Most alignment specs factor in the road crown so that steering is neutral. The best test of whether your alignment or suspension is off is to find a straight stretch of road and in the right lane take your hands off the wheel. The car should not pull to either side. FWIW, my Clarity doesn’t pull to either side coasting , accelerating, or braking. It’s rock solid all the time.
I have not noticed any torque steer on acceleration and no problem on braking either. I have experienced noticable torque steer on other front wheel drive cars I have owned. I would check trie pressures and make wure they are the same. If that does not solve the problem I would take it to the dealer.
When I slam the acc pedal, sometimes I can hear tire make noise a little when taking off, but I'm not sure if it's torque steer or not.
Torque steering occurs during power acceleration into a turn. Very noticeable with FWD cars - my past Pilot had that same issue as well as my work van. Usually I avoid FWD cars because of this - my current cars: BMW 528 is a RWD and Land Rover is all wheel drive - neither of them exhibits any torque steering under power turns. This car is a commute car - not my fun car.
So I suppose everyone has noticed no response from the OP for over a week. This was his first and only post and it was negative. Fits the troll pattern?
Not a troll and I don't see how it was a "negative" comment. It's been a busy week, but I appreciate several of the replies with information. I actually am incredibly impressed with the Clarity and the "torgue steer" is pretty much the only driving related question I have found. It's very subtle, so I was/am curious if anyone else noticed it in their Clarity. I would really like to hear from someone who actually tried what I asked about - drive steady on a straight road, lift our the accelerator, hand off the wheel, then pull on the regenerative brake paddle four time quickly. Does the car then stay tracking straight or does it drift slightly to the left. Also, same senario, except accelerate briskly, is there a slight pull to the right. I suspect its characteristic of all Clarities and may just drop by the dealer to test drive one for comparison. Just hoping to avoid the dealership trip if someone else here could confirm or not the behavior in their Clarity. So far, none of the replies have stated actually trying to replicate the behavior as its probably not noticeable by most people in day to day driving.
My apologies about trolling. Look back at post #14 because I think that directly answers your question. At least that person experienced the same thing under the same circumstances. From that, as well as your experience, one might surmise that if others went looking specifically for torque steer under specific conditions, it might show up. Torque steer is considered a bad thing in driving dynamics and manufacturers work hard to eliminate it in design and steering/suspension tuning. From the collective posts on this thread, it looks as though it is not a general characteristic of the Clarity, so perhaps it would be good to get yours checked out at the dealer to make sure nothing is bent or amiss.
To follow up, the other day I played around at 50 mph and even flooring it and then using max regen braking I could not discern any “pull” in either direction.
