QuestionQUESTION: On April 7th, 2009 I purchase 4 tires Goodrich Touring T/A P225/60R16 from Sam's Club mileage on the car was 167,142. On April 17, 2009 I took the car for an alignment since Sam's doesn't do alignments. This is the same mechanic shop that did all the front end work to the car, ball joints upper and lower, control arm bushings, hub bearings etc. On the receipt they wrote "wheel alignment, bushing and thrust alignment" and charged $120. As of today their are 5,445 miles on these tires. The back tires are fine. The 2 front tires is a whole other story. The drivers side is noticabably worn on the outer edge but with a few treads left. The passenger is completely ruined accorrding to the man I stopped to see if another alignment could be done with that tire to try and straighten out the wear pattern. That tire has no tread on the outside edge of the tire at all. In fact I expect to see the cords or whatever they are soon. Where do I start trying to get this rectified. My quess is the mechanic who did the alignment. Also the answer is "no" to hitting pot holes, etc.
ANSWER: Carol,
Yes, I agree. Go back to where the alignment for performed. Be sure to ask for a before and after print out.
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QUESTION: I just remembered more detail when I took the car in for the alignment. Actually I had taken the car someplace else first for the alignment and the man told me I had a bad ball joint (believe he said inner) so I took it back to my regular mechanic who I was sure had just put a ball joint on. The mechanic called and said the tag was still on the new ball joint. that's when I got the car back with "wheel alignment, bushing and thrust alignment" written on the bill. My quess is when the 1st mechanic told me he couldn't do the alignment because of the bad ball joint there was movement in the wheel but it was the hub bearing not the ball joint. So the supposed alignment on April 17th 2009 was bogus from the beginning.
Then on August 28th, 2009 with approximately additional miles (I calculated I drive about 650 miles a month)I took it in the have a front hub bearing replaced. It had just started making a noise but a pretty loud noise. In fact I was rather suprised because of all the front end work I had done that this hadn't been done. Anyway I remember the office person called to ask if my ABS light was on when I brought the car in, and I told him no. Somewhere in the conversation he brought up about the mechanic using heat on the bearing. I told him the mechanic got the ABS sensor hot instead of disconnecting it before he applied heat and ruined the sensor. They tried to wiggle out of it but I held tight about it was the mechanic's fault not mine. They fixed the ABS sensor. My question is if in fact they did the alignment on April 17th, 2009 (I believe they didn't) when they did the work on August 28th, 2009 for the hub bearing should I have been told I would need another alignment? Obviously I haven't spoken to the mechanic yet. I want to know what I am talking about if he starts pulling records and comes up with after the hub bearing I should have gotten another alignment. Would that be correct or not. And if I should have gotten another alignment after that should I have been told that?
ANSWER: Carol,
So to summarize:
Between the time you had an alignment and now, the wheel bearing went bad. Prior to that, the alignment could have been OK, but once the bearing went bad, the alignment could have been off and ruined the tire - and of course, once the bearing was fixed the alignment would be good again.
Sorry, but it just sounds like you got caught with some bad luck.
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QUESTION: ok I don't mean to be dense or a pain but 2,600 miles is the most I drove with a bad bearing. That amount of mileage could completely ruin two 70K mile tires?
If it were yours would you at least ask for the paperwork from the alignment in April so I could be sure it was actually done in the beginning?
AnswerCarol,
The issue isn't how quickly the tires were ruined. The issue is what can you do about it.
There are 3 ways of looking at this:
1) What happened and how do I prevent this from happening in the future?
Based on what you've told me, there wasn't anything to be done to prevent this from happening short of prematurely changing the bearings - something no one suggests in auto maintenance circles.
2) Is there someone who is responsible for what happened and should he take responsibility for it?
As I said above, short of prematurely changing the bearings, which no one suggests, there wasn't anything to be done to prevent it so there can't be anyone responsible.
3) Is this just one of things that happens and that there really isn't anything I can do about it - except move on?
And that's where I think things are.
While you may feel that it wasn't your fault - and it wasn't - it really isn't someone else's fault either. Rather than waste a lot of your time and energy trying to sort this out, I'm suggesting that you won't be able to sort this out and you'd be further ahead to concentrate on other matters that you can sort out.
