I broke down and replaced my weather checked tires with some nice looking michelin raptor zr's. I just had it aligned last week. That's when I was told I needed new tires. Anyway, my steering wheel is canted slightly to the left, and I feel a slight pull to the right. I need some info ammo if I go back to Belle tire and complain.

 

take it back , get all re-checked , get a print-out of alignment specs. . good luck .

 

I just want to take some tech info to Belle tire so they don't try to bs me into not accepting the blame as they should.

 

That's actually fairly common. Usually they try to sell tires at the same time as the alignment so they can be replaced first to prevent this. With my old DD, it would track perfectly with the all seasons but when I installed the winters it pulled to the right. Exact same wheels and tire size.

Complain tho. Most places will redo the allignment for free if there is an issue in that short amount of time.

 

Well, I would have had the alignment after the tire swap, but I was figuring on using the old tires at that time. The shop that did the alignment was not Belle tire. I wanted to rule out the possibility that Belle screwed something up while my car was on the hoist.

 

cant imagine what they could have messed up by changing tires? Are they that shady of a operation that you think they may have damaged something? my guess is the old tires were not worn evenly (fancy that)and you need your alignment checked/corrected

 

If your pulling then camber is off (too positive on the right side or too negative on the left side for a right hand pull). If your steering wheel is off center that means toe is off. So in your case both angles are out of spec. It can be a bitch aligning such an old car, the shop may only be able to get it so far if any components are broken, bent, worn out, missing, damaged etc.

 

The alignment before the tires went well. No pulling, no canted wheel, and my front end is in good shape. The tires are directional and are 245's. The old ones were 235's.

 

Shady? Well, I've been screwed by less shady. I have also had shops screw up jobs, and tried to cover it up. For this very reason, I started this post.

 

thats fine, i just cant imagine what they could have messed up by pulling the tires off.

have you visually checked to see if anything seems out of place or bent?

im 99.99999% positive its an alignment issues simply caused by the new tires, especially since you had the car recently aligned with bad tires, im sure with new tires, the specs will be different

 

I am trying to rule out the possibility of the car being hoisted wrong, or something other than just pulling the tires off. I thought the alignment was done with the wheels, not the tires. I don't exactly know yet, (another reason for the thread). I don't wanna go back to the tire store all jacked up like I felt when I drove home, and blow my cool if it wasn't any fault of theirs (done that before too), so your info is good. It's what I'm after.

 

the tires are on the wheels, and if one is worn more than the other, and has a larger/small diameter, the difference will result is a change in alignment. thats why normally, when you get new tires, you have the car aligned afterward, or at least checked.

all in all, the car should be realigned after new tires, so that needs to be done. if afterward thers is still a issue of the car pulling, then its time to talk to the tire place. but thats unlikely.

only way i can see that they could have damaged something is if they jacked up the car by the centerlink or part of the steering linkage, and they would have to be real idiots to do that. should be pretty easy to tell, just take a look and see if parts are bent

 

At this point I will go back to the alignment shop, and I'm guessing they will wanna do the alignment again. I now will understand if they recommend it.

 

For the sake of following up on this thread, I took my RS back to the alignment shop and they re tweaked the alignment. They did what the tire store couldn't seem to do. The steering wheel is staight, and the car doesn't pull to either side. Since I had the alignment done better than a week ago, they didn't charge me. I had it up to 95 briefly and it felt like a glider, but it's a high cop area, so I backed off. I'm in hog heaven.

 

glad to hear everything is better now. And it was great of the alignment place to not charge you. I would put them on the list of 'keepers'

good thing you didnt go back to the tire store and raise hell

 

Anytime dealing with brakes & tires, ita best off to take it to a reputable shop, unless you have mechanic or know someone who knows what they are doing?