Why do I need a wheel alignment after each tire rotation?

Dear Experts,

I have a 97 V6 Camry with 135K miles on it.

I just had four new tires put on in February and a wheel alignment then too. At 125K approx.

About a month ago, I went in for the free tire rotation. And then the steering wheel was pulling to one side again.

I've had a lot of problems with the alignment on the Camry.

It's not like my old Ford. The Ford I had aligned, and it stayed aligned for years. I changed tires. No alignment required.

But the Camry, it always seems to be going out of alignment.

I had the tires rotated last fall, and again, it then required an alignment. That's why I bought new tires.

What do you think? When they do the free tire rotation, do the mechanics take a mallet and bash the alignment out, so that you then have to get a pricy aligment?

Could this be an indication of some other mechanical problem?

Thanks

Reply to
condor_222
Loading thread data ...

You either have bad tires or a bad mechanic.

Rotating the tires has no bearing on wheel alignment otherwise.

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

c>

Reply to
Mike Romain

I agree rotating the tires doesn't change the alignment (or at least it shouldn't). However, I have had cars in the past (1986 Sable for one, Mazda

626 for another) that when you rotated the tires, the car would immediately develop a pull. And it didn't seem to matter whether you cross rotated or did a straight front / rear swap. As long as you didn't rotate the tires, the car did not developed a pull. After the second set of new tires (came with Generals, I bought two different types of Michelins before I figured out my problem), I just quit rotating the tires on that car. The rear tires would last about 50% longer than the front tires, so I just started buying front tires more often than rears. There was never any obvious strange wear pattern on the front or rear tires. And, interestingly, once the pull developed for a set of tires, I couldn't fix it by rotating the tires back to the original position. I could change the direction by swapping tires from side to side, so I am sure it was the tires, just not sure what was going on.

Ed

Reply to
C. E. White

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.