Car pulling to the right??? Bushes

[Silver Surfer]

Hi Guys
Need your expert help here.
The car keeps pulling to the right.. On motorways even and need to keep the steering to the left to compensate. Have had 3different places do tracking with their top of the range Hunter equipment to no avail!!! The are absolute that geometry is as good and straight even with me in the car yet the car still pulls to the right.
They suggest I should poly bush the suspension arms as they think the tired bushes are the reason... which I am happy to do if there is a supplier for this and if it will rectify the issue.

Any suggestions ?

Have spent £280 and the problem is still there!!

SS

[Philip]

Just a thought. Try swapping the front wheels around and see how that feels.

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Needs bit more information.
Any aftermarket parts around the suspension area such as damper, spring, top mount, etc?
Old and worn tyres?
OEM wheel or aftermarket, spacers, etc (as mentioned below, alignment is the angle of the wheel against the centre line so under stational condition, the wheel/tyre size or offset won't affect it but once it starts rotating, it will change the amount of effect of each factors).

The general stationary alignment is carried out based on the wheel angle against the virtual centre line of the car. It doesn’t take any dynamic movement into the measurement.

So, does the car drive straight with minimum force holding the steering wheel even it is not 100% centred? If so, check the side slip to find out the difference between the R & L by rolling your car over the tester. Then, find out what is causing the difference. You can compensate the difference at the toe for a short term fix.

If you need to keep holding the steering wheel at some angle otherwise the car starts drifting somewhere then there are many possibilities.
Uneven worn tyres, big difference in four corner rideheight/weight, suspension area mechanical issue, etc.

Even with the tired bush, unless it has already cut/cracked, it can drive straight.
If it is that tired, you would notice difference in chassis behaviour when going over the bump at some speed.

Personally, I don’t recommend poly bush for street usage. It will deteriorate in the future.
If you have to replace it, then go for the spherical/rose joint design but very expensive. Night and day difference though. I normally recommend just replacing the rear as at the front, the compliance pivot dominates the area and better to lock it than replacing the rest of the front bush.

Kaz

[Silver Surfer]

Thanks Kaz,

Personally I am not convinced it is due to Bushes.
I do have 25mm Spacers at the rear and 5mm at the front. The car is on Bilstein suspensions all round and running the OEM 02+ wheels
The Tyres are all good condition and has good even treads.
I have to hold the wheel slightly to the left to correct the drift to the right.

I suspect I have to bring the car for you to diagnose at some point in the near future.....

SS

[goldnsx]

Did you check the tire pressure, that's the simplest test and most likely cause if nothing else failed.

How does the car behave
- while cruising
- whle braking lightly
- while braking hard
- while accelerating

And first question of all: when did it start pulling? Did it ever drive straight?

[drmikey]

Manual or EPS rack?

[havoc]

Silly question, but is it just the steering wheel which is at the wrong angle? Mine drives true with the wheel at a few degrees left, but I believe it's the steering wheel that's out-of-true, as handling otherwise feels OK.

[britlude]

so alignment is checked and double checked... brakes dragging one side is a possible?

are the rear tyres the same height/tread depth? and both at the same pressure? when one of my split rims had a very very slow leak, i knew when it needed pumping up as the steering wheel would be off when driving straight. the LSD will do that!

it also showed up when one of my rears was worn more than the other (the LSD scrubbed the inner tyre when i had to make a tight left turn on my old route to work - my usual route til i realised it scrubbed the inner tyre!!)




... steering wheel off but driving true is the alignment being done with the wheel slightly off so the wheels are true, but the steering wheel isn't, imagine the rack not quite centred but the steering arm adjustment taking up the difference!

[Silver Surfer]

Thanks Gold NSX and Havoc,

There was indeed a discrepancy with the tyre pressures..21 psi on the left front and 32psi on the Right front.
The steering wheel is indeed a few degrees out which I have adjusted as best I can.

Despite all these corrections..the car still veer towards the right albeit much more slowly...strangely during acceleration it does seem to drive straighter.

All in all ... the issue is 90% better.

DrMikey...it is a manual car.
Britlude...all tyres are evenly worn on both side.

SS

[britlude]

and rear tyre pressures?? a difference there will steer the front and require steering wheel input to correct....

[Silver Surfer]

The Rears were both 36psi and equal.
Thanks Jonathan.

SS

[britlude]

then, i'm afraid, you're chassis must be bent. i'll save you the hassle, and give you a tenner for it.. a cheque be ok?? :)

[Silver Surfer]

I doubt the chassis is bent since it was straight 6 months ago until I added spacers and had tracking and alignment by Europit tyres and is I wanted the slight malalignment of the steering wheel from centre sorted out.....

SS

[mjames75]

I think its because I still have the CF spoiler of yours! Will call you in the week!

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

Tyre pressure….. That’s one thing normally checked by the alignment operator before placing the car on the alignment platform/rig.

In fact, I normally remove all alignment bolt/nut and check for the free movement as several Honda cars use metal collar bonded to bush resulting in seized alignment adjuster if moisture managed to get inside.
Always apply silicone grease around the bolt body (not the thread) and re-assemble.
Quite often, the caster adjusters are seized any way if they were not treated fairly soon after leaving the factory.

Then just before visiting the alignment place (JPS Motorsport for me), I always adjust the tyre pressure and ask the operator not to adjust it as the tyres are not cooled down enough.


You went through three alignment sessions and tyre pressure was never checked??? Very unusual.....
If it is true, then I have no idea on how often the alignment platform/rig at these places were calibrated.
I’m afraid you may have question mark on your alignment result….


Even if the steering wheel was not centred before the alignment service (for example, when you changed the steering boss to an aftermarket one), it doesn’t matter because during the alignment process, the operator will turn the steering wheel lock to lock and then use the jig to centre the steering wheel before making the toe adjustment so unless you have dynamic alignment change (such as different side slip rate between R & L), the steering should stay straight while driving after the alignment service.


If you have a chance to take another alignment session, look for the SAI figure.
It can’t be adjusted without changing the A-arm and frame parts and it will change every time when you move the car so absolute figure is not important unless they are miles away from the spec. Look for the difference between R & L. If there are huge difference like more than 1deg (60min), then you may have other mechanical issues and not just alignment.

Hope you will find the answer.

Kaz

[goldnsx]

Thanks Gold NSX and Havoc,

There was indeed a discrepancy with the tyre pressures..21 psi on the left front and 32psi on the Right front.
The steering wheel is indeed a few degrees out which I have adjusted as best I can.

Despite all these corrections..the car still veer towards the right albeit much more slowly...strangely during acceleration it does seem to drive straighter.

All in all ... the issue is 90% better.

DrMikey...it is a manual car.
Britlude...all tyres are evenly worn on both side.

SS
Glad to help. As the alignment shop didn't check the tire pressure first I think you have to redo the process but now with the correct tire pressure YOU better check before. Camber/Caster are off or not symmetrical I think. Most shops avoid touching the caster on the NSX as they don't how to work on it. I had to instruct my professional with the procedure and YES he also didn't check the tire pressure first also (and he is said to be the best in my area, well).

You write that all four tires are worn identically. As the NSX eats tires on the inside small differences can make a big difference. If you have a second set of wheels try with these for comparison.

As for the tire with 21 psi I'd check it for a leak ASAP.

[Nick Graves]

Did you check the tire pressure, that's the simplest test and most likely cause if nothing else failed.

How does the car behave
- while cruising
- whle braking lightly
- while braking hard
- while accelerating

And first question of all: when did it start pulling? Did it ever drive straight?

This.

Also check for unevenly worn tyres.

Also, does your car stink of binding brakes?

Can you try without the spacers? They will strain bushes, bearings etc on out awful roads.