My '01 Honda Prelude has pulled to the right for the past few months, and I've meant to get it aligned for the past few months. I finally got around to getting it aligned on friday, and while it seems that it's perhaps less severe, it still pulls to the right. I drove for a couple miles on the freeway using only a finger to pull the wheel to the left.

The alignment place isn't a place I've gone before, and I picked it only because I could walk to work from their shop. While there wasn't anything wrong, I don't implicitly trust them.

Any ideas what could be causing this? Did they just do a bad job on the alignment? Should I have my usual garage look at it before taking it back to the tire shop?

Matthew

I'd bet on it being the tires themselves. Some brand/models are just piss poor. Odd wear or damaged tires can cause a pull.

Swap the tires left to right on the front end. If the pull changes sides, it's the tires.

PS. it doesn't take long for a misaligned front end to damage a tire.

Hmmm, well, it's got goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3's on it. They were pretty much the best tires I could get, but I'll be the first to admit I should have gotten the alignment fixed months ago. Unfortunatly, they're directional, so I can't swap them left to right. I can try back to front and see if it seems to change.

Matthew

I mostly agree, but I do not suggest swapping the tires from left to right, that's a no-no. swap them front to back, check the pressures.
if that doesn't do the trick, find a front end shop that you do trust.

/works on cars all damn day, 20 years now.

I went thru a similar problem. A road hazard damaged my right front rim and alignment. By the time I found a new rim and had everything taken care of, both front tires were asymmetrically worn, and way out of balance. I wound up replacing both front tires.

Ok, I'll try swapping them and see if it changes direction. Thanks for the advice.

Matthew

My high grip summer tires seem to "track" on uneven roads and pull quite a bit. My softer winter tires don't have this problem... My point is that sometimes higher performance tires amplify problems..

sorry, I hope that didn't come off nasty or rude. just thought it was a good idea to mention it.
and you're very right, tires can pull a car even if nothing else is wrong. no matter what they cost.

Not at all. Directionals need to run the right way for a lot of good reasons. I've never owned directionals and to be honest I do not know why the restriction is in place. I can think of a couple, poor wet performance, squirm that leads to heat buildup and distruction. Very bad that one. Hard to know just how quickly that one bites.

I agree with others above, check for uneven wear. If it's there, either live with the pull or replace the tires and have it aligned again with the new tires.

I'm a stickler on alignment, if it's off even a little it ruins tires fast. Even new cars should be checked, usually the dealer will do it for a small fee ($20-30) and if it's off, they get paid under warranty and it's free to you. The cars travel strapped down with the suspension compressed, and this can cause the factory setting to creep a little.

I'm a big believer in good tires, they're the only part of your car keeping you on the road. I drive about 45,000 miles/year so I have some time to think about this!

-Zeke

As others have said, worn tires could definitely induce steering issues. Also be sure to check your tire inflation. If you've ever been in a front-end collision, then that could also contribute if it wasn't fixed properly. My factory-original set of tires didn't last very long because the alignment was messed up from the factory, which basically killed the tires after 5000 miles. I screamed and the dealer ate about half of the cost of replacing them.

FYI, I recently replaced my aging Yokohama AVS-ES100's with Michelin Pilot Sport II's. In addition to being very smooth running and all that, they're a very different sort of directional than traditional directional tires. They have no particular preference for which way they're rotating, but they do have an "inside" and "outside" (i.e., left-to-right tread asymetry). This means you can legally rotate them left-to-right, since the "outside" continues to face out.

Geez, every car I've owned pulls to the left just slightly enough for the mechanics to ignore it yet wear out my wrists... and tires. I have alignment after alignment, and even had my rims "repaired" once with o long term fix. After the $350 rim repair job, the car drove like a dream for a week before resuming the left pull.

This is some good information. I'll try to make good use of it.

Yep my current ride has 40 series tires on the front. They are deceptively deep due to the width. About 2lbs pressure difference is all it takes to create a pull toward the lower pressure side.