Crooked steering wheel after rotation.

[Nick1994]

This is on my Camry. The tires are General Altimax RT43 with 11 months and 19,500 miles on them. They're at 7/32" of tread. They've been smooth and fine this whole time, except since I had them rotated last Saturday, about 400 miles ago. That's when the steering wheel got crooked. When on the left side of the highway the steering wheel is to the right close to an inch. When on the right side of the higheay it is better but still not centered. It drives straight when I let off the steering wheel. I have noticed since the rotation that it wanders a little on the highway though. Feels like it's windy outside but doesn't pull to a perticular side.

I just had an alignment in June at the dealership after putting in new Moog Problem Solver ball joints. It drove great afterwards. The crooked steering wheel and wandering is new since this tire rotation.

I rotated the tires left to right about 6-7,000 miles ago. Tire pressures are on spot accurate at 37 psi.

What should I do? I have the certificates through Discount Tire and will probably take it in. What do you think is the problem?

 

[gabriel9766]

just did a tire rotation on my malibu with the factory continentals and they are the same way, steering wheel was slightly off before the rotation and now its fine. and now the the very small vibration moved from the back to the front of the car at 70mph. im waiting till i get my giftcards from work so i can get a lifetime balance of the tires and balance the tires myself.

i would take the tires back to discout tire and have them check it out.

 

[69GTX]

If the steering wheel isn't perfectly centered when the tires are pointed straight ahead, then the shop was lazy. Just have them rotate it back to straight. As far as the other issues of wandering...have them check it out at the same time. Bad alignment? Something still loose?

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: 69GTX
If the steering wheel isn't perfectly centered when the tires are pointed straight ahead, then the shop was lazy. Just have them rotate it back to straight. As far as the other issues of wandering...have them check it out at the same time. Bad alignment? Something still loose?
Everything was straight with no wandering after the alignment. This has just been this week since the rotation, so I think the alignment was dead on. I have the print out sheet, they did a good job.

 

[gabriel9766]

cross the front tires and see if it is still off.

 

[double vanos]

I had same thing happen to me with my '76 Trans Am. I had let the rotations get away from me and when I finally got to it, I changed a perfectly fine driving car into a wandering pile of mush with its steering wheel cocked. I put everything back to where it was and it drove fine again. I drove it like that until it was time for tires. Surprisingly, it took quite a long time to wear those tires out! It was back in the day when Pontiac cars had Radial Tuned Suspension which was one of their advertising points.

 

[SatinSilver]

Call the dealer and talk to the service manager. They might re-align it for you which is what the dealer here does if it's been less than 6 months. Probably wouldn't mention the rotation. Tell them you had it aligned in June, it's not tracking like it should and steering wheel is crooked.

Or have the tires rotated again and see if it goes back to normal.

 

[Nick1994]

Here's the alignment spec sheet

 

[The Critic]

This is an issue with tire pull.

If you rotate the tires back to the previous position, you will probably find that the issue is resolved.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
This is an issue with tire pull.

If you rotate the tires back to the previous position, you will probably find that the issue is resolved.
I want my tires to wear evenly, and this would obviously mean there's something wrong with a tire. I guess I'll take it into Discount Tire

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: The Critic
This is an issue with tire pull.

If you rotate the tires back to the previous position, you will probably find that the issue is resolved.
I want my tires to wear evenly, and this would obviously mean there's something wrong with a tire. I guess I'll take it into Discount Tire


Not exactly.

What is likely going here is a tire property called Conicity - root word cone. It's the force that pushes sideways. Every tire has it. It can be positive (pushing out) or negative (pushing in) or zero.

What causes pulls is where the vector sum of the conicities of the front tires exceeds the sensitivity of the vehicle. For example, if you have a pair of front tires that are +5 and -5 (vector sum = 10), and the sensitivity of the vehicle is to anything over 7, you will have a pull. Notice that it isn't that either tire has a large number: It's the sum that is the problem.

So, PLEASE, even though it is pretty certain that the problem is the tires, swap the front tires anyway to see how bad it is. What should happen is the pull (or the centeredness of the steering wheel) should completely change direction. But if it disappears or only changes a bit, then the alignment is also involved. And please note, it is still possible that the alignment changed about the time of the tire rotation.

Assuming for the moment that the pull completely changes direction, the next step ought to be to swap tires on one side to determine which tire it is. If the pull basically doesn't change, it's the one that didn't move. If it does change, it's the one that moved. (Note that this assumes there is an odd man in the mix of 4, and it's just possible there is more random than that.)

The step after that is to swap the tire inside to outside. That will change the direction of rotation and the conicity will be reversed.

Also note that just exchanging the tire for a new one is like reaching into a pile of Skittles - you just don't know what color you are going to pull out. Better to deal with the 4 you have.

And one last note: The alignment sheet shows the rear toe to have been bad - and that likely wore concity into the tire(s), so don't expect a tire manufacturer to do a warranty. Not only has enough time gone by that the warranty is no longer valid for this, but there is evidence that the problem is likely not caused by the manufacturing process.

 

[Nick1994]

Thanks for the info Barry!

Took it into Discount Tire. They swapped the front tires, put left one on right side, right one on left side. They said there's flat spots on the tires. I asked if they were flat spots all the way around and they said no, 1 flat spot per tire. He said either the car has been sitting (it hasn't, I drive 22,000 miles a year) or the car panic stopped. It has ABS, so it doesn't skid the tires. I'm also the only one who drives it.

I haven't gotten on the highway, only surface streets. The steering wheel isn't pointing to the right anymore but this evening I've got almost 20 miles of highway to drive so I'll report back with how it does.

 

[SatinSilver]

Usually after a little driving the flat spots go away.

 

[Nick1994]

Steering wheel is now slightly to the left.

I'll take it to a different Discount Tire maybe next weekend. Although I might get time on Friday

 

[Nick1994]

It also has a pull to the right now, where before they swapped tires left to right it pulled to the left.

 

[SLCraig]

Definitely sounds like radial pull to me. I had this problem with the factory tires on my 2011 Civic. When I replaced them with Yokohamas the problem went away, without even getting an alignment.

As far as I could tell, there was no uneven tire wear either..

 

[SatinSilver]

Maybe the accident the car was in has something to do with it. Since it was rear ended in March by a lifted truck that totaled the car. The rear tires go to the front then the problem begins.

Accident

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
It also has a pull to the right now, where before they swapped tires left to right it pulled to the left.


Next step, rotate one of the fronts to the rear. If the pull goes away, the tire just rotated to the rear is the problem.

If the problem continues, the problem is the unrotated front.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
It also has a pull to the right now, where before they swapped tires left to right it pulled to the left.


Next step, rotate one of the fronts to the rear. If the pull goes away, the tire just rotated to the rear is the problem.

If the problem continues, the problem is the unrotated front.
Good idea CapriRacer, I'll do that next.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
It also has a pull to the right now, where before they swapped tires left to right it pulled to the left.


Next step, rotate one of the fronts to the rear. If the pull goes away, the tire just rotated to the rear is the problem.

If the problem continues, the problem is the unrotated front.
Good idea CapriRacer, I'll do that next.


And the followup to that is:

Swap the tire inside to outside - meaning take the problem tire and dismount it. Then put it on such that the side that was in would be out, then try another test for pull.