Re: Why do I need a wheel alignment after each tire rotation?

You either have bad tires or a bad mechanic.

Rotating the tires has no bearing on wheel alignment otherwise.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

[email]condor_222@yahoo.com[/email] wrote:[color=blue]
>
> Dear Experts,
>
> I have a 97 V6 Camry with 135K miles on it.
>
> I just had four new tires put on in February and a wheel
> alignment then too. At 125K approx.
>
> About a month ago, I went in for the free tire rotation.
> And then the steering wheel was pulling to one side again.
>
> I've had a lot of problems with the alignment on the Camry.
>
> It's not like my old Ford. The Ford I had aligned, and it
> stayed aligned for years. I changed tires. No alignment
> required.
>
> But the Camry, it always seems to be going out of alignment.
>
> I had the tires rotated last fall, and again, it then
> required an alignment. That's why I bought new tires.
>
> What do you think? When they do the free tire rotation,
> do the mechanics take a mallet and bash the alignment out,
> so that you then have to get a pricy aligment?
>
> Could this be an indication of some other mechanical problem?
>
> Thanks[/color]

Mike Romain <romainm@sympatico.ca> wrote:[color=blue]
>You either have bad tires or a bad mechanic.[/color]

Or something else bad that is unrelated, like a bad ball joint.

You'd think any competent alignment guy would notice something like that,
but with the computerized alignment systems, a lot of chassis problems
get overlooked because the numbers come out okay.
--scott


--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Scott Dorsey wrote:[color=blue]
>
> Mike Romain <romainm@sympatico.ca> wrote:[color=green]
> >You either have bad tires or a bad mechanic.[/color]
>
> Or something else bad that is unrelated, like a bad ball joint.
>
> You'd think any competent alignment guy would notice something like that,
> but with the computerized alignment systems, a lot of chassis problems
> get overlooked because the numbers come out okay.
> --scott
>[/color]

That would be the 'bad mechanic' part.

Any mechanic with half a clue should know that rotating tires has no
bearing on the alignment unless something is broken.

Mike
86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00
88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

"Mike Romain" <romainm@sympatico.ca> wrote in message
news:43403888.8079DCA0@sympatico.ca...[color=blue]
> You either have bad tires or a bad mechanic.
>
> Rotating the tires has no bearing on wheel alignment otherwise.[/color]

I agree rotating the tires doesn't change the alignment (or at least it
shouldn't). However, I have had cars in the past (1986 Sable for one, Mazda
626 for another) that when you rotated the tires, the car would immediately
develop a pull. And it didn't seem to matter whether you cross rotated or
did a straight front / rear swap. As long as you didn't rotate the tires,
the car did not developed a pull. After the second set of new tires (came
with Generals, I bought two different types of Michelins before I figured
out my problem), I just quit rotating the tires on that car. The rear tires
would last about 50% longer than the front tires, so I just started buying
front tires more often than rears. There was never any obvious strange wear
pattern on the front or rear tires. And, interestingly, once the pull
developed for a set of tires, I couldn't fix it by rotating the tires back
to the original position. I could change the direction by swapping tires
from side to side, so I am sure it was the tires, just not sure what was
going on.

Ed