I've just brought 4 new tyres for my car but now if you let go of the wheel, it drifts to the left, why?

Question

I've had the traking checked twice but they (Kwik Fit) claim it's perfect. What else could it be? It was fine before I changed the tyres.

Answer 1

You need to get the wheels balanced and the tracking checked.

Answer 2

Unbalanced tyre pressures, steering misalignment are the 2 probable causes. The old tyres may have worn to match any misalignment and you only notice it with new rubber. All cars driving on the left will have a slight pull towards the kerb because of the camber on the road. Might be worth having the alignment checked by the main dealer's workshop as they will know exactly how to set it up.

Answer 3

Hi

Kwik Fit, are, to put it bluntly, crap. You need to have everything which would affect the alignment checked, as follows:-

Tyre pressures
Shock absorbers
Worn track rod end ball joints
Worn bottom balljoints or inner bushes
Worn wheel bearings
Play in steering rack

Just checking the tracking doesn't cut it, and in actual fact, if any of the above is evident, apart from tyre pressures, shock absorbers, and the bottom ball joints or inner bushes, then the tracking can't acutally be checked or adjusted effectively, so you would be well within your rights to insert a track rod end into the cavity of a Kwik Fit Fitter!

Very best regards

Geordie

Answer 4

The main idea of drifting is making the rear end of the car slide due to a loss of traction on the lateral direction. You can do that by braking hard (with the handbrake) or accelerating hard if you have a RWD car. Personally I don’t think a FWD can make really good drifts because with the brake your speed will decrease. RWD can still accelerate while sliding, thus making a longer slide through the entire corner. Try playing a game like need for speed underground with FWD and then RWD to live the difference.

Answer 5

The camber on roads will create a slight drift to the left. Try driving down the middle of the road (pick an empty road!). Are your tyres uni directional? If they have an arrow denoting direction of turn, make sure that they are the right way round. Kwik Fit once fitted a pair of tyres to my car the wrong way round!

Answer 6

It is not wheel balancing. could be suspension damage, either way a good garage will be able to tell you what is wrong

I would avoid Kwik fit and go to a proper garage that does 4 wheel laser alignment, if what they do fixes it ,take the bill back to Kwik fit.

check the tires are not directional, and they have not fitted them the wrong way round. ?

Answer 7

I am not sure what tracking is. One thing is certain, if the car drifts left after getting new tires, and it didn't drift before, they call that radial runout. It really isn't a tire defect, but it does happen from time to time. All you have to do is go back and get them to cross the 2 front tires. If it then drifts right, ask them to replace the tire. It is usually corrected by crossing the tires. All of these other answers aren't far off, but you would have had the same problem before if any of them were right. It is just some radial runout. No biggie.

Answer 8

Lie others have just said, Tracking, wheel balancing, wheel alignment and correct tyre pressure all add up to a drag to the left or right if not spot on. If any of these are slightly off, the camber of the road,( all roads are built with a camber(slope) to the left to allow rainwater to drain to the gutters) will take it to the left irregardless of what you do. Have Kwik-fit check all these and the toe in as well......wheels are not straight up and down.....they are usually set to be slightly in at the bottom, (hence toe in) to allow them to go round corners easier.

Answer 9

If it only a slight drift on a road then it could be responding better to road camber than your old worn-out tyres.

Take it to Sainsburys car park at night and try it there. If it still drifts on a flat surface then take it back to Kwik Fit and raise merry hell.

Answer 10

Take it to a reputable garage for a check. Having seen some of the antics in Kwik Fit I would not trust them to do it.
RoyS

Answer 11

Tracking is the issue mi thinks ask them to retrack it after looking at the specific requirement for your vehicle, when we did tracking we just toed it in by a quater but really you [they] should not assume all cars should be set the same which may be your problem. Balancing will only stop shaking through the steering column, you may find but not very likley a defect in a tyre, did you leave the car with them? did they have a wack in it bending the chasse? without seeing it its difficult to say....... GLuck

ps you may even find your brake caliper is sticking causing a pad to be brakeing one side.

You people giving thumbs down why dont you p*ss off and stop knocking others to gain points.