This is the second time this has happened on my '97 S420.

I had a 4-wheel alignment done about 3 months ago, and until I rotated my tires, the car tracked straight as an arrow. After a front-to-back tire rotation, the car now pulls to the left and I constantly have to apply right-turn pressure to the steering wheel to keep the car going straight.

I have verified the air pressure is the same in all four tires, and I didn't touch anything else. What am I missing? I don't want to have to take the car in for an alignment every time I rotate my tires.

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"It's not about how fast you can go, but how well you can go fast."

Bob in Richmond

'97 S320 (LWB), Ruby Red Metallic, 73k miles
'97 S420V, Smoke Silver Metallic, 155k miles

does not sound like an alignment isses ....it sounds like and quite possibly is a radial tire pull

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Thanks for the info, Luke. I was not aware that such a phenomenon even existed. After a quick google search, I found an article about it on tirerack.com (go figure!). I'm pretty sure I know which tire is the bad one, so I'm not going to need to do all the tire-swapping listed there. I'm just going to rotate the tires back to the way they were until it's time to replace bad ones.

Bob.

__________________
"It's not about how fast you can go, but how well you can go fast."

Bob in Richmond

'97 S320 (LWB), Ruby Red Metallic, 73k miles
'97 S420V, Smoke Silver Metallic, 155k miles

Bob, talk to the vendor who supplied your current tires and see if it's possible to get a replacement tire free-of-charge since one tire appears to be defective. It's worth a try because driving on the defective tire is likely causing some imperceptible damage to your car.

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Fred Hoelzle

Tire pulls are a very, very common problem. My TDI car currently pulls because of that... I know it's not the alignment because my room mate is the alignment tech who did it

Try swapping the tires side to side if they aren't directional.

-Jason

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1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.

I have confirmed Luke's diagnosis, and it is indeed the tire on the left side. I swapped it back to the rear and the car tracks straight again. I'm almost due for a new set (going to replace the Conti's with Michelin's) so I'm going to let it ride as-is for another 10k miles or so until I'm ready to replace them.

__________________
"It's not about how fast you can go, but how well you can go fast."

Bob in Richmond

'97 S320 (LWB), Ruby Red Metallic, 73k miles
'97 S420V, Smoke Silver Metallic, 155k miles

Ahem.... I got it from TireRack.

__________________
"It's not about how fast you can go, but how well you can go fast."

Bob in Richmond

'97 S320 (LWB), Ruby Red Metallic, 73k miles
'97 S420V, Smoke Silver Metallic, 155k miles