Subie pulling to the right after tire rotation

[djay]

Hi all,

98 Legacy L, AT, AWD stock rims and stock tire size....

Had my tires rotated (about the 4th rotation on these tires [25K on them])
and noticed now the car pulls to the right. The pull is more than what one
would expect driving on the right side of the road when the road has a crown
in it. Also driving on the left side of the road where the crown would aid
a pull to the left, the car still pulls to the right. Nothing additional
when applying the brakes.
I did notice that the passenger front (post rotation) was about 4 lbs over
inflated compared to the driver's side front (post rotation). I have all 4
tires at 33 lbs. After I fixed this overinflation the pull did not get
better/worse - remained the same.
Tonight I pulled the fronts to look at wear and they both look the same.

So what the heck happened? Is it possible that the rear is jacked? I'm at
a loss.

Oh - I'm the original owner from day one and she has 125K on her. Never had
an alignment or anything done to mod the stock parts.

I'm hoping you guys have some constructive suggestions?

TIA,

Djay

 

[hippo]

Hi all,

98 Legacy L, AT, AWD stock rims and stock tire size....

Had my tires rotated (about the 4th rotation on these tires [25K on them])

and noticed now the car pulls to the right. The pull is more than what one
would expect driving on the right side of the road when the road has a crown
in it. Also driving on the left side of the road where the crown would aid
a pull to the left, the car still pulls to the right. Nothing additional

when applying the brakes.

I did notice that the passenger front (post rotation) was about 4 lbs over

inflated compared to the driver's side front (post rotation). I have all
4
tires at 33 lbs. After I fixed this overinflation the pull did not get

better/worse - remained the same.

Tonight I pulled the fronts to look at wear and they both look the same.

So what the heck happened? Is it possible that the rear is jacked? I'm at
a loss.

Oh - I'm the original owner from day one and she has 125K on her. Never had
an alignment or anything done to mod the stock parts.

I'm hoping you guys have some constructive suggestions?

Djay

If it definitely wasn't happening prior to the rotate, then I'd take it
back to the shop asap.
Cheers

 

[Ragnar]

Had similar experience as yours after a rotation. Took it back to the
shop and they found that the balance weight had fallen off the tire when
they rotated it. New balance weight and all was fine.

 

[VanguardLH]

98 Legacy L, AT, AWD stock rims and stock tire size....

Had my tires rotated (about the 4th rotation on these tires [25K on
them]) and noticed now the car pulls to the right. The pull is more
than what one would expect driving on the right side of the road
when the road has a crown in it. Also driving on the left side of
the road where the crown would aid a pull to the left, the car still
pulls to the right. Nothing additional when applying the brakes.
I did notice that the passenger front (post rotation) was about 4
lbs over inflated compared to the driver's side front (post
rotation). I have all 4 tires at 33 lbs. After I fixed this
overinflation the pull did not get better/worse - remained the same.
Tonight I pulled the fronts to look at wear and they both look the
same.

So what the heck happened? Is it possible that the rear is jacked?
I'm at a loss.

Oh - I'm the original owner from day one and she has 125K on her.
Never had an alignment or anything done to mod the stock parts.

Out of alignment. Who know what they did during the rotation.

Out-of-round-tire. What would've been pulling to the left (but masked
by the crown in the road while driving on the right is now evident
when the tire now pulls the other way since it got rotated 180
degrees.

Brake pad riding [too much] on rotor.

Have them rotate back to see if the problem goes away, remains pulling
to the right, or switches to a left pull.

 

[S]

Hi Djay

So what the heck happened? Is it possible that the rear is jacked? I'm at
a loss.

I'm assuming you are talking about a drift to the right, rather than a
severe pull in the steering; ie. you let go of the wheel and it wants
to go to the lock.

I'm not sure why this happens, but I suspect it is related to tire
diameter differences left to right. A lot may just be that the _feel_
of the car has changed from what you have become used to. Anyway, it's
not uncommon. Try putting the wheels back where they were and see if
the drift goes away or reduces. You can also try swapping the fronts
left to right to see if that changes anything. I'd try this before
worrying about a mechanical issue.

Other than finding a happy spot for the tires and leaving them there,
or popping for a new set, there isn't a cure for this AFAIK. If the
drift isn't severe, just learn to live with it; after a couple tanks
of gas you probably won't even notice it anymore.

The only other solution I can offer is very frequent rotations; say
every 2-3K miles or so. This would tend to even out the wear to the
point where all four tires stayed at a very similar diameter. But what
a pain.

With 25K on a set of tires, it wouldn't take too much additional
justification for me to go shopping for some new ones. Spring time's
coming, and think how much fun you'll have on a fresh set of grippies


ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB
Laboratory Manager
Microelectronics Research
University of Colorado
(719) 262-3101

 

[djay]

Hi Djay



I'm assuming you are talking about a drift to the right, rather than a
severe pull in the steering; ie. you let go of the wheel and it wants
to go to the lock.

I'm not sure why this happens, but I suspect it is related to tire
diameter differences left to right. A lot may just be that the _feel_
of the car has changed from what you have become used to. Anyway, it's
not uncommon. Try putting the wheels back where they were and see if
the drift goes away or reduces. You can also try swapping the fronts
left to right to see if that changes anything. I'd try this before
worrying about a mechanical issue.

Other than finding a happy spot for the tires and leaving them there,
or popping for a new set, there isn't a cure for this AFAIK. If the
drift isn't severe, just learn to live with it; after a couple tanks
of gas you probably won't even notice it anymore.

The only other solution I can offer is very frequent rotations; say
every 2-3K miles or so. This would tend to even out the wear to the
point where all four tires stayed at a very similar diameter. But what
a pain.

With 25K on a set of tires, it wouldn't take too much additional
justification for me to go shopping for some new ones. Spring time's
coming, and think how much fun you'll have on a fresh set of grippies


ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB
Laboratory Manager
Microelectronics Research
University of Colorado
(719) 262-3101

You are correct - just a drift to the right. I plan on taking it back to
the Tire Shop and have them take a look. This is the first time I've ever
experienced this and it's an unusual blip in my experience. Thanks for the
input/opinion!

Also - as a coincidence - I ran a Comm Lab for the Air Force for 5 years.
We'd test/eval new comm and reco integration into the baseline. FUN times!

DJay

 

[Bob H]

You are correct - just a drift to the right. I plan on taking it back to
the Tire Shop and have them take a look. This is the first time I've ever
experienced this and it's an unusual blip in my experience. Thanks for
the input/opinion!

Also - as a coincidence - I ran a Comm Lab for the Air Force for 5 years.
We'd test/eval new comm and reco integration into the baseline. FUN
times!

DJay

Had a 97 Avalon that would do this every other tire rotation at the dealer,
who would rotate R to L, and F to R. After realizing what was going on, we
had the dealer only rotate F to R, no more side to side.

Never had that pull problem again on that set of tires.

 

[S]

Hi Again, Djay!

Also - as a coincidence - I ran a Comm Lab for the Air Force for 5 years.
We'd test/eval new comm and reco integration into the baseline. FUN times!

That is fun stuff.

I also take care of our Electromagnetics Lab. We have a nice big
anechoic meter chamber, a good selection of Emco/HP reference antennas
and such, and recently, some newer Agilent tools for work to 50GHz.
I'm not really an EM person, per se, but I _am_ a ham. Doesn't matter
how little you know about any given subject, if you know more than the
guy next to you, you're the expert don't cha know.

I had no real problem getting the department to spend $200K for new
instrumentation, but it's been an uphill struggle freeing up $5K for a
set of Gore test cables! And I haven't even broached the subject of a
2.4mm cal kit for the network analyzer . . . Sigh. Pretty typical
University, alas.

In fact, that's what I _should_ be doing now; screening cable
assemblies. I can't seem to convince our graduate students how
important this is: a wire's a wire, right? Right. Be nice to find at
least one good pair (for my desk drawer ;-), but out of the dozen or
so I picked thru yesterday, the best I could find were marginal. And
they were semi-ridgid assemblies which no one will use anyway.

Speaking of the Air Force, we've done a fair bit of work in
collaboration with our neighbors at the Air Force Academy over the
years, and have produced several PhD's for them. I hear that they've
recently installed a fancy new facility, tho; probably the tide will
go the other way, now.

Anyway, good luck with the steering thing. Again, unless you've wacked
a curb or something, it's unlikely to be an alignment or other
mechanical issue. The Soobies just seem to be sensitive.

Write back; we'll swap stories.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB
Laboratory Manager
Microelectronics Research
University of Colorado
(719) 262-3101

 

[djay]

Hi Again, Djay!



That is fun stuff.

I also take care of our Electromagnetics Lab. We have a nice big
anechoic meter chamber, a good selection of Emco/HP reference antennas
and such, and recently, some newer Agilent tools for work to 50GHz.
I'm not really an EM person, per se, but I _am_ a ham. Doesn't matter
how little you know about any given subject, if you know more than the
guy next to you, you're the expert don't cha know.

I had no real problem getting the department to spend $200K for new
instrumentation, but it's been an uphill struggle freeing up $5K for a
set of Gore test cables! And I haven't even broached the subject of a
2.4mm cal kit for the network analyzer . . . Sigh. Pretty typical
University, alas.

In fact, that's what I _should_ be doing now; screening cable
assemblies. I can't seem to convince our graduate students how
important this is: a wire's a wire, right? Right. Be nice to find at
least one good pair (for my desk drawer ;-), but out of the dozen or
so I picked thru yesterday, the best I could find were marginal. And
they were semi-ridgid assemblies which no one will use anyway.

Speaking of the Air Force, we've done a fair bit of work in
collaboration with our neighbors at the Air Force Academy over the
years, and have produced several PhD's for them. I hear that they've
recently installed a fancy new facility, tho; probably the tide will
go the other way, now.

Anyway, good luck with the steering thing. Again, unless you've wacked
a curb or something, it's unlikely to be an alignment or other
mechanical issue. The Soobies just seem to be sensitive.

Write back; we'll swap stories.

ByeBye! S.

Steve Jernigan KG0MB
Laboratory Manager
Microelectronics Research
University of Colorado
(719) 262-3101

Budget is always the kicker. It takes away from the fun stuff on the
floor - but it's a necessary evil to ensure that next year's projects would
at least be an honorable mention on the bean counter's cutting room floor!
Ha Ha!

I used to carry 5 or 6 unfunded requirements in my back pocket in case EOY
funds "suddenly" became available. That "phenomena" happened on more than
one occasion.

I'm a baseband guy myself - but I hear you loud and clear regarding
equipment and cables! I dabbled in RF for 5 years overseas. Installed and
"initiated" several earth terminals in Ku, C, and S bands. Geostationary is
pretty boring stuff though... fun times were troubleshooting at 3 a.m. and
finding/curing the gremlins.

In my current J-O-B I'm putting together COTS solutions for new commercial
sites that have had their comm sponsored by the Govt. Mostly
router/switches/VoIP at a T1 rate and then the fun ones of up to OC-192.
Those are the occasional blip on the normally arduous toils.

My cable story revolves around security. Some hotshot wants to use STP and
that's not a big deal if the shield is carried from the switch to the wall
plate. I was showing him "factory made" STP patch cables and how they
basically were useless because the manufacturer didn't terminate the ends
correctly. I also got him "thinking" when I said that for the shield to
work properly one must buy a different patch panel etc. I weep for the
government at times!

So I hear you regarding a good set of Gore RF cables and an awesome spectrum
analyzer my friend!


DJay