New tires , Pulling left

[glmoore0001]

2006 Z71
Put on a new set of Continental CrossTrack LT 20s.
275 65 R17.
Changed the left tie rod. Had an alignment and truck was pulling left.

Took it back to the shop to check the alignment again. It was adjusted, truck is still pulling left.

Swapped the sides on the front tire. No change.

They are out of ideas now, so they put in some camber? to try to counteract the pull. It helped but did not fix.


The pull is better now, but if you take your hand off the wheel it'll move into the left lane.


I drove it 600 miles yesterday to go home for the holiday. I stopped at a rest park after being on the interstate, the bearing supports, nor anywhere on the axel was even warm to the touch. Same for the brake rotors.

I will cross the rear tires and swap with the front today.

If no change, I will try a new alignment place.

Anything else that could be causing the pull?
The truck ran true before the tire change. Thanks.

 

[glmoore0001]

Sorry. Just noticed I put this in the wrong forum.
Should be in 2006 earlier or Street Suspension category.
I dislike my cell phone. Gary

 

[Unit171]

Well before it’s moved to a different thread...

When you say the brakes aren’t warm...have you looked at the left front brake specifically during braking? Maybe having someone watch it brake and release in the drive way as you move. Or on the road somewhere. Typically you shouldn’t have to go beyond the alignment machine. Too much “correction” could cause extra wear on the tires I’d think.

When they changed the tie rod, did you get to see it? Was it actually bad?

I’m interested to see what you find out.

 

[Unit171]

I just re-read your post. They have obviously done something wrong when swapping the tires. I bet it won’t be the brakes now that I’m re-reading it.

I’d bet the tie rod replacement was/is your issue. If you swapped the tires on the front, you’ve eliminated it being an unbalanced tires or something weird with the new shoes.

If they damaged the tie rod or did something goofy in there, that’s absolutely going to be where I’d be looking

 

[glmoore0001]

No, I have not had another person available to look at the brake while stopping. I was thinking rotor may be dragging but right off the highway the rotor was at most 100 degrees. Not hot at all.
The last set of tires were worn on the inner edges and I took the machanics word that the tie rod was bad.I did not see the old tie rod.
Thank you for the response. Gary

 

[swathdiver]

While there is such a thing as a radial pull, you nullified that by swapping sides. I'll also assume you know about road crowns. Having said that, the "new" tie rod would be the first place I'd look. When were the they all last changed? What about the inner tie rods? The second would be the alignment itself. You can check it yourself and even set the toe if need be on a level surface. There are "how tos" here and videos on youtube.

 

[glmoore0001]

There was no indication that there was a problem with the suspension until the tire change.
With the old tires the truck ran true.
There has been nothing done to the suspension since I have the vehicle.
I would normally check it out myself, but the garage is full of vehicles at this time and I cannot get it in the air.

 

[swathdiver]

Uh, what about the tie rod? Was that done before or after the tires?

 

[glmoore0001]

That was done when the tires were installed, before the alignment. Thank you for your reply.

 

[swathdiver]

Well, I would suspect the work done on the tie rod.

 

[glmoore0001]

Well, I would suspect the work done on the tie rod.

Yes, I thought the same thing, but wouldn't that be adjusted during the alignment?
How could you miss a problem like that when the vehicle was aligned twice and your shop was the one who installed it?
The guys seemed to work hard to figure out the problem.

 

[swathdiver]

Should have been, something obviously wasn't done right or the original problem was not fixed. You eliminated the tire pull by switching them. Visually check your suspension and verify the new and correct part is on there.

 

[glmoore0001]

I am at a tire store in Indiana having the right rear put on the front left and the left rear put on the front right.
Trying to see if that changes anything.
Thanks for the advice. I will continue to post till the problem is solved.

 

[kiboater]

Tie rod controls the tow in/out. Tow does not affect pull. It keeps the tires steering together and steers the vehicle. If the tow is too far in or out it has a huge effect on tire wear on both tires. It will not make the vehicle pull one way or the other. Caster and camber will.

Radial tires are a different story. If the belt inside the tire is manufactured incorrectly it will lead one way or the other and you can't correct with alignment. Tires are the problem!

Here is a link to a good artical:

https://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=12

 

[Tozan]

With all the tire swapping it does not sound like a tire problem.. As noted above it is not the tie rod... And again as noted above only caster or camber will make it pull. One other thing what size tires are you running and what wheels do you have a lift of any kind?

 

[glmoore0001]

With all the tire swapping it does not sound like a tire problem.. As noted above it is not the tie rod... And again as noted above only caster or camber will make it pull. One other thing what size tires are you running and what wheels do you have a lift of any kind?

265 70 R17
Z71 Stock Wheels, No lift.
To this point, the rear wheels had never been rotated into the fronts.
I had the rears rotated so that LR ended up RF. If I am not mistaken, it seems to have made a difference. I will know more after I make the next long drive.

 

[swathdiver]

You may then have a bad new tire as Frank mentioned.

 

[Tozan]

It is possible to have a bad tire but it does sound like an alignment issue too.

 

[dirtydenali07]

Could be an upper ball joint. The shop may have missed it. One time on my TJ I had it inspected, then a week later had the shop put 33x10.50’s on it and they told me both front unit bearings were bad. They didn’t go bad in a week.

 

[dirtydenali07]

Also, does your truck have rear leafs or coil springs? A bad control arm or spring eye bushing could cause a rear-steer situation.