Subie pulling to the right after tire rotation

Hi all,

98 Legacy L, AT, AWD stock rims and stock tire size....

Had my tires rotated (about the 4th rotation on these tires [25K on them]) and noticed now the car pulls to the right. The pull is more than what one would expect driving on the right side of the road when the road has a crown in it. Also driving on the left side of the road where the crown would aid a pull to the left, the car still pulls to the right. Nothing additional when applying the brakes. I did notice that the passenger front (post rotation) was about 4 lbs over inflated compared to the driver's side front (post rotation). I have all 4 tires at 33 lbs. After I fixed this overinflation the pull did not get better/worse - remained the same. Tonight I pulled the fronts to look at wear and they both look the same.

So what the heck happened? Is it possible that the rear is jacked? I'm at a loss.

Oh - I'm the original owner from day one and she has 125K on her. Never had an alignment or anything done to mod the stock parts.

I'm hoping you guys have some constructive suggestions? :)

TIA,

Djay

Reply to
djay
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when applying the brakes.

4

better/worse - remained the same.

If it definitely wasn't happening prior to the rotate, then I'd take it back to the shop asap. Cheers

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Reply to
hippo

Had similar experience as yours after a rotation. Took it back to the shop and they found that the balance weight had fallen off the tire when they rotated it. New balance weight and all was fine.

Reply to
Ragnar

Out of alignment. Who know what they did during the rotation.

Out-of-round-tire. What would've been pulling to the left (but masked by the crown in the road while driving on the right is now evident when the tire now pulls the other way since it got rotated 180 degrees.

Brake pad riding [too much] on rotor.

Have them rotate back to see if the problem goes away, remains pulling to the right, or switches to a left pull.

Reply to
VanguardLH

I'm assuming you are talking about a drift to the right, rather than a severe pull in the steering; ie. you let go of the wheel and it wants to go to the lock.

I'm not sure why this happens, but I suspect it is related to tire diameter differences left to right. A lot may just be that the _feel_ of the car has changed from what you have become used to. Anyway, it's not uncommon. Try putting the wheels back where they were and see if the drift goes away or reduces. You can also try swapping the fronts left to right to see if that changes anything. I'd try this before worrying about a mechanical issue.

Other than finding a happy spot for the tires and leaving them there, or popping for a new set, there isn't a cure for this AFAIK. If the drift isn't severe, just learn to live with it; after a couple tanks of gas you probably won't even notice it anymore.

The only other solution I can offer is very frequent rotations; say every 2-3K miles or so. This would tend to even out the wear to the point where all four tires stayed at a very similar diameter. But what a pain.

With 25K on a set of tires, it wouldn't take too much additional justification for me to go shopping for some new ones. Spring time's coming, and think how much fun you'll have on a fresh set of grippies :-)

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Reply to
S

You are correct - just a drift to the right. I plan on taking it back to the Tire Shop and have them take a look. This is the first time I've ever experienced this and it's an unusual blip in my experience. Thanks for the input/opinion!

Also - as a coincidence - I ran a Comm Lab for the Air Force for 5 years. We'd test/eval new comm and reco integration into the baseline. FUN times!

DJay

Reply to
djay

Had a 97 Avalon that would do this every other tire rotation at the dealer, who would rotate R to L, and F to R. After realizing what was going on, we had the dealer only rotate F to R, no more side to side.

Never had that pull problem again on that set of tires.

Reply to
Bob H

That is fun stuff.

I also take care of our Electromagnetics Lab. We have a nice big anechoic meter chamber, a good selection of Emco/HP reference antennas and such, and recently, some newer Agilent tools for work to 50GHz. I'm not really an EM person, per se, but I _am_ a ham. Doesn't matter how little you know about any given subject, if you know more than the guy next to you, you're the expert don't cha know.

I had no real problem getting the department to spend $200K for new instrumentation, but it's been an uphill struggle freeing up $5K for a set of Gore test cables! And I haven't even broached the subject of a

2.4mm cal kit for the network analyzer . . . Sigh. Pretty typical University, alas.

In fact, that's what I _should_ be doing now; screening cable assemblies. I can't seem to convince our graduate students how important this is: a wire's a wire, right? Right. Be nice to find at least one good pair (for my desk drawer ;-), but out of the dozen or so I picked thru yesterday, the best I could find were marginal. And they were semi-ridgid assemblies which no one will use anyway.

Speaking of the Air Force, we've done a fair bit of work in collaboration with our neighbors at the Air Force Academy over the years, and have produced several PhD's for them. I hear that they've recently installed a fancy new facility, tho; probably the tide will go the other way, now.

Anyway, good luck with the steering thing. Again, unless you've wacked a curb or something, it's unlikely to be an alignment or other mechanical issue. The Soobies just seem to be sensitive.

Write back; we'll swap stories.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB Laboratory Manager Microelectronics Research University of Colorado (719) 262-3101

Reply to
S

Budget is always the kicker. It takes away from the fun stuff on the floor - but it's a necessary evil to ensure that next year's projects would at least be an honorable mention on the bean counter's cutting room floor! Ha Ha!

I used to carry 5 or 6 unfunded requirements in my back pocket in case EOY funds "suddenly" became available. That "phenomena" happened on more than one occasion.

I'm a baseband guy myself - but I hear you loud and clear regarding equipment and cables! I dabbled in RF for 5 years overseas. Installed and "initiated" several earth terminals in Ku, C, and S bands. Geostationary is pretty boring stuff though... fun times were troubleshooting at 3 a.m. and finding/curing the gremlins.

In my current J-O-B I'm putting together COTS solutions for new commercial sites that have had their comm sponsored by the Govt. Mostly router/switches/VoIP at a T1 rate and then the fun ones of up to OC-192. Those are the occasional blip on the normally arduous toils.

My cable story revolves around security. Some hotshot wants to use STP and that's not a big deal if the shield is carried from the switch to the wall plate. I was showing him "factory made" STP patch cables and how they basically were useless because the manufacturer didn't terminate the ends correctly. I also got him "thinking" when I said that for the shield to work properly one must buy a different patch panel etc. I weep for the government at times!

So I hear you regarding a good set of Gore RF cables and an awesome spectrum analyzer my friend!

DJay

Reply to
djay

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