Rotated my tires today...

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
I think anything over a degree of camber is excessive, but I doubt you'll get any GM shop adjust a vehicle that way. If they did, then the dealership would have to eat any subsequent costs involved.


CapriRacer:
1) I never saw a printout of the target setttings for the alignment, what the tech would "aim for" in his set-up.
2) What camber/caster/toe would you "go for" if this was your family van.
3) I'm not sure what you mean by "subsequent costs" that the dealership would incur.

TIA for your reply.

 

[Papa Bear]

OK, so here's my final post on this until I rotate again in the spring ....

GM customer Service called last Friday afternoon saying that they were going to give me 4 new tires. I went in on Saturday to the local GM dealer who had done the alignment and they ordered the tires. The tires arrived yesterday and I went in today and got them installed (NO CHARGE). I got the same tires that were on the van originally, GoodYear Integrity, and the van runs like new again. I took it up to almost 100 MPH and it ran smooth as silk and quiet as a mouse. Case closed !!!

Much thanks to Greg at Tech Tire, Leamington, and CapriRacer for their valuable info and advice.

I kept holding GM accountable for the situation and came out with NO CHARGE rear axle repair, 4 wheel alignment and 4 new tires.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Persistence does pay off, sometimes.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
I think anything over a degree of camber is excessive, but I doubt you'll get any GM shop adjust a vehicle that way. If they did, then the dealership would have to eat any subsequent costs involved.


CapriRacer:
1) I never saw a printout of the target setttings for the alignment, what the tech would "aim for" in his set-up.
2) What camber/caster/toe would you "go for" if this was your family van.
3) I'm not sure what you mean by "subsequent costs" that the dealership would incur.

TIA for your reply.



I tend to defer to the vehicle manufacturer for the target value unless there is some reason to suspect the target value is faulty. As I pointed out, I think cambers over a degree are automatically suspect.

I also thoroughly disagree with the published tolerances! I think the actual alignment values need to be within the inner half of the range - especially toe.

"Subsequent costs"? In theory, if the dealeship were to deviate from the alignment specs, GM could refuse to reimburse the dealer for the alignment. Another example: If the dealer did not put on TPC spec tires, then GM could refuse to reimburse the dealer for those tires.

And who knows what else could go wrong? It might only be loosely related, but GM could take issue with it.

Anyway, I was glad I could help!

 

[Papa Bear]

OK... so this is my final post on the subject.

Here is a pic of one of my new tires. . They all have the same marking on the face which appears to be (from outside to inside) yellow/gold, red, pink/ white stripes... what do they mean ???

Also my last 4 digits on the DOT code (all 4 tires) is 1410 so I think they are quite fresh. The garage smells great ... I love the smell of napalm new rubber in the morning.

 

[CapriRacer]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
.......yellow/gold, red, pink/ white stripes... what do they mean ???.....


They are just identification stripes so that stuff doesn't get mixed up. They don't have any "meaning".

 

[Papa Bear]

Thanks, CapriRacer.

 

[The Critic]

I'm glad the situation ended in a way that you were satisfied with the outcome.

Personally, I still do not believe that GM and/or Goodyear were obligated to correct the situation. The misalignment may have been caused by normal driving and should be considered normal wear and tear. If the vehicle had came from the factory with a defective axle, the problem would not have taken this long to show up. Either way, glad it worked out for you.

 

[crinkles]

there is NOTHING like a set of fresh tyres!

 

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: The Critic
I'm glad the situation ended in a way that you were satisfied with the outcome.

Personally, I still do not believe that GM and/or Goodyear were obligated to correct the situation. The misalignment may have been caused by normal driving and should be considered normal wear and tear. If the vehicle had came from the factory with a defective axle, the problem would not have taken this long to show up. Either way, glad it worked out for you.


Sounds like you won't have any problem then replacing the Bridgestones (your dime) in your other thread....

 

[stockrex]

papa bear, I had those goodyears on my van, I spend 1/2 negotiating with samsclub to take em off for some michelins, sorry, they were terrible in winter.

 

[The Critic]

Originally Posted By: Papa Bear
Sounds like you won't have any problem then replacing the Bridgestones (your dime) in your other thread....

I am not expecting to receive any assistance from them for replacement as the tires are not showing to be defective in any way. However, if there is some sort of mileage expectation from Nissan (which I doubt), I'll be sure to look into it.

 

[Papa Bear]

Originally Posted By: stockrex
papa bear, I had those goodyears on my van, I spend 1/2 negotiating with samsclub to take em off for some michelins, sorry, they were terrible in winter.


"Terrible" is a subjective relative term ... I drive like (I am) a grandfather and the GY Integrity tires are more than enough for me.
I had no complaints with the original tires (they wore about 3/32 in 30k miles) except for the fact that they were becoming noisy. Now that the axle repair/alignment is done, I am hoping for 60k miles of happy motoring on these tires....