allignment & new tires / van drifts left

[strombony]

I just purchased 4 new tires for my van about 3 weeks ago. I noticed instantly that the van drifted to the left. I've been waiting to get it back to make sure it's not in my head, or that it isn't the road, but it really does seem to drft left.

Is this typical at times? That you can have an allignment, new tires, and find that the allignment is off?

I made sure the tire pressure is exactly the same in all 4 tires as well.

I also want to know, is this drifting I'm noticing going to cause the tires to wear unevently until I get this issue resolved?

 

[bdcardinal]

what kind of van? what was the wear pattern like on the old tires. what tires did you get and what tires did you have?

 

[strombony]

I had cheap Bridestones before...Just the basic OEM tire. All 4 tires wore on the outside more. The treads in the middle were fine. I religiously kept the tire pressure at 37psi, and I do in the new tires. The new tires are Gernal Altimax GT's which were speced for my van on their website. Seem to be great tires.
The van never pulled to the left or to the right before I replaced the old tires with these. So I wondering if it's a simple alignment issue that needs to be redone???
What do you think bdcardinal? Also, I rotate my tires every 5k on the dot, (or within 20-50 miles of that), and I have my tires ballance every 3rd or 4th rotation... Very strict on this regiment.

 

[mrsilv04]

First thought, is the steering wheel "straight" when the van goes straight, or is it tilted a little one way or the other?

Every time I've had an alignment done, they give me a printout of what the specs were before the alignment, and then afterwards... along with what range is acceptable.

If you suspect an issue with the tires, swap them from side to side. Put the right side tires on the left side, the lefts on the right. Try the fronts first, then take it out for a drive. If there's no change then do the backs. If the problem changes, then you've isolated your problem to a bad tire.

 

[strombony]

Yes, steering wheel is straight. One thing I do notice; however, is that when I'm driving in a straight line and I rock the wheel toward the right, it seems tighter, but to the left, it seems looser.

 

[strombony]

In addition, I'm having my tire shop recheck this allighment issue, and if they are unwilling, I'll have another guy do it. They better hope I don't resolve it with another alignment somewhere else or they will be reimbursing me.

I do know these aligment machines can get out of spec sometimes.

 

[bdcardinal]

get a print out of the alignment. have them completely check the suspension, when you say the steering feels different from going right vs left, i would look closely at the steering rack (assuming its a rack, still dont know vehicle type).

as was stated before, cross rotate the fronts and see if the pull follows the tires. is 37psi the oem tire pressure spec? if it isnt, put them back to spec and see what happens.

 

[CapriRacer]

Quick test:

Swap the front tires side to side.

If the pull doesn't change direction, it's the alignment. My experience is that the alignment has to be within the inner half of the tolerance of the published specs.

If the pull disappears then it is both the tires and the alignment.

If the pull changes direction, then it's the tires. Try swapping one front with one rear on the same side. If that doesn't fix it, then go back to where you bought the tires. They should be able to given you another set.

 

[strombony]

Verdict is out...

They flip-flopped the front wheels and it still drifted to the left...so they alligned it again and they found some issues that were not caught the first time, so it rides straight now.

 

[meep]

" they found some issues "

been there, done that. Issues = alignment spec not net.

M