Hi,

My Evo X has started randomly pulling to the left and right. I will be driving down the road steering to the right (to go straight), then things shift and I have to steer to the left (again, just to go straight). I had this happen on my Jeep Wrangler and it turned out to be that something in the tire(s) was broken.

I drove home for the holidays, and on the way, hit what looked like roadkill (thanks to a dumb state trooper). This thing I hit was large (almost like a goat), but the car went over it. Got out and didn't see any damage, so I kept going. A week or so later I notice the steering issue and am thinking it's related to this.

I'm not sure if it's related, but for the last few months, I've had some tire noise. Sort of a wah wah wah wah wah sound when driving.

Car:

• 2013 Evo X MR
• OEM tires (that came with the car)
• 11k miles.

What could the problem be? Do you think it was caused by hitting the roadkill?

(I found this thread, but I haven't changed any alignment and think it's probably related to the roadkill)

Thanks for the help!

 

You could have a suspension piece bent or something if you hit something really hard. But at 11k miles with the tires that came with the car you should be on almost bald tires. Its very possible that they are just worn down. Alignment from factory sucks and normally causes one tire to wear more than the others which could cause this problem.

 

Sounds like it's time for some new tires then. I drove with one tire on low pressure for a few miles and am thinking it may be damaged.

If I take it in to a shop for alignment, will they fix it or will they just reset it to Mitsu's crappy settings?

Thanks for the help!

 

It's probably just out of alignment. That's what happens when you hit/run over things.

Lol.. What's wrong with stock alignment specs

 

It's a bit on the conservative side and causes too much wear on the outside vs inside

To OP: I'm at 6k miles and one track day and my tires are basically gone. How did they last you 11k?

 

Just took it in for alignment and everything was within spec. One thing was on the boarder but fixed.

Obviously, I still have the problem...


All of my wear is on the inside of the tires. The passenger side back tire is bald.

I'm guessing I got more miles because I haven't tracked the tires and 5k of my miles are highway driving.


Now, with alignment ruled out, are there any other ideas? I will probably replace the tires next to see if that helps...

 

Ok I had a similar problem with my mr. Came down to bad stock tires and some people had remarked that the car itself is very twitchy and because of something to do with the stock trailing bars that it follows dips and such very bad.

Now new tires solved most of my problems but didnt fix all of my suspension gripes but I'm still working stuff out with the dealership and stuff. But that is my problem.

 

OK, but where within the range of acceptable values was the rear toe? The specs allow you to run a boat-load of rear toe-in.

Also, did they yank on things while under there? A torn bushing can be in the center at rest and then move around as soon as there's significant force on the arm.

edit: I'm not just being a pain. My car wanders under power with low grip. I had always assumed it was the AYC doing its sub-optimal stuff on gravel and snow, but my pump is dead and it still does it.

 

Did you tell the person doing the alignment that you had hit/runover something? Did he happen to notice anything down there bent? Did you mention the car pulls either direction? A qualified mechanic can help diagnose this stuff by looking at the suspension, arms, brakes, ect.

 

are you it was a goat you ran over and not some other type of debris?

I would like to think the goat would bend and break before something on the car.

My car is A+ shape and it was hard to track straight also right off the showroom floor. Had the alignment checked and it was spot on. So a little part of your problem may just be the nature of the car.

 

These cars are definitely more "twitchy" than most. But I'd still like to know why. One possibility is that there is too often a pre-load on the sway-bars. Mine is definitely less twitchy with the sway-bars detached, but that confounds roll resistance with the possibility of pre-load, so it's not good evidence, either way.

As to the OP's issue, another question is how far off were the "before" values from the alignment. If anything was bent, you'd expect at least one parameter to be changed.

 

I was due for tires anyways and the recent snow made the stockers dangerous, so I threw on some new tires. It seems that the problem is partially solved. I haven't noticed much pull since, but I've been driving mostly in snow so it's hard to say...

Yes, I did tell him that. I went out in the shop too but nothing was visible.

I'm not sure. I should have gotten a copy of where it was at. There was one value that should be -0.4<value<0.4 and I was at -0.4 so they set it to 0, if that means anything.

A bushing is what I was suspecting. I can almost feel the car shift from pulling to the right to pulling to the left.

When it was on the alignment stand, I rocked each wheel left to right to see if I could feel looseness. There was something there, but I couldn't isolate it (if it was the car or the rack the car was on). Something loose would completely explain all the symptoms.


No, I'm not sure. I had a car in front of me and it was night so I only saw it for a split second. There was NO sign of damage anywhere that we could see. This makes me think that whatever I hit was pushed flat.

Everything was within spec and only the one (unknown) parameter I mentioned above was near the edge of the tolerance.


Thanks for all the help!

 

The only parameter with a +/- around zero is front toe. Negative is toe-out and that would make the car twitchy. Odds are, your problem is solved.

 

You got 11K miles on OEM tires? That's great! I never got more than 10K out of mine. At the end of their lives they started to get very loud and would track every bump and rut on the road.
So, you car may just need new tires.

 

Sweet! The car does feel better now so I'm hoping that's it, but too many variables have changed to know for sure what the problem was. I noticed it somewhat on the way back (right after alignment), but it seemed slightly better. That night we got 6" of snow, so the next day I got new tires put on. The day after, I drove 500 miles home (and away from the street the problem was most apparent on).

Keep in mind that 5k of those miles were freeway (trip to CA and a few trips to CO). I kept the stock tires when I put the new ones on because they have some tread left, but like you, mind also got very loud. Also, Discount Tire said the original tires are $400 a piece!!! Don't think I'll ever go back to that tire...

Overall, I haven't noticed the problem since the new tires and alignment, but like I said, haven't been able to test it on the bad street yet.

Thanks for all the help!