# Tires and Alignment ?on their dime??????



## bsmcall (Sep 11, 2004)

I had my goat into Stealership @ 6400miles and I asked to have the car aligned and the tires rotated due to abnormal wear on the inside shoulder of each tire.
The service writer asked how aggressively I drove the car and told me that since it was a higher-performance vehicle, the tires would always wear funny. :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: 
I now have 11,500 mile and the front tire inside shoulders are shot on a tire that looks to have 3 or 4k miles left on it. 
I want the car properly aligned before putting on new skins and since the stealership didn't correct the tire wear problem the first time, I think that they should pro-rate or replace the front tires and set the alignment correctly.

Any input would be appreciated. :seeya:

http://www.kumhotire.com/int/Tires/Doctor02.jsp


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## stucker (Sep 22, 2004)

Definately sounds like you need an alignment. They know it and just don't want to pay for it.


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## 79TA&04GTO (Jul 29, 2004)

I had about 10,500 miles on it, and just purchased a new set of tires. We'll see in another 10,500 miles, how these Fuzion ZRI's hold up. Mine too, were worn slightly more on the inner shoulder, but I also suffered from not double checking the dealer, and finding out that at 5000 miles or more, I still had 50-55 pounds of pressure in my tires. I contributed the wear to the overinflation.


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## Subdriver (Dec 28, 2004)

Inside front tire wear is pretty common on aggressive alignments. I'm not sure what the stock alignment settings are for the GTO though.

On my Z06, I wore out the inside edge of my stock Goodyear F1SC in 3000 miles. With front negative camber over -1.0 and some slight toe out, the inside edge can drag and wear out very fast. Lots of front negative camber help these front engine cars turn in and corner well... at the cost of tire wear.

Thus, you can wear out the inside front edge very fast, even if the alignment is okay. 

I suspect their is a band for the alignment. For example, on the Z06, the front camber can be from -1.2 to -0.2 with -0.7 nominal. I had mine put near the max negative to improve handling. To improve wear, lower the front camber to nearer zero and set toe near zero if that is allowed. 

I also have learned, as indicated above, that there is a huge tolerance in "stock" alignment settings giving the dealership a lot of latittude to call your alignment okay. When I had my car aligned, I told the dealer exactly what I wanted (e.g. front camber -1.2, front toe zero, etc)

However, if you corner aggressively, you are going to wear out the outside edge, not the inside. So, I don't agree with your dealer on that one. The outside corner gets most of the work in the corner, the inside edge gets more work driving straight, particularly with lots of negative camber and some toe out, which tends to drag the inner edge down the road.
:cheers


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## bsmcall (Sep 11, 2004)

May 13, and the stealership still says no way on alignment. Tires are almost completely bald on inside, good the rest of the way across.  

I bought Pontiac's flagship, but I get suckass service.  

And they wanna know why 04's are still on lots. :willy:


My biggest problem is the dealer... 
I love my Goat...


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## tponeill (Feb 18, 2005)

*Go to another dealer*

At 600 miles I took my 05 in because it was pulling left. The dealer said road crowning may be the cause and get it in the center lane of a 3 lane fwy, and see what happens.

It still pulled left, so that is what I told them. While talking he said sometimes adjustment is made to couter-act crown in the road to which I asked they not do that, but to keep it neutral.

When I got it back let go of the wheel at 80mph and it remained in the center lane long enough that I did not need an convincing it was ok.

I run 39.5psi in my tires because of BFG recomendations for the KDWS to add 4.5psi for speeds up to 136mph. This is listed on the spec sheet for the tire on their website.

At 1,200 miles I took a 750 mile trip, and at 2,400 miles took a 2,500 mile trip to Florida through as many mountains as possible! I ran many curves from 114 to 125mph according to my GPS and many miles of 90 to 95 cruising.

I have had the car drift (all4 wheels) at 50mph on an extremely tight S curve near home several times. 

Now at 5,700 miles I can't see any wear on these tires worth mentioning, they are just not shiny on the bottom. Nubs are intact around 80% of the tires.

Their can be many causes but recently investigating inner tire wear n my bmw, I pt it on a jack spun the tire and it was really tight. I was ready to check the wheel bearing but decided to try prying the brake discs apart and it spun freely.

On this car the caliper was binding which was causing the tire to drag. It only showed up on the inner part of the tire. A new caliper did the trick.

I have had my car in for acouple things and have received 2 phone calls each time from the service dept. checking on how my car was doing! 

I can't say what the cause is but you need a dealer who is interested in finding out! Sometimes your salesman can help, if not go elsewhere and let them know. 

BTW I got the first 05 my dealer had and they told me mine was the first GTO they have had with an alignment problem. All I know is it is fixed and y tires proove it.

Good luck, and thank you Rick at Randy Hosler Pontiac, Grand Blanc, MI


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## bsmcall (Sep 11, 2004)

Thanks for some insight. I spun all for 4 wheels in the air and no excess drag. The dealer  took the time to put it on the alignment rack at 6600 miles and 11,500 miles. 
1st time: LF -.06 camber RF -.07 camber
2nd time: LF -.07 camber RF -.09 camber

It is a camber problem.  It was set wrong upon delivery and it's not any better now. The difference in numbers is that the gas tank was full on the first visit and I only gave them 2.5 gallons the second time.

I believe camber with me in it (275lbs) should be no more than -.01 +/- .01.

They spent more time staring at my Goat than it would have taken to reset the camber. They say Pontiac won't pay to correct because -.07 is in the spec range of normal. I say Bull****. If my service writer asks me if I hit any potholes again, I don't know if I will have the resolve to not call him something more than a moron.


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## b_a_betterperson (Feb 16, 2005)

Call him a Browns fan. That's just a different word for moron. Might get his attention.


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## Subdriver (Dec 28, 2004)

bsmcall said:


> 1st time: LF -.06 camber RF -.07 camber
> 2nd time: LF -.07 camber RF -.09 camber
> 
> I believe camber with me in it (275lbs) should be no more than -.01 +/- .01.


Those numbers look really small to me, are you sure those numbers aren't off by a factor of ten? All of the numbers you posted are essentially zero camber as they are all between 0.0 and 0.1 degrees. A tenth of a degree is almost undetectible. For comparison, the stock Z06 camber can be anywhere from -0.2 to -1.2 degrees, a full degree of variance and still within "specification". I run mine up near -3.0 degrees for the track.


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## tiresmoker (Feb 11, 2005)

b_a_betterperson said:


> Call him a Browns fan. That's just a different word for moron. Might get his attention.


 BROWNS FAN...BWHAHAHAHAHAHAH...NOW IF THAT AIN'T FUNNY GET THE HELL OUT!!


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