96 Accord 2.7L V6

When I bought the car used the front left wheel was bent so I had to replace it. I then noticed the brakes needed changing and the brake lines needed bleeding. After I replaced the brake pads on both sides and bled the brakes, and even replaced the left half shaft, I noticed that the car started to pull to the left and engage it's ABS system. Turns out the part shop gave me the wrong half shaft for my car. Anyways I got the new one in and ABS works fine now. However, the car now wants to pull to the left especially when I put the brakes on. Almost as if the drive shaft isn't even providing power to the wheel on that side. I took off the steering knuckle to inspect it. Everything is fine as far as the eye can tell but when I put it back together it still pulls left. The alignment specialist said it could be a bent control arm. Would a bent control arm cause this veering problem. Do I have to replace the upper/lower arms, struts, knuckle to stop this from happening?

Another weird thing when I had the car on stands: When I accelerated only the right half shaft spinned. The left stayed still. I don't know if this is supposed to happen on this car but I thought both moved simultaneously when accelerating. Could there be a problem in the transmission?

 

With an open differential, it doesn't take barely any dragging of the brake to stop one wheel. With the front end lifted, put it in neutral. Spin each tire by hand & see if there's much friction at the left one. A dragging brake might explain this?

 

There wasn't any contact with the brake and rotors. Forgot to mention that the front left tire is cocked with the bottom pointing inward just by half a degree. Could something not be seated correctly? I guess this could be causing the pull as well.

 

If something isn't seated correctly, then the alignment would have been far off. Just re-reading your thread, it wasn't clear if the alignment guy actually measured everything or he just talked about possible causes...?

 

Hi egerms. Do your-self a quick test by Jacking the front left wheel off the ground so the suspension and the Wheel assembly are hanging in the air.

Grab the Wheel at 12 o'clock and 6 o'clock. Push in at 12 pull out at 6.. Then out at 12 and in at 6. You should get no motion from doing this. If you do you've got a bad lower ball-joint.

A bad lower ball joint in the front can cause the vehical to suddenly dive to the side that is bad when you apply the brakes. It can also cause the car to continue tracking poorly while the brakes are being held.


In response to your second question. Your car will not spin both front wheels evenly when raised off the ground unless it had a "locking" differential installed. "Locking" differentials are not something you will find on front wheel driven cars as they make it difficult to turn the vehicle. It is normal for one wheel to spin faster than the other even at idle in your car which uses a "open" differential when the wheels are off the ground.

 

if alignment was done,, post the specs here,,,,,,,,,,,,if not ,have an alignment done and post the specs here......
if car hit a curb hard enough to bent the rim,, i am pretty sure that there is ( are ) some bent suspension part (s) ,,
Do not start replacing parts till you know what is going on.......

Cargalx was correct,, with both wheels off the ground it is common and normal that only 1 wheel spins when in gear or 1 spins faster that the other

the advice given to you, to chk suspension for looseness was good,, chk inner + outer tie rods, lower and upper control arms for looseness ..if you find something worn, replace it before doing an alignment ..;;;;;;;;;;
I have to assume that this issue has been there since you got the car,, correct ???

 

I bought the car last February and replaced the steel wheel entirely. I didn't notice any pulls to the left right after. It wasn't until after I bled the brakes and changed the pads that I noticed this constant annoyance. Do you think there is there any danger in driving the car like this? Just from looking at the front of the car you can notice that the driver side tire is tilted inward. Other than tire wear should I be concerned about any problems this might cause?

 

Thank you CargalX and deserthonda for the suspension checks, I will try these and let you know. This has been on my mind since I've gotten the car but haven't had much time or money to put into it since I was told it was safe to drive in this condition. I still think it should be corrected. This car is 14 years old and only has 62,000 miles, I want it to last.