Car pulling under acceleration
 

About 2 or so months ago I installed BC racing coilovers, rear LCA's new wheels (Enkie rpf1's 17x9 +35) and tyres (Bridgestone re003) all at the same time. Ever since the install I've had a constant problem where the car has been pulling left under acceleration, to the point where I can change lanes just by accelerating. Yet tracks perfectly straight just cruising. Had the suspension aligned and checked twice by one of the better shops around so I've sort of ruled that out for now. About a week ago I swapped the rear wheels around and it starting pulling to the right rather than the left. Pressures were all equal, wheels are of the same offset, But the direction of pull changes just by swapping the rear wheels around. Bare in mind, only under acceleration. Took it back to the joint where I had the tyres installed hoping there would be a fault with one of the tyres but they said the tyres were fine. As a last attempt I swapped the front and rear wheels around hoping it would fix it but it is now pulling to the left again. Has anybody experienced anything like this before? Tempted to just buy new tyres, but I don't feel like throwing $1300 worth of tyres away. Any advice form someone more mechanically minded than myself would be much appreciated. Cheers in advance

Are the tires directional?

Are they the same brand and size tire on both sides, do they have the same amount of tread, and are they directional?

EDIT: DJ beat me to the directional part, lol.

Let's get even more basic. Do they all have the same air pressure?

Someone didn't read the OP carefully :P

I suggest getting a second opinion on alignment. The first shop's rack/equipment may be out of whack.

They don't appear to be directional. At least it's not mentioned on the tyre nor Bridgestones website. The tread faces in the opposite direction on each side of the car but there's no way to correct it.

Same brand and same size, have worn evenly. Have less than 2000km on them.

If the tread is directional, the tire is directional.

If they tread faces opposite ways, that's your problem. Whoever mounted them, mounted them wrong.

Check all 4 corners, you may be lucky and you have them swapped on opposite corners. Otherwise, if not, the only solution to that is to pull the tire off the rim and remount it.

There will be a tiny arrow indicating direction of rotation , but it may be on the inboard side if the tire is backwards.

Oh I read it but the majority of the time when a car pulls it is simple wrong pressure in one tire. Worth a second check.

Not an issue now that it has been determined one side has the tires on backwards! If the tire place can miss that then I would not be going back.

There's a couple things that look to me are likely culprits. If tires aren't mounted properly, they can be ruined. There's a special goop they use on the bead to lube it up when they mount the tire to the rim. If they use the wrong goop or none at all, the tire can be damaged internally and show nothing outside. The fact that the pull moves with the wheel tells me that this issue is tire or rim related.

You might have a bad rim or one that can only be road force balanced. Find a shop to have the wheels road force balanced and inspected carefully (with the tires not mounted to them so they can look at the inside of the rims). Have them dismount the tires and remount them- all of them, don't be cheap. If the tires were incorrectly mounted, it may be reversible. You could have gotten a bad tire too and you'll just have to try to get your money back on it.

If it was alignment, the problem would persist no matter what position the tires are at. Like others have said though, if the tires are directional, if one is mounted in the wrong direction that might be the problem. Running a few hundred miles on a directional tire mounted backwards can also ruin that tire.

Two winters ago, I was stuck in heavy traffic with my BRZ and noticed that when I accelerated the car pulled right, and when I coasted the car pulled left. Pulled over to check my tires, and discovered that my left rear was COMPLETELY flat. Somehow managed to embed a MASSIVE nail in it while driving at 4 MPH :mad0260:

I agree with OP. I don't think these are unidirectional tires. I can find no mention of rotation requirements.

I have read in multiple reliable places that running a tire in the wrong direction, will NOT damage it. That was only true of the very earliest radials

Soapy water is pretty special. I'm just being sarcastic.

On a related note, OP, RE003's are directional.

Pic reference. It has an inside and an outside tread block.

They will have to be re mounted correctly.

Cheers.

There is directionality with respect to the rim, and there is directionality with respect to rotation.

This tire does not care which direction it rotates.

I've seen directional tires mounted backwards and it causes feathering of the tread blocks. When turned around and mounted the right way, the tire has a vibration and chops real bad which causes further damage. It depends on how aggressive the tread pattern is, but the damage can happen quickly.

They're all mounted the right way. It has inside written in huge letters on the inside so it's impossible to miss. The tyres seem to be asymmetrical which means the outer tread faces in different directions on either side of the car. In order for a tyre to be directional doesn't the tread have to be symmetrical like the Advan ad08r's?

I shall take the car to a place near me and get them to inspect the rim and tyre properly. Shall report back with news if it's worth reporting :)

On the inside of the tyres it has INSIDE written in massive bold letters. Impossible to miss. Can't change them around. They're asymmetrical. Tyres have to be symmetrical in order to have a certain rotation as far as i'm aware?

I googled those tires and saw some pics. I didn't see if they are directional but they have an inside and an outside like @Midjetv8 says

I will confirm that our RE003 and the new NA market Firehawk Indy 500 (sharing a tread pattern) are Assymetrical and non-directional. as long as the larger treadblocks (denoted by an outside and inside label) are on the correct side, they are mounted correctly and can be rotated to any position on the vehicle. directional tread is symmetrical wrt the centerline of the tire.

Besides tire pressures, I am not sure what else with regards to the tire could cause your pulling issue. I would try looking into the alignment again :iono:

i always come into these threads hoping the OP is stock but that is never the case around here

Because people with problems with stock ones just quietly take them in and have them fixed under warranty.

This is good advice, possibly save yourself a headache and more money by trying another shop. Iv'e been down this road before only to find out that a different shop has found the alignment to be WAY off.

I googled those tires and saw some pics. I didn't see if they are directional but they have an inside and an outside like @Midjetv8 says

Yes. Thanks for clarifying.

I just though he may have had some inside sides on the outside.

I suppose not. Back to square 1.

Ya I thought we had it. At this point I think he needs to look elsewhere other than just focusing on tires. Could have a bad damper, improperly seated spring or any of a 100 other things with the modded suspension. We all got so wrapped up in the tires that we are totally overlooking many other possibilities.

There are 2 possibilities. 1) OP is wrong and the pull didn't change sides 2) The OP is right and the pull did change sides therefore the suspension can't be the problem.

Unless when the wheels were swapped around they swapped the dampers too.

Ahhhh I missed that line!


Shit, back to square one AGAIN.

Not necessarily. We've clarified but the condition has yet to be verified.

I did as well. Thanks, guybo. If the direction of the pull follows a particular wheel, that's a strong indication of tyre mismatch.

OP, are all four of your tires mounted properly on their wheels? Are you absolutely certain they are all the same size?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
edit: ok, a lot happened since my last visit. Meh, I summarized.

All the dimensions and sized printed on the tyres is the same. Have it booked into a different tyre shop to get them to uninstall, check everything and reinstall the tyres. Shall report back if I have any luck! If not i'll live with it until I wear through them.

Just an FYI even if the tires are directional and you mount it the wrong way, it won't make a difference performance wise in dry conditions. It only starts to get hairy when you get into wet/slippery conditions with directional tires being mounted the wrong way.

Yeah in autocross, I'm told people run their RE71Rs backwards on dry days to even out the wear. No idea if it's okay to do, but I suppose that's a different circumstance than putting tens-of-thousands of miles on a DD tire.

Just a quick update, problem has been fixed. Swapping the front right and the rear left corrected the pull. Car feels mint now. Bridgestone tech couldn't give me an explanation as to why. But it works so it's all good!

Won't this be a problem again when you rotate your tires?

I'll tackle that hurdle once I get there. I'm just going to enjoy the car for a bit first.

My guess is that even though the tires may not be directional they all still need to be mounted with the tread in the same direction. Swapping two opposite tires would have reversed the direction on both and now they match the others. There is nothing else it could have been.