Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987
Well, I went in and talked to a service adviser at the local MB dealership today .... He said they would be glad to do an alignment, but that he doubted that was the issue and that he would recommend experimenting with the tires before spending money on a second alignment (i.e., try rotating them and see if it does anything different, spin each and check for defects, etc.).
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Definitely a good idea - wouldn't hurt. What brand / size tires did you buy, btw? I forget.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987
I showed him a printout of your 124, gxsr, and asked him about the total toe and steer ahead, but he didn't think that was likely the problem, and that the independent shop probably would have noticed those issues...
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Ah yes, but did the indy shop printout show those specs? If not - I'm suspicious. If so, and if they were in spec, I'd still want to know if the spreader bar was used. If not - their printout is invalid.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987
To be honest I have a hard time imaging the tracking would be that affected by the tires, even though now both my indy and this dealer adviser have said that.
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With used tires, definitely. With new tires, very unlikely, but possible. I've had used tires cause problems before, but never new ones. (I usually just have balance / wobble issues with new tires, lol!)
Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987
Or at least, I'm not confident enough to go out and buy $600 worth of tires to replace brand new tires. The alignment is only $90 if I decide to do that first instead.
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I would absolutely NOT buy another set of new tires unless there was concrete proof they were at fault. Only way to prove this is ot swap on a different set of wheels/tires from a "known good" donor car and drive a day or two on 'em.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987
He did reiterate what my indy and others have said in that he doubted it was my work that caused the problem ... if the new frame were bent or something installed wrong, it would have been very obvious during the first alignment.
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I'm nearly certain that your work has
nothing to do with the problem.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987
He also asked about wheel bearings, front suspension, steering linkage and so forth, which was nice, he took his time to help me think of other things to check first.
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Definitely wouldn't hurt to double-check that stuff. I think I already mentione the steering shock before. (?) But I've driven cars with dead steering shocks that didn't wander, and didn't behave vastly different when a new one was installed.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987
So ... for the heck of it I'm going to switch tires front to rear, and I'll check each for inconsistencies or uneven running. Other than that I'll think about it ($90 isn't very much ...).
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Excellent idea, and free!
Quote:
Originally Posted by BodhiBenz1987
It's very drivable. It's amazingly comfortable and smooth and sometimes I think "wow, I'm nuts, this car tracks perfectly" ... but if it's windy/breezing or I'm on a truck rut ... then the flakiness starts again.  |
Those were the exact symptoms on the car you have the printout of. And that car had tires which were worn (evenly) to the wear bars. Even with the shot tires, the problem vanished after the alignment.
03-03-2011, 08:08 PM
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