2006 Alignment Problems

[deanhuff1]

I sold my 2002 Camry and bought a 2006 Avalon about 2 weeks ago. The carfax came back clean on the car. It has 23,000 miles on it and I am almost certain it hasn't been involved in a wreck. The original owner was an elderly fellow and I wouldn't be surprised if he hit a curb. There is no vibration when going 75 mph.

From my frist test drive I noticed that the Avy pulls to the right. If you hold the steering wheel straight it goes straight but as soon as you let go, the wheel wants to turn towards 1 o'clock and start pulling right.

My neighbor is a Nissan mechanic and he's attempted twice to align my new Avy at his shop. The printout shows everything is aligned perfectly but the car still pulls to the right. My neighbor was able to get my camry dialed in perfectly using the same equipment.

The tires are the original bridgestone turanza's. They don't look like they have any uneven wear on and the tread is even when checked with a tread gauge.

Does anyone have any idea's what's up? I'll not opposed to taking to the dealer, but I don't want to pay a bunch of money to the dealer and end up with the same result.

There seemed to be some decent information on this site: http://www.aa1car.com/library/steerpul.htm

I'll look into measuring the wheel bases to see if assembly tolerances are adding up resulting in a right hand pull.

[Tom in Tacoma]

Start simple - try rotating the tires front-to-rear and see if the problem goes away or changes.

Another option, if rotation doesn't help, is to take the car to a body shop that offers a 'Wreck Check' service. They can see if the car is built and/or aligned properly.

[inov8]

This old service bulletin includes a nice flowchart that might be useful.
http://members.cox.net/n0v8or/TSB-ST002-04_R21605.pdf

[TedL]

Like Tom said, try the front to back rotation. Reason: a slipped belt in a tire could be causing the problem. A quick and cheap test.

[deanhuff1]

I rotated the tires right after I bought the car but I didn't do the front to back method, I moved the fronts to the back and then moved the rear's forward but crossed them. The car still pulled right. After reading your post, I double checked the manual and I see toyota's recommended rotation is just front to back w/ no cris-crossing. I'll swap the fronts tonight. I didn't realize the stock tires are directional????

Thanks for the TSB. First, I'll work my way through the flowchart with my mechanic neighbor

Then, if we're still stumped, I'll look into the wreck check to make sure everything is looking straight.

There is still a ton of tread left on the original tires but I'm also wondering if they might just need to be replaced due to their age plus the car sitting. From the carfax, it says the car was driven roughly 3800 miles each year for the first 5 years. Then in the last 6 months, it has had another had 4,000 miles put on it.

The original owner passed away and I ended up buying it from his son. I think the son had been driving it once he inherited the car.

[deanhuff1]

the problem ended up being a bad camber bolt, after a new bolt and alignment all is good.