So I was at the Discount tire the other day to install a brand new set of wheel and winter tire on my 3GS.

During the removal of the original wheel, they used the air tool and broke the wheel lock. They end up having to hammer some sockets into the wheel lock to remove the wheel lock on all 4 wheels.

Before I bring the car into the shop, the alignment was perfect. Afterward, the car wants to pull slightly to the right.

Just want to check with you guys if you think its the new tire or it is what they did to remove the wheel lock that caused the alignment issue.

Thanks!

 

in some way, it depends on how hard they hammer on the lock. but hard enough to knock alignment out of space, that's quite some hammering

 

i highly doubt it messed up your alignment. if you changed wheels and its pulling im willing to bet the tires are not properly balanced.

 

No but keep in mind, after new set of tires you need aligment. Well you don't really need it but its recommended. Also it can be low tire pressure on one of the wheels that can pull. I would double check on everything before doing aligment.

 

you dont need an alignment after a tire change. you only need an alignment when removing major suspension items like struts/shocks that connect the arms or knuckle to the steering.

 

Have an alignment done and have them print out a before and after sheet then you will know whether it was out or not

 

Defective tire is my guess! Switch them around and see if car pulls to the other side.

 

agreed, i don't see the need for alignment after new tires. it could be the tires are defective causing the pull as well. i remember when i ordered a set of michelin before, it was pulling to the right a lot. after changing one tire, it's all gone. no alignment done

 

He changed wheels too. If it is a different offset, size or stagger it could affect alignment. At the very least I'd have it checked.

 

yeah I would go with unbalanced tires, trying going at high speeds, if you feel a vibration i would say its the tires that need to be balanced.

 

Thanks everyone for the input on this issue, I will sure have it checked out.
Anyone else have problem with their wheel lock ?

 

shouldn't the lock be taken of by hand?

 

once their loosened then yea you can take them off by hand but they are torqued (or atleast should be) like the rest of the lugs. if they were hand tight, that would defeat the purpose of locking lugs.

 

putting them on carefully and then tq down is good. taking them off by airgun, nothing wrong with it

 

this scares me about going to just any shop when wheels need to be removed. some of them will use torque stick at least but I've seen a lot where they don't. I've asked some to torque the wheels lugs to oem spec and some look at me like I'm crazy. under is bad but too high of torque is also no good.