I recently had my struts installed and during the process had my tires rotated.

I believe the tires were rotated using the cross method. Meaning the Right Front went to the left Rear, Front Left to Right Rear.

Is this the best method of rotating tires?
Is it normal for it to pull to the left? Does it auto correct after some driving?

BTW: I have Falken Ziex ZE-512 tires.

Would an alignment fix this issue?

Thanks.

 

it's your alignment. Go to a shop and get it done.

 

could be alignment, it could be low air in the left tire

 

Most likely you need alignment. About rotating your tires, make sure the guys know their job, as per direccional tires (which have arrows on the outside face of tire pointing the direccion they should roll) only can be rotate it front to back and back to front on the same side; not crossing at all; believe me; that happened to me a few times where were rotated the wrong way; even one time when got new tires, the guys put/mounted direccional tires on rims the oposite way. Check on that too with someone who knows.

 

Thanks for all the help.

So rotating tires is based on the actually tires and not something that is in our manuals?

If I rotated it back the way they were before would this solve my problem?

 

just get it alligned. you just had new struts installed, so your allignment probably went to hell. the only bad thing that could come of tire rotation is if they are directional tires (one quick look will tell you this, as they will have a marking kinda like this "==ROTATION==>" on one side, point the way it should rotate. if that arrow is pointing the wrong way, then yeah, they need to be changed, but otherwise, just get it re-alligned.

 

There is also another reason for the slight pull besides alignment. If after you have your alignment done there is still a slight pull, then that indicates what's called a radial pull which is basically an imperfection in the tread of the tire. There's nothing computer alignment can do for a radial pull.

Hopefully, you'll be straight as an arrow after you get the computer alignment.

 

I think that cross method went away once the steel belted radial tire was introduced, about 40 years ago. Tires should remain on the same side of the car when rotated. Forget about uneven front/rear sizes, and unidirectional tires (the Corvette has 4 different tires, and they cannot be rotated). On most cars where the widths match front and rear, the front left goes to the rear left, and the rear left goes to the front left. Ditto on the right. Moving tires from one side to the other reverses the direction, which causes the belts to shift on radial tires.

It is normal for the car to "drift" due to a crown in the road, that is, on roads where there is a crown. No, the siituation does not correct itself on its own. Whenever an alignment is performed you are supposed to get a printout, so you know they actually did the alignment and you can see that the specs are within a range.