Steering Wheel Not Straight After New Front Tyres Fitted

[greenfield8]

Just had 2 new Continental tyres fitted to the front of my 2014 Toyota Auris 1.6 at 16000 miles and noticed that the steering wheel was about 5° off centre to the left. I was concerned that perhaps the mobile fitters had jacked the car up inappropriately and bent something on the suspension or steering, I then swapped the new fronts side to side which made no difference, I then swapped the fronts and rears over and the steering wheel is now straight again!! I have never experienced this before and wondered if the Auris is particularly sensitive to tyre choice or alignment.

[alan333]

I've had strange steering symptoms on two Toyotas - a 55 plate Avensis and an 11 plate Auris.

The Avensis had two new cheap front tyres fitted when I bought it and the steering wheel was an eighth of a turn out. I adjusted the tracking accordingly and the car was fine, no uneven wear, no pulling etc, and it ran for about a year like this. However that car had bad road noise and as part of my elimination process I fitted different tyres on the front. This made the steering wheel off centre again but the opposite way, ie if I hadn't adjusted the tracking it would now have been spot on.

The Auris also had 2 new cheap front tyres when bought, and a few months later it started pulling to one side. Swapping the fronts with the rears cured most of the problem, although I still feel the steering on that particular car isn't great.

I put both problems down to cheap tyres running out of true...something I wouldn't expect from Continentals.

Hope this helps :)

[greenfield8]

Thank you for your response, it would seem the problem is tyre related although as you say I would not expect this form top of the range Continentals. I was keen to make others aware of this as I was about to pay £70.00 for a full 4 wheel alignment to get the steering wheel back straight which would need doing again next time the front tyres were changed.

[alan333]

How about leaving your new ones on the rear and let them bed themselves in for a couple of thousand miles?

[greenfield8]

I was thinking exactly the same, although it was really hard work swapping front to rear with just the scissor jack and space saver that came with the car!! I guess about a 1000 miles is enough to bed them in before considering swapping them back again.

[alan333]

Apparently these days it's recommended to put the new tyres on the rears anyway. The tyre guy at my work says it's cos the rears often don't get changed for years so they crack due to age, and swapping the "old" ones to the front rotates them into wearing sooner. There was a thread on this just the other day where a video was posted with a guy driving with worn tyres on the back, then on the front instead. The car lost it's roadholding quicker with the worn ones on the back.

Edit.. Here's that thread...

http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/169258-will-i-get-points-on-my-licence-for-this/