Tire store woes

[schume]

So I was in a rush to the airport. I needed to drive 115 miles from my house to the airport that morning. Woke up to a snow storm, not good. My 2010 3 door has been great and I'm close to 50k miles on the original tires. I decided to hit the tire shop right when they opened, get some good snow tires and go for it. Everything went as planned. Drove to the shop, pulled onto the lift and waited for the new tires. I don't like other people touching any of my vehicles, so when they do, I usually watch. This time, I was so concerned about the snow in the mountains, I was basically buried in my phone watch the road cameras to see what I'd be driving into.

My car is done and I run out to get it. First thing I notice is my front wheels are turned to the right about 45 degrees from center. I parked it on the lift, wheels were perfectly straight, key was in my pocket. I start the car and go to shift into reverse (auto trans) and almost couldn't. It felt like I was parked on a super steep hill without the parking brake holding the car. The car finally banged into reverse. Again, I'm so concerned about the weather, road conditions, time, etc, I just go.

While driving, it become apparent that the car now pulls to the right pretty obviously. I think I'd be pretty accurate to guess that some... sorry, this is where I want to explode in a tirade of obscenities... I think it's safe to assume that someone torqued my wheels with the car still in the air. Between the transmission being bound up and my front wheels turned to the right, someone did something really wrong.

Now that I vented, my question is where should I look for issues? I'm assuming something got tweaked, since my car now pulls to the right. I don't want to go get my car realigned and compensate for something that is out of spec. Any potential issue with the power steering calibration? Anything else to check?

[Exiwolfman]

Sounds like u need an alignment any shop with alignment rack can do it ....specialy if u get new tires .