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

Question

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

Mike Romain · Accepted Answer

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

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C. E. White · Answer

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

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

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