hoonami

Alignment was done at Sears Auto on my 02 ES300 but it still pulls to left it seems. I have to tilt the steering wheel slight towards right when going straight. here is a copy of the printout i got from them, i am taking it back soon, but do i need to do whole alignment again or just steering wheel adjusted?

habeeb89

iTrader: (3)

If it's still pulling to either side, it's most likely the alignment again. Is your steering wheel feel loose +/- a few degrees to the left or right?

hoonami

steerining wheel tilts to the right

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

it's either a tire pull or the cross caster... problem is that caster is not adjustable on that car...

before you do anything else, rotate the tires and see what happens...

hoonami

well, these are pretty new tires. I know I should've done the alignment right when i had these tires installed but i didn't have time. but it's only 2week old and about 700miles i put on.... by me putting 700miles on brand new tires with bad alignment have much effect??

hoonami

i really don't know too much about alignments and all... but how does it look by looking at that print out??

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

Probably nothing wrong with the tires that the alignment caused...

Even a brand new tire can cause a pull...

As far as those specs, everything looks great, except the variance in cross caster... caster is not an adjustable spec on that car though... Really, to be honest, that car was pretty damn good to start... the right rear being the only one worth adjusting really... SAI and Included Angle are great, which means no bent parts, toe is good, which means that any pull or crooked steering wheel must be because of a tire pull or cross caster... cross camber is good, on that car, they should both be as close to 0 as possible... Any variances in this can, but not always, cause a pull... Again, it really sounds to me like a tire pull, so, rotate the tires first, then report back...

hoonami

also can alignment cause tire/road noise at certain speed?
i am experiencing road noise at higher speed(above 50mph) but this tire had great review/rating overall....

hoonami

oh and should i get it balanced again or just rotate?

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

right now we are trying to find the source of your pull... no need to balance...

for an alignment to cause road noise, it would have to be so far out, someone who doesn't know anything about cars would be able to visibly see the car out of alignment...

alignment can cause uneven tire wear which can cause road noise, but, usually not within 700 miles, and definitely not as little as your car was out of alignment (it wasn't bad at all to start)

What kind of tires?

hoonami

i got set of yokohama avid trz

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

Ok, I know of no real issues with that tire, so, shouldn't be any problems... Go ahead and rotate them and see what happens...

You can try one side at a time to eliminate each tire individually...

Either of the front two tires can cause a pull, and most likely it's the tire on the side of the pull. Rotate that side first, drive the car and evaluate... Pull gone, it's the tire you just rotated to the back. Pull still there, rotate the other side, drive and re-evaluate.

Now, as far as road noise, well, that tire shouldn't be loud, however, I stopped selling Yokohama shortly after they released that tire. I did get to test it against others on an autocross course, for which it fared favorably in comparison the the BFGoodrich Traction T/A.

Now, if rotating them doesn't help, then, we should revisit the alignment.

hoonami

alright mitsuguy... thanks alot... i will let you know how it turns out

UCLAJimmy

iTrader: (2)

how much was the alignment