull on the other side.. and when I say pull.. I mean pull.. if I let go of the wheel, it head at a 45 to the ditch.

Any ideas? If there was some consistency when changing the wheels it would help. I have tried everything to isolate a bad wheel, or tire. no luck... grrr!

incase you are wondering, I only paid for 1 set of tires and one life time alignment just used differant locations of the shop.

 

If it switched sides when you rotated the tires, it is most likely a bent wheel or a bad tire. Try a different set of wheels.

 

i tried rotating them in a way that would single out a bad rim. i even put in my full size spair in to the rotation. there is no set tire combo that will give a standard pull. its haphazard, it just pulls one way or the other.

 

Did they give you a print-out from the alignment rack? If so, please post it.

 

Well if you rotate the wheels and it's changing the pull then it's obviously the wheels. If it was a steering rack or suspension problem it would always pull in 1 direction reguardless of what wheels were where.

Your best bet is to try and find 4 steelies or something with decent tires and try that out.

 

I will try a full set of new rims. But I really dont think its a wheel.. I replaced each wheel with the spar, the pull stayed constant. also, i didnt have a pull before changed tires. perhaps they bent it putting on atire.. ???

i do have the print out.. hell i have like 3 or 4 lol.. ill try and scan one



Modified by mtdave2 at 7:24 AM 11/8/2004

 

yea scan that... and when you try the other set of rims and it still pulls then you've ruled out a wheel problem and can concentrate on something else.

 

check your rear trailing arms main pivot bushing, the big black one, by locking the Ebrake and rocking the tire front to back, see if it wobbles. check the bushings in your upper and lower control arms and look to see you dont have a bent strut rod, or torn out strut rod bushing. check play in the tierod ends and jack the car up to feel wheel bearings (360 degree wobble is a bad wheelbearing, top and bottom wobble is a balljoint, side to side is a tie rod.)

try putting your rims on a friends car and see what happens. rear trailing arms bend easy from backin into curbs or something similar, and make the car go nuts.