What did you do with your truck/shop today

[Jsdirt]

Sorry to hear that. That's  a typical dealership experience, unfortunately. I always tell everyone, if you're out of warranty, steer clear of domestic dealerships (Ford, GM, Chrysler/FCA).  It's easier to count on one hand the number of good dealership experiences I've heard of.

 

Yeah, MA, and New England in general, is it's own little world unlike any other part of the country. I won't even get started on the political aspect of it ...   Shocks & brakes are a normal part of 30k service here, unless you've got a manual trans. - then you could get 90k if you drive really slow, and engine-brake constantly. 

[zach1990]

Gave her a bath and a fresh coat of wax

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[Chevyguy85]

Went to check on my truck and put the sun shade up and it was ready.  Apparently I have 3 bad tires, why the heck it took this long to figure out I'll never know.  4 different shops and having them balanced 6+ times.  The dealership was supposed to road force balance them a couple times before.  Now I get to see how complicated Michelin's warranty process is.  The tires were put on 3/31/16 and only have about 38k on them.  I've been having shaking problems for over 20k miles and well over a year.  If they had figured this out sooner the tires might have been replaced at no cost to me.  I guess after I figure out the warranty process I'll need to decide if I want to go back to stock size of 225/75/R17 and save $200+ or stick with 245/70/R17.

 

Anyone know how to read this road force balancing thing?  I only count 5 tires listed with one scratched out and no way to tell if the outside or inside rears are the bad ones.  Might have to go back to the dealer Monday to find out which ones are bad if I can't find markings on the tires tomorrow.  I wonder if the tires being "bad" all this time contributed to my wheel bearings needing replacement.

 

*edit*

Also anyone know where I can find the inflation tables for Michelin Defender tires?  I've found some of Michelin's inflation tables, but not for the Defenders, and emailing them resulted in no response.

 

Edited October 20, 2018 by Chevyguy85

[RyanbabZ71]

Finished the ceramic coating




Ryan B.

[Jsdirt]

3 hours ago, Chevyguy85 said:

Went to check on my truck and put the sun shade up and it was ready.  Apparently I have 3 bad tires, why the heck it took this long to figure out I'll never know.  4 different shops and having them balanced 6+ times.  The dealership was supposed to road force balance them a couple times before.  Now I get to see how complicated Michelin's warranty process is.  The tires were put on 3/31/16 and only have about 38k on them.  I've been having shaking problems for over 20k miles and well over a year.  If they had figured this out sooner the tires might have been replaced at no cost to me.  I guess after I figure out the warranty process I'll need to decide if I want to go back to stock size of 225/75/R17 and save $200+ or stick with 245/70/R17.

 

Anyone know how to read this road force balancing thing?  I only count 5 tires listed with one scratched out and no way to tell if the outside or inside rears are the bad ones.  Might have to go back to the dealer Monday to find out which ones are bad if I can't find markings on the tires tomorrow.  I wonder if the tires being "bad" all this time contributed to my wheel bearings needing replacement.

 

*edit*

Also anyone know where I can find the inflation tables for Michelin Defender tires?  I've found some of Michelin's inflation tables, but not for the Defenders, and emailing them resulted in no response.

 

Been a mechanic for 30+ years, and I haven't a clue!

 

I think this is either a gimmick to sell overpriced tire balancers, generate unnecessary revenue, or, tires have just become such poor quality now that this is the only possible way they can be balanced.

 

One thing I do know is Michelin SUCKS today. Used to be a real high quality tire. Now, all I see is warp-speed dry rot and weather-checking, and vibration issues. I'll never buy one again. I pulled an OE Michelin spare off a '07 Lexus RX350  a couple weeks back - the sidewall was just about coming off in CHUNKS!! Only the side that was facing the vehicle. Go figure. Never seen tires dry rot so fast in my entire life. My Silverado's spare is the exact same age - a Goodyear Wrangler - and not even the smallest weather check in ANY part of the tire.

 

Sad part about this tire is, if I didn't press on the sidewall with my hand, the owner would've never noticed this! A nice hot day on the highway would be the last trip this tire took ...

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2018 by Jsdirt

[kstruckcountry]

Pretty surprising to see a Michelin do worse than a Goodyear. The SRA's I had were pretty useless tires, but the spare from 2006 is still under the truck, and holds air. Probably ought to replace it anyway.

 

But then again, I haven't had a flat since I went to 10-ply. Over 80,000 miles now.

Edited October 23, 2018 by kstruckcountry

[Ravenkeeper]

On 10/20/2018 at 8:32 PM, Jsdirt said:

Been a mechanic for 30+ years, and I haven't a clue!

 

I think this is either a gimmick to sell overpriced tire balancers, generate unnecessary revenue, or, tires have just become such poor quality now that this is the only possible way they can be balanced.

 

One thing I do know is Michelin SUCKS today. Used to be a real high quality tire. Now, all I see is warp-speed dry rot and weather-checking, and vibration issues. I'll never buy one again. I pulled an OE Michelin spare off a '07 Lexus RX350  a couple weeks back - the sidewall was just about coming off in CHUNKS!! Only the side that was facing the vehicle. Go figure. Never seen tires dry rot so fast in my entire life. My Silverado's spare is the exact same age - a Goodyear Wrangler - and not even the smallest weather check in ANY part of the tire.

 

Sad part about this tire is, if I didn't press on the sidewall with my hand, the owner would've never noticed this! A nice hot day on the highway would be the last trip this tire took ...

 

 

 

 

I've seen it, but the tires sat forever on a rack, waiting to be sold.  Saw another set sit on a (squadron) vehicle, at work, back when I was still on active duty, and they did that.  BUT those looked WAY worse than yours, spiderweb cracks on all four, inner/outer sidewalls.  My commander pointed them out, had another sergeant follow me to the tire shop in Lancaster.  Even those guys were shocked to see those tires, they were saying that they would have flat-bedded the car to their shop. 

[KARNUT]

I remember when Michelin’s first came out. Dad took the family Electra 224 to get them. At my age I could tell the difference between them and bias ply tires. The gold standard. The first thing we did when we got a new car was get the Michelin’s. It disappointing that you really have research everything, can’t trust a name anymore.


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[Jsdirt]

Ain't it the truth, man. People bring me newer Homelite chainsaws & weedwhackers to repair, and I just shake my head the entire time I'm fixing it. Nothing like they used to be. They were one of the best of the best 30-40 years ago -  the name was sold to a big conglomerate years ago that thoroughly cheaped out on them. The weedwhacker engine only has a single crank bearing! Not exactly confidence inspiring, lol.

 

 

[Coby7]

Since 2010 Michelin has had to comply with GREEN legislature which says all tires must be bio-degradable after 10 years. These are 11 years old.  They did over do it with the compound at first but now last longer if cared for with proper sidewall treatment as suggested my manufacturer.  My wife's Defenders are in great shape still after 7 years but I apply that treatment every year to keep the side wall moisturized.

 

Today I repaired a FOB for a 2008 Cobalt  ( #22733524 ). This guy asked me if I had any for sale because his was all broken and in pieces.  I told him it was cheaper to repair the old one but he insisted it was beyond repair.  He brought it anyways, I fixed it for $30 less than it would have cost him otherwise.  He was quite happy and continued with I'll bring the wife's FOBs tomorrow. All good with me I said.

Then I repaired a 2004 Silverado cluster and LEDed it in cool white. It was his biddies truck so I've not receive a thumbs up yet but I know it's going to work fine.  At least it did on the bench.

[waumo1]

30 minutes ago, Coby7 said:

Since 2010 Michelin has had to comply with GREEN legislature which says all tires must be bio-degradable after 10 years.

Can you cite any reference to this legislation?  I cannot find any reference to it.  Thanks.

[Coby7]

Actually I can't, I was going by memory and now that you mention it it might have been prior to 2010 because I remember my 2007 Cobalt's plastic insides deteriorating in front of my eyes and me saying " Well bio-degradation is a bit premature.  But I believe the legislature stated that all plastics and rubbers should be completely decomposed in a landfill after 100 years.  Now this may be only a Canadian legislature and not North American.  Been too long but my buddy that was an engineer for Michelin ( Bridgewater ) told me this himself and how only time would tell which recipe worked best. But like I said going by memory here and I'm old.

Edited October 23, 2018 by Coby7

[Chevyguy85]

Monday

 

My buddy and I pulled the air tank and compressor from my truck.  Along with the many many feet of wiring that went with it.  Looks a little less like a rats nest under the hood and now I don't have 15+ foot power wires with connections holding them together. For some reason instead of using the proper wire length the installer decided to just make his own lengths.  A couple points along the way the insulation was almost worn through.  I'll give that guy points for using a ton of zip-ties to secure the wiring, his zip-tie cut off methods are lethal though lol.  Spent a couple hours looking for connections to put in the 8 bungs the new tank has, not surprisingly at all my buddy had the one we couldn't find for the pressure switch.  Ran new wires from the batteries back to the tool box where the new system is going to be, made it all nice and neat with zip-ties and wire loom.  I'll be going back probably this weekend to get the dual compressors installed, all depends on if my buddy welds his convoluted mounts together for the two compressors or not.  He wants to make it easy to service if need be, that just means more work on install.

 

Tuesday

 

The road force results I mentioned the other day were just the rear 4 tires, so out of 4 rear tires I had 3 that were out of spec/bad.  Dealership suggested I call Michelin because their customer service is fairly good and it's better to start the process with them and then go from there.  Called and they gave me some shops in the area to go to so I went to Tire Kingdom, the one closest to me and the one I've been to before.  Well they don't have a road force balancing machine and tell me there's only one in the district.  I called that store up told them I needed to make an appointment for a warranty check on my tires and I most likely need to have the tires road forced.  Told them 3 out of my 4 rear tires were bad but Michelin wanted them checked out.  The guy on the phone said sure when do you want to come so I told him ASAP.  Proceeds to tell me noon tomorrow or 1 tomorrow, hold on we had something open up at 3 today (yesterday).  Make the appointment for that, go in and whoever was there said it's normally at least 30 minutes a tire, I said that's fine.  Except it wasn't their tech guy who does the road force leaves at 330 and on top of that they don't have a lift or room to fit a dually.  So I wanted to know why the heck did they make an appointment for a vehicle they can't service on a day where even if they did the tech didn't have time to do it.  Oh and if I had accepted the noon or 1pm appointment for the next day that wouldn't have worked because the tech doesn't even work Wednesdays.  Got back on the phone with Michelin told them there are not a lot of shops that have road force balance machines AND the facilities to accommodate fatty and if I could just go through the dealer.  So back to the dealer where I scheduled to come in this morning to test the front 2 tires.

 

Wednesday

 

Front 2 tires are fine and Michelin is going to prorate 45% on the 3 bad tires.  So if everything works out tomorrow I'll have 6 new tires 3 of which will be partially paid for by Michelin.  I'll have one of the 3 good tires put on as a spare since my OEM spare is starting to crack and I'll keep the other 2 good tires and try to sell them or see if anyone I know needs some used tires with 38k on them.  Hopefully I can stack promotions and save some money as well.  If I buy the tires out right I'll get cash back from my credit card and Michelin will send me a check for their share.  There's also a $70 rebate when you buy 4 Michelin tires.  Looks like the dealer has some lifetime rotation and balancing deal as well as $100 off if spending over $500.  If I can get all those to play nicely then I'll save a decent amount.  Tires should be going on tomorrow sometime.  Dealer hasn't done a warranty replacement before but was very helpful and willing to try and make it work.  So far seems like we're good to go.  The fact that they try is the reason why I keep going back, no one's perfect but at least when people try to fix their mess ups it makes it 5% better? lol

 

 

TLDR:   Old air compressor/tank removed and new wires ran as well as new 4 gallon tank installed.  People suck and I'm tired of driving all over the place with a horribly shaking truck to find out that fatty can't be serviced at their facilities.  Dealer ordered tires and printed out rebates forms, new tires should be going on tomorrow.

 

Side note these are the reasons why I keep trying to convince my friend not to get an F350/ or any dually when he gets around to getting rid of his F150.  He'll never tow high heavy enough and the hassle isn't worth it living in non "truck country" where only random shops have the lifts and space to work on a dually.  I guess he'll be somewhat better having a lot of tractor trailer shops near him, but he'll undoubtedly pay even more to use those shops.

[Jsdirt]

A similar runaround, coupled with the tire guy nearly burning up my power steering belt on my '72 El Camino and laughing about it right in front of me, are what prompted me to buy my own tire machine and balancer 13 years ago. Every single time any one of my vehicles has been in any shop, they screw something up. Only things I don't do at home are alignments, glass, bodywork/paint, or auto trans rebuilds. I've had alignment shops forget to tighten tie rod collars, leave tools on my vehicle, send me away with the wheel sideways going straight down the road ... then there was the body shop that forgot to plug in my rear window switch wiring, and sent me away with swirl marks all over the paint ... 

 

Few take pride in their work anymore ...  

Edited October 24, 2018 by Jsdirt

[Coby7]

This morning I repaired an 03 Avalanche cluster. Owner tried to change motors himself, at least he stopped after trying to change the second one.  Got her going again!!