Can tires cause a Forester to pull to the right?

[nitroman58]

I drove my son's 01 Forester last weekend, and thought it felt pretty good, but it was pulling to right.  The first thing that I did was look at the tire pressure, and then the brakes.  They were okay.  Since he is away at school, he took the car to a Firestone place for an alignment.  Firestone told him the alignment was fine, and even reduced the price by $15.  They were saying that it is coming from the tire.

How likely is this to be correct?  

I do not have a problem with replacing two or 4 tires, but these tires have a good bit of tread left.  I thought about rotating the left and right front tires first to see if that would correct this. 

Does anyone else have a suggestion?

Thanks

[johnceggleston]

yes, tires can cause the car to pull.

swapping front to rear will change every thing,

and should eliminate the pull,

unless another tire has a problem.

 

rotating one tire to the rear at a time will help identify which one is the culprit.

of course there could be 2 bad tires??

 

you SHOULD NOT buy 2 tires.

the AWD system needs all 4 to be within 1/4 inch in circumference.

your circumference is in the 82  inch range.

 

managing the tires so they wear evenly, do not pull ,

and you use all the tread is going to be a challenge.

good luck.

 

i just went through this with my son's 97 avalon.

but all of his driving is to high school and back,

so we'll muddle through until we need tires.

probably next summer or fall.

 

rotate the tires.

Edited October 18, 2015 by johnceggleston

[nitroman58]

Thanks John.  When we bought the car, it had these tires which I believe are the Dynasty brand.  The local mechanic put the two with the most tread on the front.  He has put about 11,000 miles on the tires since that time.  

Should I rotate the tires, or just get 4 new ones?

Currently, the rear tires do not have as much tread as the front ones.

I have a Costco membership, and I can usually get $70 off on Michelin Defender's. I put the Defender's on my van, and they are pretty good.

[Fairtax4me]

Tires can cause a pull if they're worn unevenly. More wear on one edge will cause the tire to have a cone shape, and will pull in the direction of the small end of the cone.

Right side:

More wear on the inner edge will cause a pull to the left.

Wear on the other edge will pull to the right.

Left side:

inner edge, will pull right

Outer edge, pull left

 

Enough wear to cause a pull should be visible, or at least measurable with a tread depth guage. Normally edges worn on only one side (inner or outer) will indicate an alignment problem. It may suggest that the alignment shop didn't do a thorough shakedown of the front end before checking the alignment. I just serviced a car on Friday that had obvious play and ripped dust boots on both lower ball joints. The customer had just had an alignment done that morning before bringing the car to us for service and a state inspection. He wasn't too happy when I showed him what they missed.

 

Do a good shakedown of the front end. Ball joints, tie rod ends, control arm bushings. Check the rear bushings on the arms for grease leaking from them. If the grease is leaking out they're bad and need to be replaced, and could be causing a pull, and tire wear.

 

Also try rotating the tires as John suggested. Swap the fronts left<->right and see if it now pulls the opposite way.

[nitroman58]

BTW, what does this mean?

the AWD system needs all 4 to be within 1/4 inch in circumference.

your circumference is in the 82  inch range.

[Fairtax4me]

Subaru recommends all 4 tires measure within 1/4" circumference or the AWD transfer clutch can be damaged.

 

If your least worn tire has a circumference of 82.25", your most worn tire should have a circumference no less than 82.0".

[johnceggleston]

if buying 4 new tires would not keep you from paying the mortgage or putting food on the table,

i would do that.

 

you may be able to manage the ones you have and put off buying new,

but god forbid the tires cause an accident for a teen driver. (your son may not be a teen.)

 

if you do not buy new now,

 i would try and identify THE bad tire, if only one,

and swap it to the rear.

having one of the most worn on the rear and one on the front ,

this will lessen the potential damage to the transfer clutch.

 

but eventually you will need new.

 

also,

what caused the bad wear on your tires?

be sure to correct that to avoid a repeat.

[nitroman58]

Thanks again.

[Loyale 2.7 Turbo]

Usually we focus in the most important aspects of an issue, and forgot the simplest aspects, that might be the Culprit of the Pulling to one side and / or the uneven wear of the Tires: inflation.

 

All the Tires must be Kept at the Proper / Recommended PSi, otherwise the car will pull to one side and / or develop uneven wear.

 

Kind Regards.

[matt167]

broken belt too.. anything that sounds like a bearing? could be a noisy tire with a broken or slipped belt

[lstevens76]

One last thing that a lot of shops don't know how to check on a Subaru:

 

Ball Joints.  Subaru ball joints are checked differently than a lot of others.  With a prybar you can check them yourself.