2003 Civic Pulls left a little when full throttle.

[DJDafreund]

Been a little bit of time since i last visited, and hoped maybe someone could help answer this. I just got my 1994 civic T-Bone'd and lost all my work. Got a 2003 civic ex with 15's on them, but tonight i got around to taking them off and putting my 17's with 205 60's on (from my 1994 civic) on in place of the 15's mags on (aftermarket wheels alloy.), which my new wheels are just slightly smaller then the 15's (maybe 1/3 - 1/2 inch total.)
I also removed the airbox assembly, and put on my short ram air intake. After driving it tonight. I noticed it ALMOST drives pretty much straight forward, but as soon as i gun the throttle, it tries to pull just slightly to the left, not bad, just enough to have to keep the wheel a little pressured from the small bit of pull to the left. As soon as i let up, it's fine. Only seems to do it when i throttle hard.
Would that be alignment issues? The tires still seem balances as it's very smooth, and were last balanced a week ago when i pulled them off last car. But i thought, maybe a new 4 wheel alignment is needed for new wheels?? They was only a small difference total in size, but that's why i'm asking, i don't have any clue why. Normally it didn't do this with other aftermarket 15's rims, and with factory airbox assembly installed still.

Thanks for any help or advice on what is causing this. If it's for sure needing a new 4 wheel alignment, i can deal with that until i can get it in ASAP to get one done til then. Hopefully it's nothing bad, as i would like to be able to still use my 17's. The tires are almost new, before the recent wreck.

[Jecht]

It isn't an alignment issue, all FWD cars do that. It may be that you just notice it more with the different wheels/tires.

Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torque_steer

Also, you shouldn't need an alignment if all you did was put new wheels on there. If is a good idea to have the wheels properly balanced though.


When the driveshafts have different length and excessive torque is applied, the longer half shaft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Half_shaft) flexes more than the shorter one, thus causing one wheel to momentarily spin more slowly than the other, resulting in a steering effect. So the equal length of the driveshafts reduce the torque steer effect.

What this means is that larger wheels are heavier, and increase the strength that it is going to pull to the side because it makes it even harder for the longer shaft to get it moving.

[DJDafreund]

Ok, thanks for that. Weird thing though, i've never experienced this with my 1994 civic (about $6k worth of stuff done to it.). And also never noticed it after my jspec engine swap on same car. Would that for sure be it? Not questioning knowledge, just want to rest assure that it's mostl likely that, cause it's definitely noticable now, and never experienced even close to the same effect with my other wheels on (15's, but bigger tires of course on.)

[burke420]

man, i got a 2002 civic lx, and i deal with a car with no alignment wear, and but when you hit uneven roads, the car pulls left or right...T1R has something for the S2K, to fix this, but i rather wait till the RSX or EP3 has one and get it... it consists of 2 bars and 4 long bolts... goto www.typeoneracing.com
thats should be it...

[speedminded]

Any of you experiencing this have a LSD installed? What Jecht said too :goodjob:

[iEvo]

torque steer. try to drive an srt-4