Hey Everyone,
I'm hoping someone can help me out. I have an '05 Evo VIII and lately it's been having some issues. It pulls drastically to the right-to the point if I let go of the steering wheel, I will be on the side of the road in 5 seconds or less (going 35 mph). I've had it in to be aligned many times at several different locations/body shops and they all say that the alignment is fine or made small adjustments-nothing that would cause it to pull so much. I haven't hit anything or driven over a curb. The worst I've driven over are railroad tracks.
I have 18 inch Work Emotion rims for summer (summer tires) and the factory 17 inch Enkei for winter (mounted on winter tires). The problem only exists when the Emotion rims are on the car. My car handles fine without any pulling with the factory rims. I took the Emotion rims in to be balanced and trued thinking maybe that was the problem but there was no difference.
I explained the problem to the shops when I took my car in for the alignments hoping maybe they would be able to identify the problem. No one could tell me what was wrong. They all say they have no idea what's going on. One shop suggested it could be my tires but as far as they could tell my tires looked fine.
Any suggestions of what might cause this before I spend the money on a new set of summer tires when this might not even be what causing it? Thanks!

 

definitely a tire pull

 

How long have you had the car? Has it always done this? Does it pull on all types of road surfaces? Have you had the spindle/hub/bearing and breaks checked?

 

I've had the car for 3 years now (2 owners before me - the guy who purchased it originally but could not afford payments, and the guy I bought it from who garaged it and only pulled it out on occasion.) I've been dealing with the pull since last summer. As I said it only happens with the summer wheels. It drove fine with these wheels for a while and one day it started pulling and then it kept getting worse to the point it is at now. (the tires are about 2 years old but only driven half the year as the other half I usually have my winter tires on-depending on how winter goes.) It pulls on all types of road surfaces. I thought maybe it was the road at first but it doesn't matter where I am. I have not had the spindle/hub/brakes checked although I just replaced my brake pads last month.

 

switch the tires from the left side and right side and see if the pull goes the other way. If so, it's your tires.

 

Go to a proper tire shop and have them to a road force test.

 

Road force balance definitely. If it goes away with the other set of rims look at the obvious. The emotion tire/wheel combo is either out of balance or out of round. Could be just one tire or several.

 

+1. You could try switching them side to side, but since your summer tires probably have a directional tread pattern, I'd try moving one side front to back & see what affect it has. If none, try the same on the other side. If you get a change on one side & not the other, you've narrowed it down to 2 tires, at least. Then try running with one of your winter tires on the rear. Play around awhile, you should be able to figure out which tire/rim it is.

 

I had this issue with my car previously. I took my car to many different shops for alignments and wheel balances. Come to find out that I had a bad wheel/tire. I changed my wheels/tires and got a new awd alignment which finally fixed the issue.

Ask somebody local to swap wheels/tires with you momentarily and see if the symptoms still occur.

 

Sometimes a new tire is a little "coned", meaning that one side's diameter is a little smaller than the other side. If the smaller diameter is on the outside of the car, then your car will pull to that side.

Sometimes, driving for a while will "even out" the shape of the tire, sometimes not.

 

Thanks, everyone. I will try playing around with my tires to see what happens.
One concern I have is that I took my rims to get trued and balanced and when I got them back we just put them back on the car. The odds of the same rim being put on the same tire and in the same spot on the car as before is unlikely. Once the summer wheels were back on the pull began again just as intense as before and still to the right. No change.
I wondering if maybe the extra inch in size is enough to aggravate something that is wrong/off? I could be wrong as it is just a guess and I'm not as knowledgeable in cars as most people here...

 

check the tires...

 

Can you post your alignment specs as well? Depending on how aggressive your toe setting is, the car will naturally pull to the right. Roads are crested to help drain rain.

Have you checked things in a flat parking lot somewhere? Same pull to the right or not as severe?

 

tire... roadforce balance may pick up on it but obviously isnt going to fix it. if the bad tire is directional then no matter where you put in on the car it is still going to cause a pull, but in the rear its affect will be minimal... I would try rotating them front to back if they are directional or side to side if they are not.

also did any of the alignment shops happen to give you a printout of the specs? alot of shady places out there just set the toe and consider that an alignment

 

may be a bent strut, Ive seen it do that be for