Rotated my tires - now my car pulls left

[Nextruss]

Help, after rotating my tires for the first time (stock Bridgestone Potenza RE-040?), with about 9000-10000 miles on them, my car pulls to the left, especially more noticeable at higher speeds. When rotated back to original setup, no more pulling to the left. They were rotated front to back, back to front. Should I leave them un-rotated with the more worn tires up front and just buy tires two at a time? Or should I definitely have them rotated with the better tires up front, and just ignore the pulling, hoping it goes away? The dealership said that the alignment was fine from a "visual check." A guy at a tire place said that the tires/treadwear looks fine. Thanks in advance!

 

[DE31]

are they directional tires?if not then try rotating them diagonally.

 

[Nextruss]

yah, sorry, they are the stock Bridgestone Potenza's (unidirectional)

 

[Mike R]

Did ya check the tire pressure?

 

[Nextruss]

yah, I set them all to 32psi, as per the book. it's driving me insane! i don't wanna continue driving on the tires with the car pulling if i am going to put a bad wear on the tires.

 

[Mike R]

Hmm, I'd just swap 'em side to side then. See if it pulls. If it does, it's the tire.

 

[msp35]

I believe that would be called tracking right? Mine did it bad right after I rotated the potenza's too. I just though it was because of more traction and that was just how the it was supposed to ride. It went away with the proxes.

 

[Mike R]

You can also vary the tire pressure slightly and see if that helps. Bump the pressure up on the side that it pulls to.

 

[ping]

Mine did the same thing. I think the rears wear ever-so-unevenly side to side and you get a pull when you rotate. I'm giving it 500 miles and will see if it goes away. I also have the Delsing rear swaybar kit so I readjusted the bushings to remove any swaybar "preload" and properly corner-weight the rear of the car. We'll see if that, and some judicious pressure juggling helps - you get to where you notice a 1psi difference in these cars... Good luck - I think it's the tires themselves that develop a "tire pull". If all the above doesn't work I'm rotating them side to side. I want to wear this set out so I can get quieter tires, no interest in wearing out the fronts and having a mismatched set front-to-rear...

 

[Larone]

I have the exact same problem and it's really annoying. I can feel that the car isn't as stable as I would want it to be - especially in high speed corners. I hit a curb and damaged my left front wheel and tire, bought a new wheel and tire then rotated all four (this was at about 7000 miles). So at first I was thinking that I screwed something else up when I hit the curb but the guy at Firestone said everything was OK and the alignment was done too. I think I'll just drive it like that for a while and see what happens.

 

[Stormtrooper77]

Hmm, I'd just swap 'em side to side then. See if it pulls. If it does, it's the tire.

They are directional tires. Swapping side-to-side will yield one tire rotating in the wrong direction.

 

[MetalSpeed]

Are the tires balanced correctly?

 

[evolv]

yah, sorry, they are the stock Bridgestone Potenza's (unidirectional)

HELLO

DO NOT ROTATE these stock tires from side to side. Front to back only, always keep them on the sameside.

The tires have an arrow on them, if the arrow is facing backwards they are on the wrong side.

unidirectional, means ONE way (uni)

 

[mspdfreak]

Mine did that too. It will go away as the front tires begin to wear. Or, you could just plunk down $700 on a set of Goodyear F1 GS-D3's.

 

[msp35]

On a side note my Proxes and mounting balancing cost ~$480.

 

[JHew84]

its because of the wear on the tires, i'd just do what someone else suggested and vary the air pressure until it stops pulling, i'm having the same problem with the tires (basically brand new) that i threw on my protege...

 

[CommieSpeed]

^^^what he said, had this problem ONLY after my first rotation. Tire wear is a b****. Flatten those bitches out.

 

[Nextruss]

thanks so much guys! i really appreciate the responses, now i just can have some fun again!

 

[Crock]

I ran into the same thing after putting my stock tires back on. The switch between winter wheels and summer wheels is when I do my rotations and my car was pulling for a few days. I fiddled with the tire pressure and now it's almost gone. It's a good idea to periodically check the tire pressure anyway so I'll keep a close eye on it.