Alignment Issues after new tires installed

[nboy22]

Hey everyone, I recently replaced all of my tires with four new Hankook Ventus S1 noble2s on my 2010 Corolla S. I did this through Pep Boys and also decided to do an alignment with them since it doesn't make sense to me to replace tires and not get an alignment. After the alignment, I was driving on the highway and noticed that my steering wheel has to sit around 1-3 degrees turned to the left in order for the car to go completely straight. When I straighten out the wheel completely, the car veers to the right pretty bad. I went to a different Pep Boys this morning, mentioned my issue, and they said they would rotate/balance the tires and that they looked at my alignment paperwork and said everything was perfect. At this point I'm thinking what the hell.. how could it not be an alignment issue? It's like the guy who aligned the car didn't have the steering wheel straight when he aligned everything. I'm not sure how alignments work, but that is kinda how I envision the process going. I also checked the PSI of all the tires and they are all sitting around 41-42 PSI.

So my question is... is this even normal? It just seems like they are pushing the issue aside and making up excuses. Do I need to go back and demand that they do another alignment and make sure the steering wheel is straight before they even start?

Thanks for any insights you guys may have!

 

[cabri]

So my question is... is this even normal? It just seems like they are pushing the issue aside and making up excuses. Do I need to go back and demand that they do another alignment and make sure the steering wheel is straight before they even start?

Thanks for any insights you guys may have!

If the vehicle will track true on the road; it is not the alignment itself; but the steering wheel angle that the problem is in.

If it does not track true; then it is the alignment.

 

[slag]

There's getting an alignment done to make sure you are tracking correctly, and then there is centering the wheel during the alignment. Many shops will not do the second unless you ask them specifically to make the wheel dead on while they do the alignment.

 

[JulesMaximus]

There's getting an alignment done to make sure you are tracking correctly, and then there is centering the wheel during the alignment. Many shops will not do the second unless you ask them specifically to make the wheel dead on while they do the alignment.

I've never had a shop perform an alignment on my car and not make sure the steering wheel was also aligned properly nor have I ever requested it specifically. Any shop does that to my car and I'm taking it back and making them do it correctly... and I sure as hell wouldn't go back to that shop again.

 

[nboy22]

There's getting an alignment done to make sure you are tracking correctly, and then there is centering the wheel during the alignment. Many shops will not do the second unless you ask them specifically to make the wheel dead on while they do the alignment.

This just seems like common sense. Why would they not make sure it was 100% dead on before starting the alignment? Seems like bad service to me.

If I were a mechanic working on these things I would just do it right the first time and save the hassle of people like me coming back 2 or 3 times to get the job done right.

 

[soccerballtux]

There's getting an alignment done to make sure you are tracking correctly, and then there is centering the wheel during the alignment. Many shops will not do the second unless you ask them specifically to make the wheel dead on while they do the alignment.

that's stupid to me, just take it back and complain.
#1. I don't put up with the steering wheel being off center. I am a driving enthusiast
#2. You can get down there and adjust the nuts yourself. After I did this once and got the wheel perfectly straight I realized "wtf am I doing this for? I just took it to a shop, they should be doing this".
#3. idiot alignments have me considering opening up my own alignment shop since apparently I'm more particular than the guys doing the alignments.

I had one guy who asked me where I went to school, said I was too smart and that I had "too much swimming around up there" and asked if my father was still in the picture. All because he couldn't do an alignment properly. If he had given legitimate excuses like "well you lowered it 2" which drastically affects the suspension geometry, and it's a rebuilt that's been in 2 accidents on top of that" he would have at least had an ear.

In the end I told him it's about 10 degrees off center and gave him a visual, he went back and adjusted it making it about 80% better, which I decided was good enough. Dead center is still about 2-3 degrees off though but it doesn't bug me.

 

[NutBucket]

Amazing. You mean it takes skill to do an alignment correctly?

For God's sake people choose your alignment shop based on quality, not cost.

 

[soccerballtux]

Amazing. You mean it takes skill to do an alignment correctly?

For God's sake people choose your alignment shop based on quality, not cost.

I learned the hard way. I was eating through tires every 20k miles so I had converted to Craigslist used tires. Happy I did, because saving a lot of money, but still, the front right one would regularly wear at double the rate as the front left.

 

[cabri]

$100 alignment will save you from going through tires every 5-10K miles.

 

[slag]

I've never had a shop perform an alignment on my car and not make sure the steering wheel was also aligned properly nor have I ever requested it specifically. Any shop does that to my car and I'm taking it back and making them do it correctly... and I sure as hell wouldn't go back to that shop again.

I have. Twice.

 

[slag]

This just seems like common sense. Why would they not make sure it was 100% dead on before starting the alignment? Seems like bad service to me.

If I were a mechanic working on these things I would just do it right the first time and save the hassle of people like me coming back 2 or 3 times to get the job done right.

While in high school, I had a 1977? Civic that needed an alignment. Went to the local small town goodyear shop and he aligned it for $35.00 and the steering wheel was off. He suggested I unbolt the wheel and rebolt it down to where it was even. Stupid me thought it was a good idea and did that.

About 3 years ago I had a Jetta that needed an alignment. Even though they tried, the wheel always was tilted to the left some. Said it was as close as they could get it. That was a $69.00 alignment and they bitched and said the tie rod end was super hard to adjust.

See why I hate taking my stuff somewhere to get it worked on?

 

[nboy22]

Went back to Pep Boys again for the second time after the tires were installed. I told them to take another look at the alignment and that the wheel angle was off. They re-aligned it and admitted that it was really off. The car drives much better now that they did it properly. Thanks for the advice guys!

 

[MongGrel]

Yeah, I came into this one late myself.

If it doesn't track straight, it should with wheel centered they fudged something up.

I made the mistake of driving one that way a short while once.

I used to be lax about things like that, but about two years ago the wife took our Jeep in one place for an oil change, and when she got to work the nect day she called me and told me it was sounding bad checked the oil once she was home and it was empty.

Once I got to looking I noticed the oil sensor had been sheared off and the block was leaking, I could see it all over the side.

Had AAA tow it back there, told them to fix it, the wife called to pick it up the next day, they wanted to charge her another $100 bucks or so, I was so pissed I walked to the damned place and the wife was pleading at me to be nice, I was not in the mood, as soon as I went in the mecheanic ran for cover in the back room and the owner of the place said "I'll pay for it myself" I was in a rare rampage mood that day and was pissed because I was even worried the pistons might be scored.

I'm normally pretty laid back, but if someone screws something up and you're paying for it and it's done wrong, they should fix it.

I obviously do not go there anymore.

 

[silicon]

Hey everyone, I recently replaced all of my tires with four new Hankook Ventus S1 noble2s on my 2010 Corolla S. I did this through Pep Boys and also decided to do an alignment with them since it doesn't make sense to me to replace tires and not get an alignment. After the alignment, I was driving on the highway and noticed that my steering wheel has to sit around 1-3 degrees turned to the left in order for the car to go completely straight. When I straighten out the wheel completely, the car veers to the right pretty bad. I went to a different Pep Boys this morning, mentioned my issue, and they said they would rotate/balance the tires and that they looked at my alignment paperwork and said everything was perfect. At this point I'm thinking what the hell.. how could it not be an alignment issue? It's like the guy who aligned the car didn't have the steering wheel straight when he aligned everything. I'm not sure how alignments work, but that is kinda how I envision the process going. I also checked the PSI of all the tires and they are all sitting around 41-42 PSI.

So my question is... is this even normal? It just seems like they are pushing the issue aside and making up excuses. Do I need to go back and demand that they do another alignment and make sure the steering wheel is straight before they even start?

Thanks for any insights you guys may have!

the alignment is probably ok but it sounds like the technician did not center the steering wheel before doing the alignment. This is a rookie mistake and should be corrected for free. There is no reason a good tech cannot make the alignment nearly perfect.

 

[DrDoug]

What they hey are these 'mechanics' doing when they are setting toe? Just sticking it on the rack and picking one front tire to set the toe of the other one to? Splitting the difference between the two wheels? I used to do alignments and still do my own cars since I have the gear. The first thing you do when set the toe on the vehicle is to center the darn steering wheel and lock it in place (there's a tool for that! ). Then you check and set the toe!

Wow, that was difficult.