touque

here's my story from last week:

1st day back from vacation, swerved to miss a pothole in road (car is a 86.5 with 17" Cup wheels). Hit the jagged edge of the pothole PERFECTLY and damaged both passenger-side wheels and put a gash in the sidewall of each tire.

finally was able to repair the wheels and get new tires (all 4 - Yokohama ES100's) this morning, and on drive to work, the car pulls left but only on acceleration. If just cruising, it tracks perfectly straight. If I accelerate (which causes the car to try to go left) I have to adjust the wheel right, and if I let off the gas, the car naturally wants to swing right - this makes me a tad uncomfortable.

so... what's up? I really didn't hit the pothole hard (but obviously hard enough to damage 2 wheels and tires) and thought that if I knocked it out of alignment, then shouldn't it always be out and not just during acceleration? Is there anything else I am missing?

one sidenote - my rears have 2 wheel nuts on each stud (one inside to hold the wheel on, and an outer one as a cap). The punk at the tire shop didn't realize this and tried to gently knock the rear left loose with a sledge. I really don't think he wailed on it, but I can't rule this out...

thanks all!

Garth S

If you are asking for a guess, the right rear toe-in may have been knocked too far in by the pothole incident, as the car pushes left under torque. Rear camber might do it, but I suspect the toe-in. The front would show misalignment more readily under steady speed. If you have a concern about the sledge hammer thing ( or any of the other 3 wheels) jack that wheel up and spin it against a reference point, looking for wobble. A section of bent coat hanger makes a good pointer : bend it to within 1/4" of the rim, and spin.
If the alignment happens to be out that much, within a very few miles, a sharp, feathered edge can be felt on one edge of the tread blocks (usually very difficult to see).
In any event, the possibility of needing a 4 wheel alignment is rather high IMHO. In that case, read up on not raising the car if you haven't been through that before, but I assume you have.

jon928se

What does it do when you break ? Go Right ?

As a minimum you have knocked the alignment out front and or rear.

I'ld also carefully check over all the suspension components on the side that hit (couldn't do no harm to check both sides) Jack up each corner and examine carefully , use a small prybar to try and lever all ball joints apart a little and wiiggle them while holding the two halves with your free hand to detect any "loose" movement There shouldn't be any. Do not damage the ball joint boots doing this.

Also check the inboard ends of the tie rods.

Hope it's just the alignment that is out.

Regds

Jon
Black SE

tresamore

Sounds like something in the right rear was damaged and is moving when you accelerate. Grab a friend and have him/her take a look at the right rear while you load the car against the brakes while cycling between drive and then reverse (if auto). See if the wheel wants to toe in or out at all when its loaded. You could also have them look at the suspension (preferably w/ a mirror so you won't run them over if something goes horribly wrong!) to see if there is abnormal movement. Check the wheel bearing for slop too. The pothole or the pothead (punk) could have done some damage there too.

touque

Yes Garth - guesses are OK! I agree on the 4-wheel alignment being needed... I do know about not raising the car and will take it to a local shop who's owner has a 928S himself. Toe-in kinda does make sense.

Jon - when I brake it tracks straight. Good ideas on checking all the suspension. I too now only hope it's just an alignment.

car drove perfectly before this little episode - still there's no wobble...

tresamore - good ideas too. I'll grab my wife tonight and have her look at the wheels under load...


Troy


p.s. anyone looking for one front (225-45-17) and one rear (255-40-17) Goodyear Eagle F1 GS-D3 tires with about 7,000 miles on them?

touque

well, it's been 3 weeks later and I think I have a solution...

got the beast in for a 4-wheel alignment, and even though the shop said it was 'perfectly' aligned after they were through with it, it still pulled to the left, although much less noticable than before...

This bothered me because everything else checked out. Well, today, I was admiring my car from the back when I noticed that the left-rear wheel looked narrower than the right? wtf? At first I thought they somehow screwed up the front and back, but after looking at the sizes, they put a 245/40/17 on the left and 255/40/17 on the right! OMG!

I know I can blame the shop (discount tire), but they had to 'order' the 2 rear wheels from a supplier - apparently, they were sent 2 different-sized tires and never noticed the mis-match.

Anyways, I can't believe no one of us noticed it... Of course, you assume that since you bought 4 new tires, that they should be the size you requested... you know what assume means.

Now the damn car better run straight after I get the correct size on there!



Troy

Jim @ EuroWerks

So, just to let you know, I had a similar problem with a 911 turbo. Turns out the car had one of the rear tires replaced on the back like 3000 mlies earlier. Same size, one had wear one did not. Swap rear tires pulled the otherway.

Garth S

quote "but after looking at the sizes, they put a 245/40/17 on the left and 255/40/17 on the right! OMG! "
... you got the NASCAR oval track trick installed! free - and it works! Anyway, better than having a bent suspension, but never would have thought ...

Bill Ball

I had one tire shop put the bigger pair of tires on the narrower rims and put those on the back of the car. At least they got the tire position right.