Extreme tire wear & erratic handling

[Chamby1]

12,000 miles on vehicle...built 5/25.... 7 alignments.... new tires @ 7,000 miles with these now having about 1/8" to go until wear bar and severe cupping on two of the four despite two rotations in the 5,000 miles.... car drifts right and drifts left randomly sometimes it tracks fine.... dealer says this is "normal due to "crown sensitivity"... a lot of bunk when the road is flat! Dealer says issue should be taken up with Continental!! Anyone have ideas?? I've already started Lemon Law proceeding....see also post on phantom wiperes/electrical problems"

[Dixietwister]

Hey Chamby, Can you post a copy of your computer printout, for your alignment. It would be easier to comment. There are problems that a lot of people are having, with alignment. Thanks........Dixie

[Northern Rider]

Originally Posted by Chamby1

12,000 miles on vehicle...built 5/25.... 7 alignments.... new tires @ 7,000 miles with these now having about 1/8" to go until wear bar and severe cupping on two of the four despite two rotations in the 5,000 miles.... car drifts right and drifts left randomly sometimes it tracks fine.... dealer says this is "normal due to "crown sensitivity"... a lot of bunk when the road is flat! Dealer says issue should be taken up with Continental!! Anyone have ideas?? I've already started Lemon Law proceeding....see also post on phantom wiperes/electrical problems"

Chamby, sounds like you have a dealer problem . My advice - find another service dept. Lots of posts on this subject.

[Chamby1]

Dixietwister..
Hope you get the printout OK.... the 1-13 alignment results are from the 6th dealer alignment using unknown (but admittedly older) equipment.

Also attached is the 7th alignment (1-15 file) by tire dealer with state-of-the-art equip..... but the "crown sensitivity" problem hasn't gone away.

[joey]

Originally Posted by Chamby1

Dixietwister..
Hope you get the printout OK.... the 1-13 alignment results are from the 6th dealer alignment using unknown (but admittedly older) equipment.

Also attached is the 7th alignment (1-15 file) by tire dealer with state-of-the-art equip..... but the "crown sensitivity" problem hasn't gone away.

I am no expert on alignment. But I will try to pipe in with my observations.
My strong right lead(pull) was fixed with a simple alignment almost 2 months ago.
In this thread Dixietwister explained some of the alignment effects.
Pulling Question One More Time

From what I can see, your dealer only adjusted your Toe both times. The Before and Actual readings on your Caster and Camber are the same on both print outs. Yes, your Before/Actual settings are within spec, but I would think they would have tried to tweak your settings to get rid of the right pull.

Caster seems to have the biggest effect on right pull and crown sensitivity.
My dealer tweaked my left wheel Caster outside of the range.
You might ask your dealer to set your specs the same as mine and see how it handles. Your dealer doesn't seem to want to experiment with your Caster(or Camber) within the range. Here are my Before and Actual, and compared to the TSB.

-----Caster Front Left------------------------------TSB--------------
Actual__Before_________Preferred Recommended Range
__8.8____9.9_____________10.3______9.0 to 12.10

----Caster Front Right---------
Actual__Before
__11.1__10.5_____________11.10______9.0 to 12.10

---Cross Caster Front-----------
Actual__Before
_-2.4__-0.6______________-0.80______-1.3 to -0.50

[Dixietwister]

Chamby your Toe was out enough, before your last alignment, that it was probably causing grief to the edges of your tire tread. Your last alignment looks good. It's probably just the tire wear that is screwing up the handling now. That and the problem of getting the Bal. true on the larger tires (coupled with the need for speed). If you let the new tires ever start cupping, then it's almost too late to get long wear out of them. You should feel the tires regularly to see how they are wearing. You should be able to feel something going wrong, before it's to late. I would see if Conti. would replace the tires, and get a LOAD balance on the new ones. This would prevent or delay the tire from ever starting to go bad, from high speed unbalance.

Most of what I said is true unless you are a freak like me. For some reason I haven't been able to keep the Toe adjusted. I take it right back and redo it as soon as I feel it going out. If the steering wheel is not on center, then something has changed in the alignment............ usually the TOE. If it is pulling either left or or or right. maybe camber change. To hard or to easy to turn left or right probably Caster. Darting left and right, probably Toe, front or rear.

These are my thoughts Folks, and I am no expert. These 300's are overly sensitive to alignment spec's, but the recommended (preferred) spec's on the TSB are close. (If you can get them to stay.) I must say that the difficult Camber and Caster spec's, are the hardest to get right (requiring a cradle shift or a change in the camber and/or caster bolts). But once set, they have kept the alignment for me. Hope this helps....... Dixie

[II kings 9:20]

Why did'nt they figure all this sh!t out before they released them. My crown sensitivity is back, yesterday driving in the rain the car was all over the place, it pulled right and left, but mostly right. Today it seems much better, calm winds, who knows? I may go to an alignment specialist and skip the dealer if this becomes persistent.

[Dixietwister]

Thanks for speaking up II Kings. This should not be such a problem. Engineering should have had this figured out, before it was released. Engineering should have factored in the limitations of the people and equipment that is avail. to align these cars. If the computer printout is in the green, dealer says no problem, crown sensitivity. At least you can take it to an alignment shop, and they will continue to align it until it drives right. You may have to use the same guy over and over, for a couple of weeks, so that he can get a feel for what the car, and you, want. It shouldn't have to be a science at the shop level. I'm still concerned that the car will not hold an alignment, that I worked so hard, to get to my liking.

Dixie
PS Out of 3 local dealers, none have ever used the offset alignment bolts. The parts departments don't even stock them. They all said that service had never requested any bolts for an alignment.

[Jimbabwe]

I too have had my car back to the dealer. 13 times! 7 for alignment. They cannot seem to get it right and now i'm at the point where I have given up on the dealer and i'm sure they have already given up on my car. At this point I cannot offer any advice. I'm going to try a non-dealer shop for alignment. If I still cannot get this resolved I may then try to exerciese the lemon law. This stinks. I really like the car but these constant irritations are more than I have time or patience to deal with.

[Northern Rider]

Originally Posted by Jimbabwe

I too have had my car back to the dealer. 13 times! 7 for alignment. They cannot seem to get it right and now i'm at the point where I have given up on the dealer and i'm sure they have already given up on my car. At this point I cannot offer any advice. I'm going to try a non-dealer shop for alignment. If I still cannot get this resolved I may then try to exerciese the lemon law. This stinks. I really like the car but these constant irritations are more than I have time or patience to deal with.

Why not just shop for a different dealer with a good service department? Alignment has been a problem with some owners, but, by no means, with most. A good Chrysler dealership should be able to sort out your difficulties.

Here is a thread that emphasizes this point: Vibration/Transmission Problem