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Path: utzoo!linus!security!genrad!grkermit!masscomp!clyde!ihnp4!inuxc!pur-ee!uiucdcs!parsec!gant
From: gant@parsec.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.auto
Subject: Re: Tire rotation cured pull! Why? - (nf)
Message-ID: <4410@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 9-Dec-83 22:39:45 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.4410
Posted: Fri Dec  9 22:39:45 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 13-Dec-83 05:41:12 EST
Lines: 24

#R:houxv:-22800:parsec:33000001:000:1186
parsec!gant    Dec  9 14:15:00 1983

RE:  tires causing a car to pull to one side.

I had the same problem on my 1980 Scirocco, with the original equipment
Goodyear Grand Prix's.  At about 5000 miles, the car started pulling
to one side.  Rotating the tires on that side cured the problem, until
the car started to pull the other way.  Needless to say, this problem
continued until I didn't have 2 tires left which I could put on the front
without the car pulling.  On a subsequent long trip, one of the front
tires developed an extreme version of the problem.  While changing the
tire, I set it next to the car on a flat surface, on its tread.  I was
shocked to see very visible indication that the tire was leaning!  The
tread section was NOT perpendicular to the center line of the wheel
anymore, giving the tire a sort of trapezoidal cross-section!  I was
later told that the steel belts were shifting internally, causing the
deformation of the tire shape.  Rather than get the faulty tires adjusted
and replaced with others which would likely fail in the same manner, I
bought a new set of tires, this time Michelin XZX -- a nice tire, but a
little slippery in the wet.

Alan Gant
{ihnp4,uiucdcs,allegra}!parsec!gant