As I mentioned before, yesterday I took my car to Les Schwab for a tire rotation and brake inspection. When I got it back, it was pulling to the right, and it was too late to take it back that day. Today it wasn't raining, so I decided to do a little troubleshooting on my own.

Checked the tire pressures. They were all wrong, of course, so I corrected them. Took the car out for a drive, and it still pulled hard to the right. I've also got a new vibration in the steering wheel at speeds above 60 mph.

I put my hands to the wheel vents after a freeway run, and none of the brakes were noticably hotter than the others, so it's not a dragging brake.

At this point, I suspect I have a bad tire that wasn't as obvious when it was on the rear. For a while I'd had an odd vibration from the rear at certain speeds. It was a vibration at 45 mph, and at 25 mph it felt like the rear of the car was squirming side-to-side slightly. I never figured out what it was. I wonder if a slipped belt in one of the tires would cause those symptoms on the rear, and a pull on the front?

At this point, the next logical step would be to swap each front tire out with the spare, to see if the problem goes away, but that's a lot of work and it looks like it's about to start raining again. I think I'll take the car to the tire shop on Tuesday and let them scratch their heads over it.


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