Since the tire would have a not normal wear pattern, that would indicate that it needed alignment. But this may not be the case with the OP’s vehicle. I believe the most likely problem is that the front tires are a different circumference right now.
I believe that I defined when “it’s needed”. Unusual tire wear patterns or faster tire wear than expected and unusual handling and difficulty holding the line on the road.
As for new vehicles, I have only bought one new car that didn’t need an alignment. All the others needed an alignment, but I discovered that by closely watching the tire wear patterns. In several cases, I had to take the vehicle back several times to get it right and in one case, I had to break down and go to a highly respected front end mechanic and pay to get it right. In all cases, once done, the alignments would last for many years, often the rest of the life of the vehicle.
My wife is an easy target for “extra services”. Both times that I let her buy the tires, she got an alignment when threatened by the salesman that not doing so could void the warrantee. In both cases, the tire shop made the alignment bad, the tires began to wear badly and I had to get it done right later.
Giving advice to family members will always put you in the doghouse, even when they ask for it. I could tell you stories.
your old tire (moved from driver rear side now to front passenger) may be cupped, or worn unevenly due to under/over inflation orfrom being out of alignment prior while it was being used in the rear and has conformed into a set pattern that when you now have reversed the tire (now rotating backwards from before)it can be pulling your car to the direction of the wear pattern. Alignment should be done when new tires are added to the car to make sure car is in alignment and thus proper wear on the new tires can occur. But as your vehicle now has both old tires (worn) on your front wheeled vehicle I suspect it was the old tire you had moved.
better gas mileage for one, ever tried to physically move a shopping card that had a bent/stuck wheel? takes more force to push the cart, same thing with bad tires and being out of alignment, you not only pull on the steering wheel to keep it straight on the road, but your car workes harder dragging itself. Also- another way to see if a car is out of alignment, if your behind another vehicle and that vehicle looks like it is driving sideways down the road- is out of alignment, most people are unaware of this when driving on looking at cars ahead of themselves… have a friend/relative follow you on the highway to have verified. And alignments promote even wear ability on your tire thus getting the full use of its life expectancy.
First off I didn’t say that I had knowledge of every facet of design- I said I have to learn about it
spending hundreds of hours learning about every facet of automobile design and diagnosis
Spending is past tense. It means you’ve done it.
So you attacked me for my response to the OP. I stand by it. It is not always necessary to have an alignment after every tire change. Most people will benefit from it. Mainly because they do not attend to routine maintenance like tire pressure and rotation. I don’t subscribe to the rotation schedule. I leave my tires in the same position for their entire life and I get at least the normal wear out of them. I believe it is worse to do rotations inconsistently than to never do one. If you start, then you must do them a the recommended interval. I pointed out where this may be the cause of the OPs problem.
I refuse to let those tire shops touch my car. I don’t trust them to even torque down my wheels. I said I have never had a PROFESSIONAL alignment in my entire life of driving cars. It doesn’t mean I haven’t done them myself and I pointed out that I have done so. It also does not mean I don’t know what to look for to determine that there is a problem. You have no idea who I am, what my background is or the extent of my capabilities to work on vehicles. But in your infinite car wisdom, you know better so…
Agree with OK that many cars come from the factory with wheels out of alignment. My Dodge some years back even had the “factory pre-service” since I bought it from a friend-dealer farther away than the factory. This car had 13 defects, including front wheels badly out of alignment. I noticed this after 5000 miles, when the front tires showed uneven wear. A nearby dealer correctred all 13 items under warranty.
The lessen learned here is that you should keep an eaye on your tires when buying a new car. Depending on your driving style, you should perhaps have the front wheel alignment checked every 2 years or so together with a detailed front end inspection.
I get about 70,000 miles out of a set of tires with proper rotation and balance. At that mileage, there is not enough tread left for driving with confidence in all sorts of weather, although the tires are still safe.
I hate the “It worked right before you touched it” senerio, but it’s true. I had *-Mart replace all 4 tires on my wife’s mini-van and then 2 weeks later the right rear tire was shaking so bad you’d think the wheel was going to come off. Thier answer was bad struts. Totally worn out tires with no vibration, but new tires and they are wearing badly because of my struts? No. I opted for a second and third opinion and then went back and finally made a deal with the *-Mart manager to replace the rear tire to prove me wrong. 3 weeks later the right front started hopping around. The tires were going out of round. He reluctantly replaced the one tire.
After having replaced the tire the same problem came back. “My car” had messed up another tire and convinced the manager that I was nuts and a nusance, but again I didn’t buy it and went some place else and had the tire checked out. This time it was the weigh on 180 degrees off! I ended up getting all 4 tires replaced and everything was fine. I had gotten a defective set, the cords were seperating. New struts would not have fixed the problem.
My point is that you need to start at a point of reference, being as you stated “it wasn’t pulling before”, then look at the changes.
I’d start with comparing the new tires to the old (yes, I know all of this has been covered in previous posts). Are the new ones taller? If they are that could be the reason your pulling. The reason a new tire is taller can be one of many, such as different tire size, tread depth (the old tires are worn down but still have usable tread, this is esp. true with off-road truck tires) or simply different air pressures (here’s where a good tire gauge comes in)!
If the above sugesstion does not fix it then I’d look at matched sets (front vs. rear) do you have the 2 new ones on the front and the 2 used ones on the rear? or visa-versa…
Then I’d look at un-even wear across the tread. It could be that because you needed an alignment your old tires wore to the mis-alignment and now that you have new tires the new tread is fighting the road. In this case you’d need to check the alignment by paying for one and getting the needed adjustments made. I always ask for the before and after settings so I can know how far off my vehicle is from where is should be.
Wishing you the best!
-Cory
have shop check the rims. They may be bent!
Off the original subject: ‘spending’ is a gerund and is present tense in this use. I can’t avoid grammar errors.
‘spending’ is a gerund and is present tense in this use
What?!? When you specify elapsed time in years and hundreds of hours, it is no longer present tense. It is something that has already occured.
I had a similar experience as Cory. A few years ago I bought 4 new Marshall tires (made in Korea) for my Caprice. They all started to become unbalanced as they wore in. The problem was an inconsistency in the rubber density; they wore quicker at some point on the circumference than at other points, causing the tires to become OVAL in shape. Several free balancing efforts by the shop did not correct the problem. By the time they were really bad, the effectively useful warranty had run out. I ended up throwing them away and buying Michelins.
I believe Walmart still sells Marshall tires, as do some tire chains. I would stay away from cheap tires for that reason; they may be safe and wear a good distance, but out of balance situations will drive you crazy.