My car twists, help me.

[my3rdskyline]

Here's what happens. When driving straight my steering wheel is straight, everything is fine. gaining speed everything is fine. get to like 120 and everything is still straight. BUT, when i accelerate (boost spools in) and the car pulls to the left. I notice it the most from 40 to 80 in second gear. But it happens even in like 4th going 130. Just floor it (tach is at like 3000ish) but the boost build up and the car pulls to the left. WTF is causing this? Basicly the car drives straight when coasting but while accelerating it pulls to the left, like, A LOT! any opinions????? I don't want to die :-P

[oi_boy]

i would say a problem with your allignment, but it only happens when accelerating....check the ECU and the (if you have one) boost controller. there might be something with the electronics that makes it pull to the left.

[Moppie]

Originally Posted by oi_boy

there might be something with the electronics that makes it pull to the left.

Yip, sounds like his steeringcoagualator is stuffed. Under acclerataion it will be sending a faulty signal to the left hand steering assistor causing it to misalign the car with the moons gravimetric pull (not to be confused with its gavitonic pull). Its easily fixed, you just have to alter the earths orbit about the sun.



Actualy I can think of two possiblities.
It sounds like either Torque steer, or a wheel is chaning its toe angle.

If you a have badly worn out, or collapsed suspension busing its possible for the accleration to push one or more wheels back, which will alter its toe, and cause it to try and steer the car.
My guess is a wheel on the left hand side has a worn bushing in what ever is providing suport against toe changes. (trailing link? or lower control arm? Im not that familar with Skyline suspensions, especialy the front end). Its even possible something has snaped or come losse.
At high speed change in toe, like a steering input becomes far more pronounced, and it would explain why its worse at high speed.

I would recomend you get it looked at quick smart, if its really bad it could become fatal (to the car and you) very quickly.


If its torque steer then it can only come form one place. The diff. Which means its fucked and you've been doing to many burn outs.
Basicly if the bearings on one out put shaft begine to collapse, or get badly worn, or if a spider gear suffers a melt down power will not be efficantly and evenly distrubted to both wheels. It will instead find itself favouring one side, and will try and drive the car sideways.
However very few RWD cars do it, and normaly only at low speed.
The only car Iv ever known to do it is the MR2. Thanks to thier corrola derieved rear end (its the front end, stuck at the back) they have un-equal length drive shafts, which means one is heavier, and longer, and requires more energy to get spinning. A very (and I mean very) hard luanch will tend to twist the car to, I feel, the left, but its very slight and easily controlled (but a great way to get a slide going out of a side street or driveway, not that I would ever do that of course).
I would think the skyline would be to long in its wheel base to suffer from such a problem, and a diff that badly worn would be giving off other warning signs, not to mention have blown before you got home to post this (Iv had a diff blow and almost lock one wheel, the car pulled pretty hard to one side then).

[my3rdskyline]

thanks for the responses. the car is going in the shop on the 27th to get looked at, I hope i don't die in the mean time. Let me revisit this problem and restate the issue. After testing it out over and over again i realize that what I wrote in the first post was not accurate. THIS is what happens.
on a perfectly straight road:
coast: steering wheel is straight. car drives straight.
light acceleration: steering wheel turns to the left about 10 degrees. car drives straight.
high acceleration: steering wheel turns to the left almost 1/4 turn. car drives straight.

I did this on an open road, just touching the steering wheel with one finger. the wheel turns then when i shift it straightens out, then build up revs again... and it turns then shift and it straightens out. SO what i gather from this:
it's probably not alignment because the car drives straight at all times.
BTW, when the wheel "turns" it does not affect the steering of the car. It's seems as though the "centered" position of the steering wheel is off center. It does not restrict my steering at all. (while accelerating i can go around a right bend and my steering wheel is "straight")

and the amount the steering wheel is off center is directly relational to the engine RPM.

[Moppie]

Huh?

I would give Stephen King a call, and ask if Carie had any Japanese Relatives.



I wonder if it has something to do with the proportianly assist on the power steering?
But I would have thought the steering wheel still had a DIRECT link to the steering rack, meaning any movement in either would produce proportional movement in the other.