drjazzsk

I appologize for the noobie question but I just changed my front tires for the first time and put on 245/40's. Now the car seems to pull to the left most of the time, but not all of the time. I have replaced the back tires several times and gone up in size with no need for alignment. Does it make sense that my aligment would now be off after new tires are put on when they were perfect before? I suspect I just need to get an aligment done but is it possible there could be a different issue?

Also, I found this posted as the alignment specs from another thread, is this correct?:

FRONT (PER SIDE):
Camber: -1 to -1.8
Toe: .08 to .25

REAR (PER SIDE):
Camber: -.9 to -.1.9
Toe: .28 to .52

drjazzsk

anybody?

GHAZAN

yes

Chocofishez

You shouldn't need a new alignment for this.

Are your tire pressures the same front to left?

drjazzsk

I'll re-check them again, but they were correct after the tires were put on. Hope they are now different and that solves it. Thanks for the suggestion. Any other thougts?

splinter

Not sure where you’re driving, though MB’s substantial (e.g., ~10°) caster tends to exacerbate pull on crowned roads.
Dialing in an additional .5° on the side it’s veering toward will help mitigate its effect. Of course subtracting a like amount from the other side will likely minimize it, too.

Front and rear side-to-side camber and toe variations are another variable to be considered.

Have you verified your chassis’ ‘thrust’ angles?

drjazzsk

Thanks for the info. I havent taken it in yet to get the alignment checked. I was just trying to make sense of why my aligment would be an issue now with new tires. If it was good before and I figured it would have been good afterwards. Is it possible to be a bad tire? I mostly drive highways.

kent426

Wow, the toe in on the rear is insane. No one wonder the car spits out tires, its from scrubbing.

drjazzsk

As a follow up, the tire pressures were the same. I took it back to the tire shop and they replaced the tire on the side it was pulling on and that solved the problem. I think this a phenomenon called radial pull. Thanks all!

Mort

Good to hear you got it fixed. Radial pull was my guess as well, sorry I did not mention it as I was not sure. After I lowered my car on H&R springs I got bad pulling to the right that turned out to be radial pull due to increased camber. When an alignment did not cure it we swapped the front tires (Conti 5P) left to right and that cured the problem.

Yuille36

Keep in mind, different brand tires will ride differently. And in some cases even the same brand tires. In your case your car may or may not need an alignment. But it can never hurt to have one. Tire pressures are important, as the car will pull left or right depending on which front tire has less air. Try driving on different roads, and some roads have more crest and camber for rain run off

JimmyR

You should take your hat off to the tire shop for their goodwill on this one. Plenty of places would blame everything but the tire and have you doing the runaround getting alignment checked, making sure it is not a seizing caliper etc, UNTIL the tire was shot to pieces..... oh sorry sir if you had come to us first we might have been able to sort something out....

drjazzsk

Thanks to all for you input/advice. Yes the tire shop was generous about the issue. Then again I have given him a lot of bussiness!