SDBurgher

Hi. New member here.
I've got a 2007 Si sedan with 51K miles. Never had a problem with torque steer before (unless I kicked it in 1st gear!). Took car in to dealer for 50K mtce, brakes, and replace a clutch master cylinder. Now all of a sudden I have torque steer -- most noticeably on the freeway above 65MPH. Light acceleration pulls car left; lift off gas and it re-centers. Really annoying and I think dangerous. Dealer of course wants me to believe they did nothing to cause this and it's normal in this car.
Anybody else have this experience? Is there anything the mechanic could've done to cause this?
Thanx!
SDBurgher

ezone

What do you think a 50k maint. consists of?
What did they do to it?
What all did they touch on front suspension and tires?


What all did they touch on front suspension and tires?

Sure, or maybe not.. What all did they touch on front suspension and tires?

WHEN did you have this service done? Today? A month ago?
Take the service manager for a ride if you have to. Demonstrate the issue.

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

Sounds like when I FUBAR'd my tie rod while changing struts. Stripped the crap out of the threads and had to jerry-rig (read: lockwire) the tie rod down so it wouldn't completely separate from the strut while I got it to a shop that could swap it out for me. My tool set at the time was inadequate to replace a tie rod end.

ezone

Yeah, sounded to me like something in the front suspension is loose, but I just couldn't picture what on Earth would have been done at 50k maint or a brake job to cause it.

No reason to have a front lower control arm loose or off at 50k, is there?

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

50k? The first time my LCAs ever came off was at 155k

SDBurgher

The 50K service included fluids, filters, wiper inserts, F/R brake replacements, rotor grinding. Also had clutch master cylinder replaced (not part of 50K svc). I noticed the car pulling to the left as soon as I left the dealer. They're claiming the torque steer is "normal" -- I sure don't consider it normal when I'm accelerating just enough to hold the car at speed on the freeway and it pulls distinctly left. Not a sharp pull, but more like a hyperbolic arc.

ezone

What did they do with the tires?
First check if they did anything there.
Then check tire pressures.
Got an odd mismatched tire that is now on the front?
Unequal tread depths on the front?



Torque steer might be average for that car under HARD acceleration, but that does not appear to be the correct description or term for your new issue.

Describe it as a "drift or pull under light acceleration" now, if that would be more accurate.


And you should have turned around and went back to the shop immediately.

SDBurgher

Rotated tires & then rotated back to rule that out. Tires are properly inflated. Tires are matched and 2 years old, about 15K miles. Same tread depth. Remember, this problem just surfaced 3 days ago. Couldn't return immediately to shop because I picked up the car Friday nite as they were closing. Returned first thing Mon.

ezone

You did this, or the dealer did this?


Swap the 2 front tires side to side and give it a drive. See if the pull goes the opposite direction.

SDBurgher

Weird...
Dealer did an alignment, tested it, and it still pulled left. Then the mechanic tried different configurations of the tires and finally found a pattern that worked: 2 tires with 4/32 tread depth up front and 2 with 3/32 in back. The weird part is that (he said) it wasn't the configuration I came in with. I honestly don't know if that's true or not.
My guess is that they don't know what the original config was and just happened to hit on it thru trial & error.
I am surprised that the pulling was caused by such a slight difference in tread depth. If I was a cynic I'd say that they messed up something else when they were rotating the tires and didn't want to admit it. Anyway, it's back to normal.
Thanx for the responses!

xRiCeBoYx

iTrader: (22)

I wouldn't dismiss the problem as solved, just yet, especially considering the "problem" started after you got it back from the shop. I'd look into the problem a bit more. Jack the car up and take a good, close look at all the suspension components, looking for anything that looks remotely out of place. Or.. take a bunch of good pics and we can look at it, too.

ezone

Tires can absolutely cause pulling, that's why I kept asking about it in my reply.


I notice a couple things here:

1) It's about due for new tires, there isn't a whole lot of life left in those if the tread measurement was accurate. Keep an eye on the tread depth.

Not sure how thin you can run your tread out there, but I'd be suggesting fresh tires here. (We get snow here, you would probably get stranded real quick with tread that thin LOL. If you ever run in rain, that thin tread could hydroplane much easier than thick tread.)

2) Mixed or staggered tread depths, kinda sounds like someone might have only rotated tires on one side of the car?

Maybe, or maybe not. If you don't know what the tread depths and positions were before you took it in, you really don't have much to go on now.

I DO know that some people aren't very observant when all the tires are off the car at the same time, they throw them back on any-old-where with no thought about how it might affect the handling or anything. I have seen this with rookies and low paid/don't cares, and I have seen it happen when a stack of tires is taken to the balancer machine without marking where they came from.

Just a thought, glad you got it taken care of.