LexusPia

After 27k miles on the original factory Goodyear tires on my GS4 which were worn down to the tread warning mark and they were providing very little bite in harsh weather even when the tires were new, I replaced them with a set of Falken Ziex ZE-512 tires (same size and rating except they are directional tires) which were rated the best all season performance tires by Consumer Report. They ride good but I did notice the car pulls to the right with these new tires whereas the old tires tracked very straight. I'm very puzzle as to why this is happening with the new tires since the old tires were worn evenly and did not show any uneven wear and the car tracked very straight previously with the old tires. Do you guys have any thoughts on this? I should mention the car has never had a wheel alignment done since I didn't think it was necessary because the car tracked straight from day one. Thanks.

GSoup

Whenever you get new tires or change the suspension you have to get an alignment.

YWW

The problem LexusPia has stated in his posting has nothing to do with the lack of wheel alignment. It is caused by a belt not centered in the tire during the manufacturing process which "forces" the car to pull either left or right. The severity of the pull depends on how off centered the belt is. It is a tire defect and the only way to fix it is to get another tire. Wheel alignment won't do one bit of good since the pull will still be present. He needs to pin point the defective tire by switching one at a time, i.e. move the left front to left rear and test drive. If pull is still present, repeat process on the right until the pull diminishes. If the pull is very prominent, it's likely to be one of the front tires. If your car tracked straight with the old tires and the car starts the pull to either left or right soon after installing the new tires, that is the typical sign one or more of the new tires has a defective (off centered) belt. I know because it happened to me twice--one was on a Michelin and the other on a Dunlop. Both times the dealers replaced the defective tires with good ones and the problem went away immediately and I never had a wheel alignment on the old or new tires either. Good luck and let us know how you come out.