Alignment Question - 2010 Escape FWD

Joined
Apr 15, 2017
Messages
4,399
Location
Napa, CA.
Hey all, just curious. When I bought my Escape at around 60K miles it had a fresh set of Hankook Dynapro HT tires and alignment from the Ford dealer.

Now at about 110K I bought a new set of Vredestein Quatrac 5 tires and had them installed by a local shop and asked them to do an alignment as well... The only reason I asked for an alignment is I noticed the old front tires were not wearing evenly. Inner was more worn that outer. Keep in mind I NEVER rotated those tires (ThEy RoTaTe WhEn I dRiVe) and NEVER had the alignment checked in the 60K miles I've owned this vehicle and it has NOT had an easy life. It's been off-roaded in ways it should never have been, driven at speeds on and off paved roads, over bumps, curbs, medians... don't ask :p so I figured an alignment would be good.

Anyway, before the alignment I had no trouble driving this car at high speeds with one hand and keeping it perfectly centered in the lane. After the fresh tires and alignment I have to pay a lot more attention and it feels a lot more squirrely than it did before.

I don't think it's a tire issue - these Vredestein tires are AMAZING. Sooooo much better than the Hankooks were on day one let alone after 60K miles LOL. Smooth, quiet, amazing traction and handling. And now that I actually do have traction again, when I floor it, I get torque steer, because, well, FWD sucks. Before I had minimal torque steer because the Hankooks would just lose traction and hop. LOL.
 
Did you get a readout? It sounds like the original Ford alignment had a little bit of toe-out. Not enough to hurt anything. The new place may have used an incorrect spec and toed them in.
This might be causing that squirley feeling.
 
Softer sidewalls, tread squirm, radial pull, etc, all of those can affect steering stability at high speeds. Give it 2-3k miles for the tires to wear-in and revisit.
 
the wear sounds like toe out which should have made it wander around. All alignments i know of have them towed in a bit for straight line tracking/stability. The wear could also have been camber? If you can let go of the steering and it tracks reasonably well and doesent bump steer then align is good and you maybe just need to get used to it?
 
Both toe-in and toe-out will wear the inside edge if combined with negative camber. A bit of toe-in however will feel more straight line stable than a lot, or any toe-out.

Give the new tyres a bit of time, they should quickly get better.
 
Thanks all, I will give it til my next oil change in like 10K miles and if it persists take it elsewhere for an alignment.
 
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