Help me pick tires

[user removed]

Let the tech know you have exposed steel belts. Grabbing a tire and getting a nice needle slashing from the exposed belts is extraordinarily painful, a mistake seldom made twice but a common courtesy could help avoid that pain.

regards
mech

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by Old Mechanic

Let the tech know you have exposed steel belts. Grabbing a tire and getting a nice needle slashing from the exposed belts is extraordinarily painful, a mistake seldom made twice but a common courtesy could help avoid that pain.

regards
mech

We gave a heads up to the techs at Sears about the tires on my daughter's car about this and they said they weren't allowed to work on the car then. They did do it anyway, luckily nobody died. I did wonder if we had just acted like a dumb customer and ordered and paid for 4 new tires, mount and balance, and alignment, would they have stopped work and refunded everything when they found the pokies on their own.

[deejaaa]

as far as alignment , it can be done in the driveway. i saved many dollars this.

[Fat Charlie]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

We gave a heads up to the techs at Sears about the tires on my daughter's car about this and they said they weren't allowed to work on the car then.

Sir, your tires are so bad that they need to be replaced immediately. In fact they're so bad, we're not even allowed to replace them.

Drive safe out there.

[spacemanspif]

Friend of mine has an at home alignment kit and if I'm not happy with the specs of the new alignment I'm going to finish the adjustment to my specs. I like the idea of a lifetime alignment just so I can have it rechecked later and touched up in case I hit a curb or some other road hazard, last thing I want to do is have to recheck my alignment in the snow, rain or sub-freezing temps

[spacemanspif]

Got my tires and alignment today to the tune of $425.

Final specs on my alignment are kinda crappy but "within spec" so they wouldn't tighten up the adjustments.

Camber: FL: -0.2*, FR: -0.7*, RL: -1.3*, RR: -1.7*
Caster: FL: 2.6*, FR: 2.4*
Toe: FL: 0.02*, FR: 0.04*, RL: 0.21*, RR: 0.14*
Total Toe: Front: 0.06*, Rear: 0.35.

Print out says the FL toe was -0.19* and FR toe was 0.32* can't say the car pulled or anything and until I pump up my tires I can't really compare my usual coasting distances in my commute but that will be handled shortly.

I'm not really sure how total toe applies and works on a car but I'm pretty peeved the rear left being out so close to the 0.36*spec and the right side being closer to the 0.00* spec. I feel like they should have at least dialed the left in closer to the right but no, they are "within spec" and were left alone. I'm also annoyed with the rear camber specs and the fact that both are pretty negative and the right rear is at -1.7* and spec is -1.8*. I feel like if I were an grease monkey and was working on a car that was on the ragged edge of "spec" that I'd bring it back into the middle at the very least. Looks like I'll be playing with alignment tool in the next few weeks at my friends place to reign in the rears. We'll see if there is any MPG gain from this alignment but before I can test any of that I need to pump up the new tires to the max, my current tank is kind of a wash but we'll see how the next one shakes out.

[2000mc]

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

Today I went to a used tire place to have my rears rebalanced. When they pulled the rear passenger one off, the inside trad was showing steel sticking out.

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

Final specs on my alignment are kinda crappy but "within spec" so they wouldn't tighten up the adjustments.

Camber: FL: -0.2*, FR: -0.7*, RL: -1.3*, RR: -1.7*
Caster: FL: 2.6*, FR: 2.4*
Toe: FL: 0.02*, FR: 0.04*, RL: 0.21*, RR: 0.14*
Total Toe: Front: 0.06*, Rear: 0.35.

Print out says the FL toe was -0.19* and FR toe was 0.32* can't say the car pulled or anything and until I pump up my tires I can't really compare my usual coasting distances in my commute but that will be handled shortly.

the initial front toe measurement may look like that because the steering wheel was most likely not carefully centered before saving the before measurements, I wouldn't read into it beyond total toe of the before

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

I'm not really sure how total toe applies and works on a car but I'm pretty peeved the rear left being out so close to the 0.36*spec and the right side being closer to the 0.00* spec. I feel like they should have at least dialed the left in closer to the right but no, they are "within spec" and were left alone.

If the table at Alignment & Suspension Specs: Ford Focus is correct, total toe is near perfect, and I wouldn't be worried about the left to right imbalance. I think the effect would be your car dogtracking by .03* which I think would be undetectable by any other means.

Originally Posted by spacemanspif

I'm also annoyed with the rear camber specs and the fact that both are pretty negative and the right rear is at -1.7* and spec is -1.8*.

and this is the problem to me. I don't think it's a coincidence the tire with steel sticking out, was also on the corner with the camber on the edge of tolerances. Alignment & Suspension Specs: Ford Focus Says the spec for rear camber is -1.00* +/- .75* as this relates to my previous post, I would request rear camber set between -1.00 to -.25* and consider a range of -1.75 to -1.00* typical tire eating focus range. Even if the shop you were at is unwilling, I would find a shop that would be willing to make this happen

[spacemanspif]

Thanks for the chart for comparison! I think I'm going to adjust it myself and see where it all falls out. If I get it all wacky, I'll take it back and have them re-set it as I paid extra for a "life time" alignment.