EXTREME Pulling to the left from Tires?

[SwampSurvivor]

So when I put on my snow tires this winter, the car tracked pretty straight. Apart from shaking (these Winterforce shake, even when balanced), the car seemed to drive fine.

The last 8 or so weeks, the car has been pulling to the left pretty good. In order to drive straight, I've had to have the steering wheel turned about 15 degrees to the right. If the steering wheel was straight, the car would turn pretty sharp left (or atleast more left turning than you want to do going 50).

First thing I checked was the pressure ... and the pressures were equal all around. I inflated the left front to 40 and left the RF at 32. That seemed to help a bit, but not a lot.

I couldn't take the shaking any more so I put on the summer tires last night.

The car tracks DEAD STRAIGHT. I can let my hands off the wheel and the car tracks straight with the steering wheel in the center.

I understand that tires can pull a bit ... but never had this happen this bad before.

I was thinking alignment's off - but if it tracks perfect with the summer tires ... I don't think the alignment is out.

I've also checked:
-Same size tires (they are the same)
-Pressure (staggered helped, but they were al lthe same).

Can these winterforce tires really be this bad?

 

[GreeCguy]

I've had that happen before when a belt begins to break within the tire. Usually you'll notice the car pulling to one side, then it will start "bumping," and finally the belt will break. I most deal with used tires and have had this happen more than once.

Check out the tires you removed and look for a "bump" on the tire tread, also check for "twisted" tread. Run your hands over the tread to check for bumps, (be careful, if belts are coming through tread, they will poke you in an unfriendly way).

 

[salv]

Very soft tires. They tend to wear easily, and if alignment is off they tend to show extremely uneven wear. I bet they are very choppy, and you have a bad tire pull.

 

[GreeCguy]

BTW - (in my humble opinion) that's the reason you couldn't balance the tires - they didn't need balancing as balancing wouldn't fix the problem. Belts were starting to break. Inflating them to 40 psi "stretched" them out and took away some of the "bump" and some of the pull. The danger however, if belts are breaking, this will only make them break faster.

 

[GreeCguy]

One other thing - are the tires still on the wheels or did you take them off the wheels? If they're off the wheels, look inside and feel around, (again, being careful). If a belt is letting go, you'll be able to see it as a "bump" or "bulge" on the inside. Usually, (but not always) this will happen where the belts are joined. It can also happen where a tire was patched and the belts were damaged. Check for repairs on the inside of the tire, (i.e. plugs and patches).

 

[JimPghPA]

Just a couple of things I could think of that you could check.

Is the treed symmetrical or is there a specified direction of rotation, and if so are all of them mounted proper so as to have the proper rotation direction?

With the problem set of winter tires still on the rims and inflated to the proper pressure, use a tape measure to measure the outside diameter of each of them, and compare those measurements.

If they are all the same, next lay them on a flat reference so that the rim is parallel to the reference surface and measure the distance from the center hole of the rim to the flat reference for each tire both with the valve stem side up and with the valve stem side down. Compare each to see if they are the same.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Unfortunately , it looks like I may have to eat this set of tires. I'm too honest to stick 'em on CL and sell them to someone unknowingly.

I suspected bad belts - I've read in more than a few reviews that the Winterforce in small sizes have issues with belts going bad. I knew belts would cause shaking never knew they would cause the car to pull so hard! I'll have to check the measurements.

I rotated them front to back last year (directional tread) and I had the problem (not the pulling last year) ... so I think most of them are probably bad. For what it's worth, at 70 the shaking isnt bad and at 75 it's completely gone.

I like how well they perform ... but disappointed in how they shake so bad. I think next year I'll replace two with some sort of equivalent directional snow tire.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

On a sidenote, the gas milage went back up to high 30s on my commute by getting these tires off.