Wheel alignment

2001 Outback wagon.

Pulls slightly to the right. Do I just need a front-wheel alignment? Are the rear wheels on this vehicle adjustable in alignment also?

What is the going rate for wheel alignment? The tires are fairly new.

Thanks,

earle

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Reply to
Earle Jones
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Check your air pressure before buying an alignment.

Barry

Reply to
Bonehenge

Check air pressure, though alignment can cure many woes. Usually a camber adjustment will cure pulling problems. 4wheel alignment in western Canada - $70.00 + tax. I do it every 12-18 months at a time when I am having winter/summer tires swapped.

Reply to
H
2001 Outback wagon.

Yes they are. I believe you should only do four wheel alignment on AWD Subies.

$55AUD - but I suspect that's not much use to you! Check tyre pressures when cold only and suggest you run higher than the tyre card. My 2000 OB is 36psi all round and seems to benefit from it. How new is fairly new? Prob good to rotate front to rear (same side only) every 5-10K miles or

8-15K Kms. IMO - alignment with new set of tyres can be good insurance. Cheers
Reply to
hippo

I paid $159.99 at a Firestone Service Center, for a four-wheel alignment with lifetime check and realignments.

I had this on my last car ($139.99 then) and I brought it back maybe four or five times. They only pointed out stuff that needed to be serviced once, but never pressured me to have it done there. The one thing was when my tires were on the treadwear indicator bars.

Reply to
y_p_w

Earle, sets of radials can pull one way or the other occasionally because of a mismatch in some particular cord parameter between the left front and right front. If you swap the fronts left to right and the problem switches sides, then it's a tire issue.

The first tire distributor that develops a method for matching tires in a way that effectively deals with this problem will be at the forefront of a new revolution. Until then, we'll all just pretend this phenomenon doesn't exist.

I've had more than one set of tires suffer from this anomaly, but because I was fortunate to have a knowledgable tire person explain this to me once, I no longer wonder why. I only wonder why nothing is done to address it.

Reply to
Danny Russell

  • Many thanks to all of you who responded. After checking my tire pressures, I took the car to a Firestone wheel shop in Redwood City, CA. They use the 'Hunter' computerized wheel alignment system.

Sure enough, my front wheels were out of alignment, but by only a little bit. The toe-in was out of specs for both the front and rear wheels.

Total cost was US$70.

Thanks again,

earle

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Reply to
Earle Jones

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