Tyres and tracking! Need help :)

CdoubleU

Hi, I brought my car for a service the day before yesterday, everything was perfectly fine apart from needing 2 new tyres on the passenger side. So they took the car off and did the tracking first! And then put the two new tyres on the front and the front driver side on the back passenger side, the cars front wheel drive so thats fine. But since then when im driving it i feel as if every now and then the car pulls to either side? The steering wheel doesnt vibrate or pull to one side generally so i cant work out could it have been done wrong getting the tracking first or if im just imagining it as theres new tyres? Thanks for any help

toyotaavensis

Does it pull to the side on straight roads or in corners?

Esel

New tyres should normally be fitted to the rear - seems counter-intuitive, but there ya go.

landmarkjohn

First I would do the pressures all round. Then I would go to a good tyre place and get wheels balanced all round. If that still hasn't cracked it then I would bite the bullet and get the tracking done again.

You are not imagining it, you know when you car feels "funny". A lot of tyre places will not balance rears unless requested (although not likely to be your problem). If you do all the above and it still doesn't feel right you might have to put it down to a "handling characteristic" with that brand of tyre.

Avns1s

As the OP has stated "every now and then.....", I would think that the tracking is fine and that the car is tramlining or reacting to the camber in the road. Just that the OP isn't used to it or it feels different with the new tracking / tyres. If the tracking was out, the pull would be there consistently. Wheel balancing doesn't enter this equation at all!

dougie-lampkin

Avns1s wrote: »

If the tracking was out, the pull would be there consistently.

Just to say, the tracking can be straight, but still out. If both front wheels are toed out 15° the car will go in a straight line, but you'll find the rear overtaking you on every roundabout. Excessive tow out would also cause tramlining.

The last time I got my car tracked, the guy halved the difference between left and right toe, and adjusted both by this amount so that they had the same toe. Yes, the two front wheels are now parallel, but there's no regard for the correct toe setting. Indeed when I checked it myself with a TrackRite, both were ~+0.7° when the spec is -1° ±0.5. There was a thread here a few months ago where a poster brought their S2000 to Advance to have the four wheels tracked. What did the "mechanic" do? Set all four wheels to 0°...

For the original question, there's nothing wrong with measuring the tracking with the old tyres, as most commercial devices take the measurement from the wheel rim. Pulling to either side sounds like tracking or wheel pressures, especially if they are budget tyres. I always go against the notion of new tyres to the back, if you ever need to brake hard in the wet you'll be thankful of having your best tyres in front. That's not to say it's confined to the wheels either, a worn ball joint or track rod would cause it to be unsteady at the front.

Jimmy Bottlehead

dougie-lampkin wrote: »

Just to say, the tracking can be straight, but still out. If both front wheels are toed out 15° the car will go in a straight line, but you'll find the rear overtaking you on every roundabout. Excessive tow out would also cause tramlining.

The last time I got my car tracked, the guy halved the difference between left and right toe, and adjusted both by this amount so that they had the same toe. Yes, the two front wheels are now parallel, but there's no regard for the correct toe setting. Indeed when I checked it myself with a TrackRite, both were ~+0.7° when the spec is -1° ±0.5. There was a thread here a few months ago where a poster brought their S2000 to Advance to have the four wheels tracked. What did the "mechanic" do? Set all four wheels to 0°...

For the original question, there's nothing wrong with measuring the tracking with the old tyres, as most commercial devices take the measurement from the wheel rim. Pulling to either side sounds like tracking or wheel pressures, especially if they are budget tyres. I always go against the notion of new tyres to the back, if you ever need to brake hard in the wet you'll be thankful of having your best tyres in front. That's not to say it's confined to the wheels either, a worn ball joint or track rod would cause it to be unsteady at the front.

That would be me.

Not going back there again.

landmarkjohn

OP, you don't say what make or model car you have. If it is BMW and they have fitted Run Flat tyres I believe these can give undesirable results regards ride and handling. Good luck and let us know if you get to the bottom of it.