hey guys,

I just changed new tires and now my car pull to the right. Before the tires change, my car drive pretty straight. I went for alignment, and my toe is in spec, caster is fine, only camber is off, but it been off since who know when. I rotated the tires from front to back and it still pull to the right. Any other way to can try to do to see if it the tires is defective or it something wrong with my car? I haven't check for the brake to see if it dragging one side or not yet, since before the tires change, the car does not pull to one side.

Thanks all

 

The crown on some roads is greater than others and will cause the car to steer to the right. Did you change tire model or brand? Some brands/models are more susceptible to road imperfections than others. Tram lining can occur from switching to a different tire.

 

Yes, I change from Toyo tires to Federal ss595 tires. I do notice that when they balanced my tires, they only place the weigh on the inside edge of the wheel, not the outta edge. From all my previous balanced on the Toyo tires, other shop placed the weigh both inner and outter edge of the wheels. I don't know if they did got it to balance correctly, or does it even matter. I do notice when I drive at high speed, the steering wheel does not shake as much comparing to the old tires, and less quiet (beside from being new tires). Out of balance tires should be shaking while driving is that right?

 

That may be it. Check to see if the car still pulls on a fairly flat and smooth surface. Take a spin in a newer parking lot..
Do you feel any vibrations while driving? If not it is most likely fine. A wheel imbalance will not cause a pull, it will cause noise, vibrations or rattle your teeth out, but not a pull.

 

I drove on flat surface street and the pulling to the right is pretty quick. No noise or vibration while driving.

 

Check your tire pressure. One may be more than the other which may cause that pull.

 

All good suggestions. Remember also that all cars by design pull to the right (in US). This is to minimize head on collisions if the driver fails to control vehicle.

 

Huh. Interesting.

 

Not True!






How off is the camber? Also did they check the caster? Camber being out on one side can, will cause a pull. also look for and bent parts, bad/loose balljoints, tie rods. If it were a bad tire it would vibrate... look to see if the tires are rotatiole.

 

I'm afraid I'm a little skeptical. Where did you learn this?

 

Tires pressure are 35 psi around all 4 tires, maybe off by one or two. Caster is within range, camber is off on the left is negative 1.3, on the right is negative 2.3. Ball joints, tie rod is new and they seem fine.
I switched tires from left to right, the car then pull to the left instead.

 

^^ Yeah, that shouldn't cause the car to turn to the right that much then.

 

mabye wheels were balanced incorrectly? or damaged rims when installing or removing tire?

 

Maybe you are thinking of headlights.

From the factory the cars are setup to drive straight and true. What some alignment shops adjust caster so on crowned roads grandmas car will track straight with little to no input, rather than veer to the right. On a flat surface that setup would cause the car to pull to the left.

dtran002 are all four wheels on your car the same size with the same offset? I'm wondering if you have different sized wheels or offset from front to rear, and a front and rear wheel got mixed up on one side. Or the fronts are on the leftside and the rears are on the right side.
I do not know if your wheels are stock or not.

The other thing is to check that they actually did put the correct size tires on the rims, and that the tread pattern is facing the correct way(directional).

If that checks out, try swapping the wheels back to front.

 

Is the shop in question giving you an alignment print out? I have found so many shops that can't align crap over the years.

 

I am just relaying what I have heard from certain mechanics in the past. If this is found to be truly untrue, I stand corrected. Not trying to spread bs around here.

 

A tire wear indicator will come in handy if you want to measure tire wear. We used them at the salvage yard to determine which tires we were trashing and which we were keeping. Check the tread depth all across the tire (you can just use a penny or something if you don't have one of these). I had some lopsided ones once that I bought new. It sucked.

 

The wheel are installed correctly, at least from what I see. I did tried putting the tires from left to right and the pull would switch to the left instead. I probably have a radial pull tire, but I have to wait for a new set of tires and send back the old one and have them check to see if it defective or not. =(

The shop did not give me the alignment print out. Instead they pull me in and show me the graph and told me there isn't much to do since my toe are within range. The only thing bad is the camber.

(Oh about the factory car setup pulling slightly to the right, I read that article somewhere and found the same information as well. Kinda weird to found that information lol)

 

What I learn from suspension class is that a brand new tire can still be a defect tire. Why? The wire on the side wall had separated causing the tire to pull to one side, but you said that you rotated the tires though and the car still pulls to the right, so that got me thinking that it has to be an alignment issue. Otherwise, if it was a defect tire, it would've gone away already when you rotated the tires.

What if that tech that aligned your car didn't do a good job? I know some techs are lazy and just do what they can to get your car out of the shop and move onto other things. I've seen it done many times.

 

So I'm not spreading BS!

 

On modern paved roads there is a crown in the road to prevent water from stagnating, for drainage purposes. Some have more of a crown than others.
The pulling to the right is simply from the effect of the crown. If anything the alignment setup for a street car would be to pull to the left to counteract the crown.

Did they do the alignment with you in the car? The alignment will slightly change when you sit in it due to the added weight.

 

MAD MIKE: No, i didn't sit in the car while they do the alignment. The tech brought me in and told me there isn't much to do since the toe is within the range and no point of adjusting anything.

I talked to the retail store and they said that they have to wait until the next shipment of order to get the tires. I have to figure out which tire is defective, send it in and wait for them to test to see if it really defect or not. But I look at the chart to determine if the tires are defective or not, I got lost lol.

Maybe you guys can help me on this. This is what I've done so far:

1. Originally, the car would pulled to the right. So I switched front tires from left to right. After that, the pull would switch the the left. (Meaning the right front tire is the defective one?)
2. After that, I rotate the tires from front to back, within the correct tires rotation direction. The car also pulled to the right. Again, I switched front tires from left to right. The car then pulled to the left instead.
So is this mean I got two defective tires?

There are couple more steps to test out, but I got confused so I stopped.

 

i find it really hard to beleive that a tire is defective..

i have a much easier time believing that the tire was mounted improperly to the rim. Over or under inflation on one side can cause a slight pull, but not much. if the tire never sealed to the rim on the mounting machine it can cause a LOT of pulling, to the point where the tire would just blow out. but that would be quite noticeable if you just looked at the tire.

 

Is the chart that you have available online?
I have a sneaky suspicion the offsets on the wheels are different. If the wheels are aftermarket, and wider than stock the offset/backspacing may be different back to front. Can you measure the backspacing? What wheels do you have?

 

Sounds like a separated inside wall wires to me; defective. You can have the mechanic break the beads off the rim, spin the tire so it's not in the same location as it was before and and re-seat the bead and go from there after getting it re-balanced to see if it'll still pull to whatever side you had it on like mentioned above. Otherwise, I said it's a defective tire.