Hello. My 3.75 years old Yeti has been pulling heavily to the right. I got the wheel alignment done from the service centre but it still pulls to the right. They say the tyres are worn and I need new tyres else it can't be aligned.

Is this true?

My car has run some 38,000 km plus and the wheels are worn alright, but almost at the threshold.

Also, I got the Electronic Stability Control error on my dashboard. The service centre says that too is related to worn out tyres. That could be true, but could that also be related to a low battery?

Ideally I would like to stretch my tyres for another few months, only keeping in mind the expense. But if it has to be done, it has to be done. Advice sought.

Yes, it's probably a tyre issue.  The tyres are probably worn unevenly due to poor wheel alignment.

 

Get the tyre rotated front to rear and the pulling should stop.

 

It would be good to see what they set the alignment to.

 

Sorry but i know nothing of the ESC error - can't quite see how uneven tyre wear would affect that but stranger things have happened.

Hi parambyte, I also have a 1.8tsi Yeti, which is approximately the same age as yours, which has travelled 36000km. I have no problems with the steering pulling either to the right or left, in fact it tracks very well. From new the tyres have been rotated front to back twice and will be rotated again in the next couple of months. The tyres are Dunlop SP Sports 01 and should provide me with approximately another 8000km of travel. I do drive carefully, which helps to keep the tyre wear even. If the rear tyres have worm evenly do as suggested by in the previous post and swap them to the front and then get an alignment. Good alignment cannot be acheived with unevenly worn tyres. If your tyes are almost worn out, you need to replace them with new tyres, get them balanced and then get the alignment checked.

If it is a 4x4 and there is a large difference in the wear between front and rear tyres (2-3 mm) then it can cause issues with the Haldex controller and possibly the ESC as well (so I am told).

 

My front tyres were wearing on inner and outer edges (probably from being under inflated). However, I had the garage swap them to the rear and do a full alignment check and it was out by quite a bit despite being done by the same garage in March last year.

 

Geometry does move (especially with out potholed rural roads) and it'll be worth getting that checked as well.

 

Otherwise, as has been said, swapping from to rear should see the puling stop if it is not the tyres.

No matter how much the tyres are worn if they have worn evenly across the tread and there are no gross difference in the front to rear tread depth the tyres will not make the car pull to the side or cause the ESC error light to come on.

 

 

Damage to the side-wall of a tyre could cause it to pull to the side unevenly, and would be very dangerous.

Edited 29 January, 201610 yr by Urrell

No matter how much the tyres are worn if they have worn evenly across the tread and there are no gross difference in the front to rear tread depth the tyres will not make the car pull to the side or cause the ESC error light to come on.

^^ What he said...

Strong pulling to the side and an ESC light on suggest there's something else wrong.

Hopefully a daft question - but are all the tyre pressures correct ?

One tyre being excessively low in pressure would cause pulling, and an ESC light if it rotates at a sufficiently different speed to the others.

But the fact tyres are worn doesn't mean alignment can't be done. when static all the wheels will still point and tilt in the right directions even if the tyres are unevenly worn.

However, unevenly worn tyres may well make the vehicle continue to pull when driving even if the alignment has been corrected.

Edited 29 January, 201610 yr by muddyboots

Thanks for the replies. It seems one of the tyres was very unevenly worn with the depth reduced to 1mm as opposed to the legally permitted minimum of around 1.6. I don't know how that happened because the car didn't seem to have an alignment issue earlier (I regulalry get the wheel alignment checked and the car has never pulled left or right earlier).

The other three had different but similar depths, ranging from around 1.8 upwards till around 2.6 different from edge to edge.

I ordered all four new tyres, want to be comfortable and safe because I drive a lot in the highways. I hope I didn't make an expense earlier than was necessary.