Rotated Tires- Pulls Hard when braking

[Grizzlyman]

Alright guys- any ideas out there?

'02 4.0 Sport 4X4. Got my tires rotated and balanced- but not aligned since they didn't have the "alignment guy" in that day...

Now when braking (especially on highway at high speeds) she pulls to the left pretty significantly. Had it aligned last year. No idea what is causing the pull...

Here's the deal:

-slight pull without braking

-No sign whatsoever of this pull PRIOR to the rotation and balance

-tires are older but still decent- probably need new tires next year sometime, but could potentially be worn in a not-so-great shape that causes pull. They maybe rotated in such a way that the worn shape is now causing pull?

-ball joints are fine- replaced passenger last year- drivers is still fine

- don't think it's a frozen brake caliper (this happened immediately after the rotation/balance)

- They said my wheels were awful- only 1 of the 4 even had weights. You may be asking yourself how I got it aligned last year and didn't have the wheels balanced??? Well my wife brought it in to get this done but forgot to tell them to balance the tires! They aligned and rotated without balancing!

My personal thought is they aligned it last year for wheels that were unbalanced??? so now that the wheels are balanced they alignment is really far off? Not really up to speed on alignments- does this make sense?

Any thoughts? I appreciate the help

 

[deweyville65]

Alright guys- any ideas out there?

'02 4.0 Sport 4X4. Got my tires rotated and balanced- but not aligned since they didn't have the "alignment guy" in that day...

Now when braking (especially on highway at high speeds) she pulls to the left pretty significantly. Had it aligned last year. No idea what is causing the pull...

Here's the deal:

-slight pull without braking

-No sign whatsoever of this pull PRIOR to the rotation and balance

-tires are older but still decent- probably need new tires next year sometime, but could potentially be worn in a not-so-great shape that causes pull. They maybe rotated in such a way that the worn shape is now causing pull?

-ball joints are fine- replaced passenger last year- drivers is still fine

- don't think it's a frozen brake caliper (this happened immediately after the rotation/balance)

- They said my wheels were awful- only 1 of the 4 even had weights. You may be asking yourself how I got it aligned last year and didn't have the wheels balanced??? Well my wife brought it in to get this done but forgot to tell them to balance the tires! They aligned and rotated without balancing!

My personal thought is they aligned it last year for wheels that were unbalanced??? so now that the wheels are balanced they alignment is really far off? Not really up to speed on alignments- does this make sense?

Any thoughts? I appreciate the help

I think you are looking at the wrong thing. Balancing does not affect the alignment. The tires may be cupped, but that should not affect the alignment. I think you have a bad tire, belt separation causing the pull. Try swapping the front tires, then see what happens. See if the pull follows the tire.
Also possible, if the lugs were not torqued, manually, with a torque wrench, that could cause a wrapped rotor, which could cause a pull. Notice, I say could, though not necessarily will.

 

[Grizzlyman]

I think you are looking at the wrong thing. Balancing does not affect the alignment. The tires may be cupped, but that should not affect the alignment. I think you have a bad tire, belt separation causing the pull. Try swapping the front tires, then see what happens. See if the pull follows the tire.
Also possible, if the lugs were not torqued, manually, with a torque wrench, that could cause a wrapped rotor, which could cause a pull. Notice, I say could, though not necessarily will.

I could be wrong but I don't think that's it. Tires are fine... I would think I (and the shop) would notice a seperated tire. Besides, the timing is too odd for the tire to seperate JUST after I had rotated and balanced.

Also, I torqued myself tonight (forgot to mention) all were tight still.

Keep em coming!

 

[my98nnj]

If it started immediately after you rotated your tires, you have a tire issue.
Rotate them back, verify the issue goes away.

 

[deweyville65]

You would think that is the case, but I have seen tires separated that were damn near impossible to see. I nearly wrecked a truck because a steer tire blew out crossing the Colorado river on I-10 on night. Truck pulled constantly to the right, shop could not see a problem with the tire. Found the problem when it blew. Was a new Michelin, had maybe 6-8k miles on it.

 

[waskly]

if it started after the rotation, your wheel or tire is bad.

just cause it can balance, does not mean its straight.