where do you get your alignment done and how much do you pay? i just got new tires and i noticed the thing veering to the right consistently. called the nationwide chain tiresplus/firestone down the street from me and they charge $55 for a one time align and $160 for lifetime alignment. what do you think?

 

i have the lifetime alignment for all my other cars. I strongly suggest it.

 

Good luck with that alignment. I assume you got the Pilot Sport A/S tires. Very bad in my opinion. Caused my car to pull to right alot and after getting replacement ones and more alignment still continued to pull a bit to the right and vibrated a bit. There are alot of complaints of pulling issues with the Pilot Sport A/S and Plus version.

 

Its your alignment not the tires. I have the michelins as well and the car tracks completely straight. Better than any other tire I have had on any car. The wear is awesome also. I would blame the crappy tech doing your alignment before I would assume its the tires

 

Um... no. Sometimes tires are out of round from the factory as well. Nothing is perfect, its not always the person behind it.

 

My dealer charges $125 . . . probably could get it cheaper at a non-dealer shop.

 

The toyota dealer next door to my dealer (same owner) charges $99. Imagine that!

 

well the car definitely would pull to the right. unfortunately i don't know if it did this before the new tires. i've read in some other forums that the pilot sports plus tends to do this....

anyway today after the alignment when i drove off it didn't really get any better. i will have to take it back and have them take another look. i wonder if they did anything at all.... will it be ok to set the settings outside of the designated ranges to offset the pulling effect of the tire?

 

Niteflit,

Setting the alignment outside the settings will not be beneficial for the tires or your car. Some tires especially the Pilots are made with a bad coniciity that will pull the car regardless of alignment. I would have the 2 right side tires replaced asap. My dealership did that after they found that the initial tires where still pulling my GS to the right after alignments was in spec. I got rid of the pilot sport after 10 months and I am enjoying the michelin primacy MXV4 for the last 24k miles and still have another 40,000 miles left on the threads. Its a better tire than the Pilot Sport A/S.

 

well. i'm taking the car back to the joint that did it. will have them look at it again. if it's still not good i guess i have to make a call to costco to see if they will credit me the $ back or allow me to exchange them for something else....

i'm surprised though that my lexus dealer only carries the stock dunlop run flats and these michelin pilot a/s if the pilots have this common problem....

 

I go to a dedicated tire store (popular chain in my area). $89 for 4 wheel alignment.
They always do a superb job.

steviej

 

My wife is on her 3rd set of Pilot Sport A/S on her SC400 and I have them on my GS430. Never had a problem with tracking or pulling in either car. Collectively over 100k miles on 4 sets and zero problems with them.

 

so that's 25+k per set? why not 40 or 45? did you just dispose of them early although they had life on them?

i had two alignments done and with it still pulling took it back to costco. the guy tried to talk me into wearing them in bringing them back later if still not fixed but i didn't like the idea of having one or more defective tires so i ordered a set of bridgestone serenities. hopefully that will be the end to this episode.....

 

she gets 30-35k out of them. I replace them at between 4 and 6/32s as I don't want any issues during heavy rains. She's about due for another set. I've only had my GS430 since Aug and put about 5k on mine in that time.

 

What is a lifetime allignment? Sounds like a good way to ripp people off..

You should have a wheel Allingment at least 1 a year, as pot holes and any other hard impacts knock your allingment out of place.