I have a 92 civic hatch. Its got tein s tech springs and brand new shocks and tires. I just had the car aligned cause it was horribaly off. When i got it back the front tires felt squrially. I moved the front tires to the back thinking that was the problem. It helped a little but im still having the problem. When you first take off the steering wheel feels like its pulling to the left a little. When I push in the clutch to shift the steering wheel will pull to the left bad enough that i pulls my hand with it and then goes back to the center and the pulling to the left goes away. It only seems to happen when im accelerating but sometimes it will dance around a little. Ive checked my tie rod ends and all my ball joints and control arms are brand new. Tires are brand new to have less then 200 miles on them. Im really stumped here. It almost feels like the left brake is catching but its hard to tell. Any thoughts here?

 

Couple questions:
- did you have the alignment performed after the new shock installation?
- do you have a print out of the new alignment?

 

Yes the alignment was done after all the new suspension was installed. And i had the sheet, I'm not sure if i can still find it or not but everything was within specs.

 

The boots seem fine. And the axles arent clicking or anything yet.

 

Well the problem has become even worse. It is now destroying my tires. I discoverd now that i can get the steering wheel to return to the proper position by tapping the brakes after exelerating. The alignment was supposed to be "perfect". Im gonna take it back into the shop and see what they have to say about it. I found out that whoever did the ex brake upgrade on it wasnt the most inteligent person on the planet. They left out the pad retainers and used the incorrect pads. When i was replacing the brakes one of the calipers pistons returned like it should, the other was damn near impossible to push back. I thinking it might be starting to sieze up and this might be whats cause the brakes to catch. Any other ideas will be much appreciated cause i know the shop is just gonna say its because i have aftermarket suspension on the car, and im cant keep blowing through tires like this.

 

Take it back to the shop and get them to redo the alignment (free of charge). If they don't fix it, take it in again and keep doing it until they get tired of you and do it right. Then never go back!

 

Thats kinda what i was thinking. Im just worried that the alignment is going to be fine and that there is an underlying problem destroying my tires. But in my opinion it looks like the toe is off, cause the tires are wearing sharp

 

... wat is your camber/toe/ caster .. read it from the print out.... 1 degree of camber will cause a pull. also you can check to see if your callipers are frozen by just driving (cold brakes) then coasting to a stop .. or very lite braking and then touching the rotors with Ur hand(or heat gun if you got) .. see if one is hotter then the other. sometimes you may have to brake normally to get a temperature change of the rotors.

 

Sounds like you have extreme toe issues. I had a Corolla that did the exact same thing to me.

 

UPDATE: Well i went back to the shop who did my alignment and demanded they redo my alignment. Apparently whoever did it the first time was a moron cause the guy that did it this time wouldnt even touch it. Here's what he found.

My driverside wheel bearing is about to go (no joke i checked it myself afterwards)
Both outer tie rod ends are bad
All my lower control bushings are bad
And my driver side lower ball joint is bad

Funny that they could align it less then a month ago cause i dont see all this happening in a month...They said they dont honor there warranty if i put on new suspension parts myself. I told them that me and my family alone together own 10 cars and we always come to them and if they dont give me a free alignment after all this cause im not paying them the 900 dollars they requested to fix it when i can do it myself for about 100 then im going elsewhere from now on. They said they would talk to there manager so i guess we will see...

 

Remind them loudly that you paid to have a qualified technician inspect and align your car, and now you've been driving on an unsafe car.

Just think about all the people who don't know any better who these guys d*ck over. I give zero respect for unqualified or dishonest mechanics.