Wheel jerks to the left when accelerating

[travisj]

I have a 1995 Cabrio with about 110k. I just had the muffler and one of the front wheel bearings replaced.

Everything was fine at first, but after about a week the following problem cropped up:

When I accelerate, the steering wheel moves counter clockwisee. The car continues straight forward, but "straight forward" is not reflected by a centered wheel any more but rather a wheel turned about 5 degrees ccw.

As I come off the accelerator, the wheel gradually recenters. If I hold the wheel and prevent it from rotating, the car veers to the right since it's new center is CCW from the original. If I keep my hands off the wheel, the car goes straight but the wheel turns.

What's happening? Did they make a mistake when putting the new front wheel bearing in?

Thanks a lot!

[veedubmechanic]

Its possible, if the didnt tighten the axle nut all the way on.

[red_five]

This sounds more like torque steer to me. It's pretty normal in FWD cars, since the half-shafts of the transaxle are almost never the same length. Under heavy accelleration the wheel will pull one way, then as you ease up on the gas, it'll gradually stop.

I remember reading a while back that Chrysler was trying to overcome this by extending a solid shaft straight from the longer side of the transaxle output, so that the axles were the same length. I don't know how well that worked, since I haven't really heard about it again since.