ok, so after all the fuss about my alignment, i ended up just rotating my tires cuz so many people suggested it. with my front wheels now in back, and my rears up front with new tires on em, my car now pulls to the right instead of to the left. i couldn't recall any possibility of a wheel damaging incident, but now it looks like one of my wheels could be outa whack.
is this right? if so, do alignment shops test the 'straightness' of wheels too? it's hard for me to believe that any of my little curb bumps could have caused this.

 

The front end alignment equipment can show if wheel runs true but most shops wouldn't do it unless you specifically ask them to. The shop I go to always does it to ensure no alignment problems. I never have any problems after they get done. Align car or check alignment every 2 years. If alignment is done right I just don't have any problems. I am running Dunlop V Rated SP 5000s. Hope this helps.

 

I had the exact same problem, and it turned out to be radial pull. In my case, the bad tire started in back (car pulling left), and when rotated to the front the car started pulling right. Radial pull is a slight mis-alignment of the radial belt, and it "pulls" the tire in one direction - I can only assume that in back it pulled the tire right (back end right, front of car goes left), and in front it just pulled the front end right.

Anyway, swapped left and right front tires and bingo - no more pull. I checked with a few tire places, who told me that radial pull isn't dangerous (i.e. no tire exploding). Who knows if that's actually true - if this turns out to the problem for you too, you should make some calls and see if they tell you the same thing. Still haven't heard from Bridgestone... Maybe I shouldn't have started my e-mail to them with "These tires suck!!!". j/k

 

I hate to suggest this, but have you checked your tire pressures?

ARFF

 

yup

maximax2, i read your previous post on radial pull too. i woulda figured that was it, but before this last rotation, i had also bought two new tires up front. the car pulled left before and after i changed the two tires. only now with the wheels in the rear does the car pull right.