Hey guys. My car is pulling to the left. Its bad enough to where it will be in the other lane of the highway in just a few seconds.
I spent 40 bucks to have the front end aligned, and that did nothing to improve it. Tire pressure is consistent.
Any ideas? This is getting verrrrry annoying.

 

haha nice. but seriously the car pulling to the left may be from sticky brakes. bad CV joint. rack and pinion issue or low power steering fluid. wheel bearing gone bad (does it have a loud noise when you correct the car pulling that direction?) and even a broken belt in a tire can pull the car over. you may not notice in town but on highways its like a big counter weight. try switching the tires on the front so your drivers is on the passengers and vice versa. if it pulls the other way. thats the prob.

hope i helped and don't let newbs get to ya lol

 

swap the frt tires side to side,, if it pulls the other way ( right ) it is a tire problem,, if it still pulls same way ( left ) it is a suspension issue ..if so get the alignment readings and post them here

 

Well Im surprised. Swapped the front tires, now the heavy pull to the left is gone. It actually goes fairly straight! Just vibrates a little.

I also twisted a lug off that someone must have cross threaded before me.

 

My 03 Accord has drifted left for the entire time I've owned it. I took it back the day after I picked it up and then twice more. Each time they essentially told me it wasn't a problem. I've not been back to that dealer ever again (other stuff too). As time went on it seemed to lessen or I got used to it. Then I put a new set of Michelins on at 60,000 and it was back strong enough that I was noticing again. I guess as the tires had worn in, it lessened the dirft. I took it to a dealer who has been doing other service that I've been happy with. They did an alignment but said it really wasn't off. Car still pulled a bit. They redid the alignment and then swapped the front tires. It seemed to help a little, maybe, but the drift is still there. I can't believe it is tires anyway since it has persisted through two different sets and numerous rotations. Re suggestions in a previous reply: Front and rear brakes have all be done at one point or another. They said they found nothing else, mentioning checking wheel bearings, but no one brought up the steering system itself - rack and pinion or ??. It is not a bad pull, but if I let go of the wheel, the car drifts to the left pretty consistently.

Frankly I've given up unless someone has a great suggestion. I like this car, but I've never had a car that couldn't be made to just go straight down the road.

 

hey tom. i've been thinking and thinking. i may have come up with something. you could try and see if your front control arms, for steering, are bad. if thats not it, does your car pull to the left on acceleration or just driving. having said that, if it happens just driving down the road, take your car into nutural and see if it happens.
if it doesn't it could be transmission or your CV joints or Axels. and wheel bearing may be it too.

thats all i got man. hope this helps

 

Thanks for all your thinking about my problem. It is not acceleration related. I know that torque feeling and this is not that. It is subtle and happens all the time. I find that I am applying light pressure to the right nearly all the time - makes me want a trim tab like they have in planes. If I let go of the wheel the car slowly drifts to the left. I don't know that I've ever tried it coasting. I'll try that on my way into work today. It has to be something that was there the day I picked it up new since it essentially the same now as it was on that day seven years ago. I was considering having a body shop check the frame alignment. It is a mystery.

 

My 2003 Accord never did that. (Mine was 4-cyl manual trans - what's yours?)

IIRC, the front-wheel camber specs were kinda wide. So you might want to find an alignment shop that will work with you. Ask them to try to make the camber equal from side-to-side. The camber might be something like +/- 1 degree. So your front wheel camber might be different from each other & still be "within factory spec".

 

I'm wondering if this is just an inherent characteristic with these cars. I just bought a 2011 EX-V6. I have less than 400 miles on the car and I notice it pulls to the left on the freeway. That is what prompted me to look at this forum today. It appears there are a lot of threads about this topic! Based on other threads I have read, I am led to believe that the issue is caused by the tires (assuming the car has been maintained and hasn't been damaged, etc.)

 

I kind of gave up on this with my car. The Honda dealer did work with me and repeatedly refined the alignment. It helped, but didn't solve the problem. They tried switching the front tires (I wasn't sure I liked that) and thought it helped a little. Frankly I think the tire thing is way over-rated. I've had these new tires rebalanced and rotated at least once and had the original ones rotated several times. The pull never changed. I just had one of the front end joints (I think like ball joints from the old days, so whatever that is now) because there was some play in it. Then of course it had to be aligned again (this is a year after the original postings with my new tires etc.). The car is better now, but still drifts left on the highway. As far as I'm concerned this is either a flaw in the car generally or in my car in particular.