racorcey
10-17-2008, 10:13 AM
I guess this might be more directed to Carfixer, but of course anyone with info, please pass along your experiences....
Changed tires (stuck with factory type) at 40k miles last October, and had an alignment using Carfixer's specs, especially since I had the usual inside wear pattern.
Here it is one year later, with about 12k miles on the new set of tires, and I started noticing a slight "lub-dub" sound from the front tires about a month or so ago. Only seems to be at low speeds, and on smooth surfaces where it's easier to hear.
Since I got the tires from Tire Rack, I had to look around for a local Goodrich dealer. I found one near work this morning. He was kind enough to put it up on the lift and then had me come out and take a look.
What he wanted me to see was that there was some cupping towards the outsides on both tires. He had me rub my hand in one direction and then the other. The hand went smoothly in one direction, but not the other. That's not what I think of with cupping, but I didn't argue. He didn't think the tires were defective - either by manufacture or road wear.
Anyway, he thought I should get an alignment as well as change out the front struts. I can understand the alignment, but I thought changing the struts was a bit much. I guess I'm used to getting great mileage on most of my shocks on other Ford products in the past. I know that a worn strut will not keep the tire planted as firmly as it should, but I don't have anything to go by with the MM.
The shop that did the original alignment will check things out next week, and, if it's still in Carfixer's specs, I don't know what to say.
So I guess it boils down to two questions:
1. What outside wear experiences has anyone had after alignment.
2. What strut wear experiences has anyone had with respect to mileage.
I did do a search on shocks here, but couldn't correlate the responses with anything having to do with outside edge tire wear.
Thanks guys!
Changed tires (stuck with factory type) at 40k miles last October, and had an alignment using Carfixer's specs, especially since I had the usual inside wear pattern.
Here it is one year later, with about 12k miles on the new set of tires, and I started noticing a slight "lub-dub" sound from the front tires about a month or so ago. Only seems to be at low speeds, and on smooth surfaces where it's easier to hear.
Since I got the tires from Tire Rack, I had to look around for a local Goodrich dealer. I found one near work this morning. He was kind enough to put it up on the lift and then had me come out and take a look.
What he wanted me to see was that there was some cupping towards the outsides on both tires. He had me rub my hand in one direction and then the other. The hand went smoothly in one direction, but not the other. That's not what I think of with cupping, but I didn't argue. He didn't think the tires were defective - either by manufacture or road wear.
Anyway, he thought I should get an alignment as well as change out the front struts. I can understand the alignment, but I thought changing the struts was a bit much. I guess I'm used to getting great mileage on most of my shocks on other Ford products in the past. I know that a worn strut will not keep the tire planted as firmly as it should, but I don't have anything to go by with the MM.
The shop that did the original alignment will check things out next week, and, if it's still in Carfixer's specs, I don't know what to say.
So I guess it boils down to two questions:
1. What outside wear experiences has anyone had after alignment.
2. What strut wear experiences has anyone had with respect to mileage.
I did do a search on shocks here, but couldn't correlate the responses with anything having to do with outside edge tire wear.
Thanks guys!