LexusPia

Here's a good one maybe you guys can provide a clue to this mystery. About 6 months ago, I put new tires on and asked the local alignment shop to do a 4-wheel alignment . Everything tracked perfect--the car goes straight when steering wheel is centered. Last week I decided to replace the brakes with new pads since back ones were starting to squeal. Brake shop said both front and back needed new pads. They machined the rotors and installed Lexus OEM pads. The first thing I noticed when I drove the car with the new brakes is it veers (drifts) to the right on a flat, straight road with the steering wheel centered. However, the new brakes brake perfectly straight--didn't show any signs of grabbing to the right. I took it back and asked them to check whether the calipers were sticking causing the pads to stay engaged and to ask them to spin all 4 wheels to make sure nothing was dragging. Everything checked out perfect. The only conclusion from the brake shop was the alignment must be off however I told them the car tracked perfectly before the brake job.

Took the car to the alignment shop and found the alignment to be right on the money but they confirmed the car veered to the right. The tires were perfectly balanced too. All the lug nuts were also checked for proper torque and they were all torqued correctly. They were thoroughly puzzled as I was. The only possible explanation they could give was maybe the radial belt on one of the front tires has "shifted" inside the tire thus causing this problem but couldn't explain why it occurred all of a sudden with no warning. Finally I told them out of desperation to switch tires from front to back since I was out of ideas. Guess what, the problem disappeared after the switch and it now tracks normal like before and the alignment shop confirmed that. However the alignment shop was totally baffled by this. Can you guys explain why the problem went away just by switching tires and why this problem occured with new brakes?

Thanks.

3rdelement

iTrader: (1)

i dont know if that was the problem, but it sounds like it fixed the symptom.

Mine did that since i bought it. Come to find out that was a tiny rip in the cv boot. which ended up really messing up that joint. After that was replaced for around 180 i was fine. having said that. I have some really warn tires that need to be replaced and the car is pulling in the oposite direction when i stop hard now. :-\ if its now one thing, its another. If its not another thing. its a bulb most likely in our cars. lol

GATO

iTrader: (1)

my theory.........is that one of your struts is going out......this is of course pure speculation...when raising the car it relieves pressure from struts...if strut is going out, it will not compress properly...(when back on the floor) it will compress ...but if its going out it will take some time to settle back in place....usually you'll notice when making a turn...it make a loud sound and gets back to normal....so, in my theory, if your stut is going out..your car would not be even,thus,causing the drift problem

amf1932

If rotating the tires fixed the problem, then I doubt whether it has anything to do with the struts.

I had the same problem on my previously owned '94ES when I rotated the tires.......a slight pull to the right. I then put the tires back to the original position, and no more pulling.

So what does that tell you? It's the tires!!