Alignment Issue ? ! ? !

[nicks84]

So I got new tires today. And not suprisingly, Discount tires fu*ed up the job. Well , not bad, but I wasnt happy about it. I got 2 new tires today, for the front. Being that I have a front wheel drive, and the rear tires are about flawless (litereally), I requested a rotation. The new tires on the rear for preservation. Why? becuase I had a slight alighment issue. Or so the wear on the front tires indicated so. It had only been present in the past 4 mo, and seemed to be slight.

Moving on. When I left Discount that day, the car was making 2 diffreent distinct noises. One was Definately metal on metal, the other seemes to be road noise of sort. So, quicky, before my wheel fell off, I turned around and took it to him. I explained the 2 noises, what I thought it might be, and that the road noise can only be heard above 25 mph. He pursues to tell me he can hear it in the parking lot. He agrees, horrible noise. Put it back on the lift, and sure enough, they bent my dust plate behind the rotor, to the point where it was grinding.

So they bent if back in place (classy, but what else were they supposed to do), and it worked and no longer made that grinding noise. Well, the other noise, was still present. So I took the tech for a drive. He says,"oh, that noise is natural, it happens when you rotate tires, it might do that for 100 - 500 miles. If after that time, its still doin it, bring it back ". My mouth almost hit the floor. NOTHING against the mal informed, it happens, but I know my way aroudn cars a little bit, and I have never heard of this. I am not however saying he is not right. I assume he woudl know, tired being his speacialty.

Here's the thing. I did hada slight alighment problem, well, maybe more than slight, but in the past 3 mo, it seemed to get more sever, hence the new tires in the front. IBefore, when the old tires were on, it wasnt making any noise, but they were operatingunder a certain wear pattern. So, upon relpacing them with tires lacking the "Custom" wear patterns, can the new ones make noise and vibrate a little bit ? It does pull the right, but dont seem severe enough to make that noise. This would be a first for me.

One time I did change my entire front end (on a diff vehicle), and even though I marked and measured everything for reference, it was so far out of alignment, I couldnt even drive straight, due to competion in direction. But, it made no noise. My current car is nowhere near as out of alighment, yet it makes noise, can this be alighment related ? Any feed back or suggestions ? He said the tires were balanced, and there is not wear on any of the tires. .. . . Help me out

[nicks84]

Got it taken care of. I had the car re-aligned, cause I thougt maybe it could have been way out of tolerance and causing the noise. It turns out, the alighnment was not too bad, 1/10 degree off (Toe Out), everything else was acceptable. I had the tires put back on the back, and no noise.

[nicks84]

Hmmm, Okay. Not this is starting to bug me. I just rotated my tires again. The new ones I purchased, that were on the back, are now on the front and making noise again, and it pulls to the right. My alighment shoudl be good because I had it done a few months ago. They checked my front end for worn parts, they said it was fine.
This noise present as already suggested woudl go away in a few hundred miles. It has been right over 1000 miles, and the noise is still present. Would that indicate that something is bad on the rear?

[Red7402]

Just a shot in the dark here, but have you considered that there might be something wrong with the tire(s) you purchased?

[rhandwor]

I agree some of the new tires have problems.