I was wondering if anyone has experience with this, and can recommend something.

I wore out the original Turanza front tires in 25,000 miles, but the rears are fine. Rather than the dealer installing the same stock tires (they recommended 2 new front tires) I went to costco and got Pilot Sport A/S Plus front tires, and went to Firestone for alignment.

Immediately after the alignment, the car was pulling to the right hard, so much, that I could change lanes on the freeway within 50 yards just by letting go of the steering wheel.

I went back to another Firestone for alignment again, they made some changes, and changed the position of the steering wheel. It still pulls right, just not as much.

1) Maybe Firestone doesn't know how to do alignment, take it to yet another one for a 3rd alignment?

2) Something is wrong with the tires, go back to costco, request new ones?

3) Don't sweat it / just deal with it, it's normal?

 

As a service writer for Expert Tire (which is the same as Firestone), they will take care of ya... the question here is, what the problem really is... They (should) have a copy of your alignment settings after both alignments, if I could see the numbers, I could let you know if your problem lies in the settings or the tires, or at least give you a good idea...

Caster and Camber are your settings that can cause tire pull, Toe is the setting that affects steering wheel position...

Could also be a tire issue, can definitely try swapping tires side to side and see what ya get... it won't hurt them to run the wrong way for a little while...

 

We have issues with those Pilot A/S from Costco all the time.. POS tires! The only tires Michelin makes that worth something are the PS2s and Pilot Super Sports (PS3). The Pilot A/S tires chunk, wear unevening, make noise, and cause pulling issues. Have them cross rotate the tires and see if it still pulls. The tires likely have a conicity problem, it could also be an issue with the alignment if they have faulty equipment or poor techs.

The big question is, did it pull prior to replacing the tires and doing the alignment? Obviously you had inner tire wear, but did it drive straight?

 

The dealer could tell from the wear of the tires that the car needed alignment. Otherwise, the car did drive straight, straight as an arrow! I didn't notice after the tires but before the alignment, because the two were so close to each other and I wasn't paying attention (1/2 mile on rough roads).

 

Thanks mitsuguy, I'm going to get those numbers and post them.

 

I was having same problem and it seemed to be non existent after a couple thousand miles or maybe I just got use to it.

Here's my post on the subject;
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/mai...-is-350-a.html

 

I started to make a table, but on preview it didn't look clean. So here are the actual printouts:

 

Unfortunately, I'm not familiar with the adjustments on the front of the IS350's, but I don't believe they have adjustment for caster. The minimal differences in the camber should not be enough to cause a pull, but the caster could be... Given your SAI's from the first alignment, I would say either the cradle (if the car has one) is shifted, or, something is bent...

Caster is different on the second alignment, not completely sure why, if its not adjustable - hard to say for sure...

I'll look in the alignment specs book tomorrow, see what I can find...

 

Thanks Mitsuguy, looking forward to your response.

I can't see how some of the readings are different from the first alignment (after) and the 2nd alignment (before) given only 2 days and maybe 45 miles was the difference between them.

 

Caster is only adjustable with the replacement of the bushing at the rear part of the lower control arm. Its a minimal adjustment. But there is no physical adjustment for camber front or rear... so its strange to see them changing.

 

No adjustment for camber? I recall being able to change camber on the IS models (300, 250 and 350), and, also, according to our steering and suspension book, it is adjustable from the factory...

Here is also the exact suspension settings for your car, including SAI and IA...



Here is ride height and how to measure it...





As far as variances in alignment from one to the next, there are a couple potential causes for that... The first, and most likely, is that while adjusting something, one of the alignment heads was bumped and slipped. Generally, it doesn't matter how the heads are mounted, so long as they are mounted - differences from one to the other are compensated for when you compensate the machine, however, if a head is bumped while it is being worked on, then the numbers will vary due to this... The other option is that there are some weird things that go on with alignment machines... Heat and sometimes cold can cause variances in the readings... When we do an alignment, we have to shut off a heater in the bays because it causes readings to be off some amount when the heater is on... At the same time, when the bay doors are open and there is a cold breeze, a similar phenomena occurs as well...

Last but not least, if the first alignment had good readings, the SAI on the right side shows that either the lower control arm, or the lower arm mounts are bent... Unfortunately, the printout given for the second alignment does not show SAI, so it is hard to see if it was truly off or not...

Now, back to the original problem at hand... Per the second alignment settings, your car should pull right due to the caster, and left due to the camber... in all honesty, they should cancel each other out, but the positive camber on the LF may be your issue... I would see if you can get those all a little more in the negative range... Where they are may be better for tire wear, but won't handle as good as the car should...

 

Thanks for the info.

The settings you say are better for tire wear - but doesn't the fact that it pulls to the right mean there will be more uneven wear?

Also, what is this radial pull? If the tires are the problem, should I go back to costco and tell them the tires need to be changed?

 

There are no ecentrics that can be adusted.. the subframe can be shifted, but thats about it though. Our Hunter machine doesnt specify adjustments for front or rear camber on the 06+ ISx50. Ive done God knows how many IS alignments...

 

RTIS -
based on this info, do the pictures of the adjustment numbers I posted make sense?

 

Went back to Costco, told them I had alignment performed twice and car still pulls right.

They said it might be 'radial pull' and suggested I let them 'deflate the tires and rotate them on the rim'.

Should I attempt this? Or is it just a waste of time and I should ask for two new tires?