I just bought my new hatch today for 1000dollars. I test drove it and it seemed fine other than needing new struts from being slammed. Now when I was driving it home I took the freeway and it pulls to the right semi badly when I'm just cruising on the freeway but when I give it 50% or more throttle it pulls SUPER hard to the right. But when It's in gear and I'm COMPLETELY off the throttle it doesn't pull anymore and it does the same thing in neutral while coasting.

WTF could this be? I'm thinking a tie rod, I hope it's nothing to major

 

It's torque steer(I believe that's the proper terminology). When the vehicle was lowered it was probably never aligned properly which would involve a camber kit for the front because the camber is not adjustable from the factory. You probably have negative camber, that is the top of the tire is further in than the bottom of the tire. My car does the same thing because it was lowered and I have about a -3 degree camber. It would be a good idea to inspect the suspension and steering mechanisms anyway. If you lift the vehicle off of the ground and hold the tire at the 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock position and try to move the tire. If there is play that would indicate bad tie rods. Doing the same thing at the 6 and 12 o'clock positions would test for wheel bearing. Hopefully this helps.

 

This is beyond the pull of torque steer and when your d15 has 93ponies I don't think your going to be getting any of that.

 

I'm not sure if it's "torque steer" per say. But if it has negative camber and the tires are not relatively straight up and down and with the drive axles being different lengths; it's going to pull one way or the other due to how the tire is contacting the ground. Just out of curiosity is it pulling to the right very hard when this happens? I could be completely wrong on this. If I am I would love to know why because my car does the same thing. It just seems that when it's lowered it changes the geometry of the suspension and the angle of the drive shafts to the hubs so it could be in that, but correcting the camber should fix that issue (i.e. adjustable upper control arms). Everything is within specification on my car except for the front camber and the Steering Axis Inclination (SAI) - which it could be that also. Just throwing out some ideas though. I know all of my balljoints and tie rod ends are good though.

 

Actually the more I think about it - it probably is SAI. I don't know if that changed when the vehicle was lowered or not because it was my understanding that is was not adjustable.

 

sai? whats that

 

Steering Axis Inclination. I was thinking that the vehicle being lowered would change this reading due to the different geometry from the vehicle being lowered which would also affect the Included Angle which is a measurement that calculates the SAI with camber taken into effect. I'm relatively new to suspension so I'm still learning. I'm putting on upper adjustable control arms tomorrow and I can let you know if this fixed the problem. From what I have read SAI is usually out of specifications whenever there is a bent suspension piece (i.e. hub, control arm, etc.). The factory control arms on a lowered vehicle could read like a bent control arm when the SAI is calculated. But like I said I'm not 100% on this. But I'll let you know tomorrow. Sorry I'm so long winded with these posts.

 

Here's a website that explains it fairly simplistically: http://www.familycar.com/Alignment.htm

 

I'm going to take it down to My buddies show tomorrow (terry's automotive) here in Olympia and get her up on a lift to look for any effed bushings or my tie rod end(s).

 

Let me know what you find.

 

Will do. I hope it's a fairly simple thing to fix. I have a whole parts car in my driveway so no need to buy a new one lol.

 

Seems like it.

Check your toe is in line, don't be worried about your camber unless you have some serious angle happening. I'm lowered around 3"s and have no issues with uneven wearing.

 

I'm that low too. You can't even see the top of my tire on all four corners and it's just springs that it's lowered on :facepalm:

Are you saying that all it may need is just an alignment?

 

And as far as tire wear goes, my front left one is pretty messed up and my front right is getting bald which is why I ordered new tires today from discount tires. But I dont think it's a radial pull problem because it'd be doing this pulling bullshizz wether I'm on the throttle or not.

 

If only one of the tyres is having wear issues then it could just need an alignment.

Always better to inspect, just in case. Though an alignment is probably the best place to start.

 

yes only that left tire is bad but thats not the tire that is being pulled around.

 

Well I talked to my buddy who own's the named shop, and he said what I'm getting is called "axle torque". He explained to me in a simple way. Since my car is so low (which I believe it has cut springs) the axle is starting to bind up. So today I'm going to go talk to my buddy who has a set of Ground Control sleeves that aren't used and probably pick those up. We are also going to try putting on a new set of front tires to see if that helps stop the pulling since I found out I have a 185/55/15 on the left front and a 195/55/15 on the front right

So hopefully the two new front tires helps out quite a bit. I'll let you guys know if that helps at all. I hope it does.

 

Well I got most of the pulling fixed. I bought new tires, Toyo Proxies4 which btw are AMAZING tires, and it doesn't pull NEAR as a hard. I also found out that the castle nut on the left tie rod had no codder pin and was loose. I have a feeling that once I get new suspension, i.e springs and struts or coilovers, I'll be set to go.

 

When your camber is off it makes the steering a bit sensitive. The side with the most Positive camber is where it is gonna pull so maybe you have higher camber on the right side than the left.

 

The steering isn't really that sensitive which is the weird part. It's kinda sloppy or atleast it feels like it.

 

Did you get a wheel alignment? Axle torque sounds like bullshit. How low is it? Can you post a picture? Unless your mudflaps are dragging on a flat surface, then i it's not low enough to cause problems.

 

It's pretty low. I'd assume I'd be dragging mudflaps too :/

 

Did you get a wheel alignment?

 

get an alignment, get some new suspension, change out all the old broken and beat up crap that is common on a 20 yr old car while the damn thing is in the shop. spend the money now and save yourself the headaches later. you don't need a camber kit, bring the car up to a decent ride height and have the toe lined up.

I did a front end re-fresh a couple of yrs back and it's the best thing I have ever done

 

When I get paid this friday after next I'll go get one done. Until then I'm just flat broke since I had to buy tires