When I first got my 2008 Jeep four door 02/01/08 I notice that it was pulling to the right a little and the steering had some play. I figured ok well the dealer did switch my tires from my 07 lemon which had 17" to the 08 which had 16's and I wanted my 17's. Anyway I took it to Tire Kingdom and they said that the alignment was out of wack and so they align it and said it was most likely because I went to a bigger tire which made sense.
Now here it is March and I notice again the jeep pulling to the right and the steering again had some play in it. So I took it back to Tire Kingdom and they said again it was out of wack and this time they said well may be the bigger tires are just causing it to go out of alignment. Now I trust these guys up there and one of them is even a fellow Jeep Wrangler Unlimited 4 door owner. They have even took me back there and show me the computer which showed it was way off.

Has anybody else had this problem with their Jeep and 17" tires?
I am not sure what else could be causing this . Maybe it not the size of the tire but something else wrong with the Jeep that is causing this. Any ideas?

 

I would take it back to the dealer and let them know what's going on. Bring in your receipts from Tire Kingdom or whatever you want to so they can see that you've had it aligned 2x in a month. I'm not completely sure what it could be, but something isn't right.

 

If you got an alignment done then it shanges itself after the fact you got a part going bad somewhere or they did not tighten the nuts on the turnbuckles. I would take it to the dealer to have them inspect the front end for defective parts

 

check your air pressure.

 

I am going to assume you mean 17 inch wheels. The 08s offer an available 17 inch rim on the x, the Rubicon comes with 17s and the Sahara comes with 18 inch wheels. Tires on the Rubicon and Sahara are 32 inches stock.

Many people upgrade the size of their tire. Most to 35 and some to 37 inches. I would think if your alignment is going out either you have something wrong with the Jeep or do you drive on alot of rough surfaces or does someone else drive your Jeep?

 

Exactly what is there to adjust on a stock jk for alighnment?

 

The only thing that can be adjusted on a stock JK is the steering wheel center. If they are charging people for alignments and only centering the steering wheel I would seriously question their business practices. Anyone with a 14 mm socket can re-center the steering wheel.

 

And toe-in. Neither of these would fix a "pull." Simply puting on larger tires won't CAUSE a vehicle's alignment to change. Installing a lift likely would, but you haven't mentioned a lift. Did the shop give you a print out of the alignment specs? If so, what were they.

 

I thought that was all, I think alot of people are getting ripped on alighnments!

 

All I did for mine when I put my lift on was re-center the steering wheel and adj the new front trackbar ( no adj control arms yet ) But surprisingly it still handles good and it still runs straight , no pulling.