Torque Steer?, Car wants to veer off to the right when accelerating Options

[MyFirstCar]

Steering wheel is aligned, tires are aligned and while traveling down the road without stepping on the gas, the car is perfectly straight. But when i hit the gas, the car wants turn right. I was told by a mechanic that since it's an older vehicle, it doesn't have sensors to compensate for this thing he called torque steer. Does this sound right to anyone? This might be obvious for some people, but as my username states, this is my first car.

[x_itchy_b_x]

i doubt its torque steer. i'd think you just need an alignment?

[lagos]

Lucky for you I had this same problem right after my swap! It took me forever to figure it out because alignment and everything else on the car checked out. As soon as I would even slightly tap the gas, the wheel would jerk to one side. Turns out this was caused by a loose control arm! Get under the car and tighten them up to factory specs with a torque wrench and the problem should go away.

Tell your mechanic that an automatic 4cly motor that puts out about 100hp to the ground doesnt have enough torque to make it torque steer.

This post has been edited by lagos: Apr 5, 2008 - 1:04 AM

[MyFirstCar]

The bushings (that bolt into the frame) and hold the sway bar underneath in the rear are worn and when I drive and hit bumps the sway bars make noise (getting replaced soon). Do you think this could be contributing to the problem.

It just seems like the reasonable conclusion since it only happens when the car is given gas. And I think torque steer exists (to an extent) in any FWD car that has one drive shaft longer than the other. But if some people on this forum can post and tell me that their automatic 94 GT (original engine) doesn't torque steer, It would help a lot so I can definitely rule out torque steer as the cause.

Also, I don't even know what a loose control arm is... and when you say factory specs, how would I find those out? Because I definitely would like to check that out.

And it's not a fast jerk, it's a slower steadier turning of the steering wheel. Like I said, i'm pretty sure it's not the alignment because when no gas is used, the car drives straight. But with the slightest bit of gas it will slowly start turning right. In probably about 3 -5 seconds I would be crossing out of my line if I was going about 30 MPH. Just to give you an idea of the severity.




This post has been edited by MyFirstCar: Apr 5, 2008 - 1:45 AM

[lagos]

Go in to have your alignment checked and tell them to tighten the control arms. If they dont know what your talking about, take it to another shop.

I have a video of my car when i had the problem. ill see if i can find it.

[snapshotgt]

I don't even have torque steer with my V6, so i HIGHLY doubt you're getting it with the 5s. Check the suspention like lagos said.