Help!!!
I have a 2006 Tacoma, double cab, V6, 4x4, auto. I have just shy of 18,000 miles on it. Purchased new.
No real problems execept outside edge wear on the front tires. The outside edges are almost worn smooth. The middle and inside edge look great - plenty of tread.
I’ve taken it back to the dealership twice. They tell me it’s normal. Here’s why:
1. I didn’t balance the tires every 5,000 miles. I typically have rotated every 10,000 miles on every other vehicle I’ve owned. I do every 5,000 now but it has only prolonged the issue - hasn’t fixed it.
2. I do mostly local driving. I’m driving more slowly and making more turns - wears the tires out more quickly.
3. Factory tires aren’t made to last that long.
4. Alignment specs are within proper range.
I’ve never had this issue before. I don’t want to drop $1,000 on new tires to have them need to be replaced at 25,000 miles which is what I’m looking at now.
Toyota has said twice that nothing is wrong. Am I overreacting?
Excessive wear on the outer edges of the tires usually point to either too much positive camber or too much toe-in, both of which have to do with alignment and one can relate to the other.
Being curious for a minute let me ask these questions?
Did they actually check the alignment?
If so, did you get a printout of the specs?
If an alignment was performed did they charge you for this or was it allegedly a freebie warranty issue?
Also keep in mind that when you the customer are talking about your vehicle at the dealership you’re usually dealing with a service writer and to a lesser degee, a service manager. Very very few of these people have much mechanical aptitude so rather than appear stupid to the customer they often blab some automotive nonsense.
No you are not overreacting.
Follow OK4450’s advice. He knows his stuff. If he ever went to work as a “service consultant” they’d boot his bum out the door. He knows way too much.
Humbly and with a bit of embarassment, your compliment is appreciated. Hopefully the OP will be back to fill in a few blanks because what I’m trying to determine is if the vehicle was really aligned, or if this alignment was allegedly performed under warranty.
With the last part of that statement in mind, maybe the truck never saw the alignment rack.
And I have done the shop foreman and service writer thing a bit although I prefer to twist nuts and bolts. At least when someone asked why something had failed or whatnot I could at least give them a no BS walkthrough about it.
Most customers are great but there’s a few where the diplomacy had to go on vacation though. I’ve also been around and around a few times with upper management; with one episode of heading to the front office to kick the Sales Manager’s tail when he used some harsh profanity to me when I asked a simple question over the phone about a vehicle they had sold the previous week.
(He refused to step out back, the dealership owner backed me, and the Sales Manager was gone the next week. Ha.)
When everything else is exhausted from above, all that’s left is your driving habits. Wife’s car had the same problem, but she was taking corners too fast for the vehicle when I added higher profile tires for ground clearance. If you previously owned a sedan, you’d be surprised how fast the higher profiles wear compared to a sedans at what you think is normal cornering speed. Sometimes the simplest is worth considering too. You have the potent v6 and forward diff with lots a of weight bias to the front…all not working in your favor when cornering a tad too fast.
Just a thought.
Forget the dealer. Take it to a real alignment shop. I think that the dealer can’t do the alignment, or won’t. It might involve special tools which they don’t have, or skills.
You haven’t been using 4-wheel drive on the highway , have you?
I like you would suspect hub left engaged if it’s manual or a faulty automatic…otherwise, I don’t think it’s an alignment issue alone.
In my experience, I completely disagree. Too much money is made by Toyota on service of their own vehicles, if would be highly unusual not to be equip to do such a straight forward task.
This particular dealer isn’t Toyota Inc., and they have FAILED to this point.Should they be allowed more failure?
OK, sorry I couldn’t respond sooner.
Anyway, I looked in my records as I couldn’t remember if I paid for an alignment or not. I didn’t. The dealership said everything was in spec. I did not ask for a printout - didn’t occur to me. If they didn’t do an alignment, they were pretty careful with their wording as it made me believe they did.
I just checked my tires again this morning. I need to make a minor correction - the wear is only on the outside edges of the tires. I thought it was in the inside edges too. The “middle” of the tire and the inside edges have plenty of tread - almost looks like a new tire. Anyway, the tread is almost gone on the passenger front tire (outside edge). The driver’s side isn’t far behind.
To respond to a couple of other posts (thanks for taking the time, BTW). I don’t believe I drive fast around corners at all. In fact, I don’t really drive fast at all. I’ve owned one other pickup (not a 4x4) and several cars. I’ve never had this problem - not even close. I’m not driving with the 4x4 engaged and I’ve never driven the truck in 4 wheel mode while on the highway.
My personal belief is that if they admit something is wrong, they would need to replace my tires as well as fix the problem since I brought it in for this issue before the warranty expired.
I’m not a mechanic but I’m not a complete idiot either. At this rate, my tires will be junk at 20,000 miles. Short of me sliding my truck around corners, leaving it in 4x4 all the time or antyhing extreme like that, I should easily be able to 35,000+ miles out of my tires.
Does anyone know if there is a way for me to go up the food chain with Toyota?
Thanks all
We’re glad you posted back.
At 18K and a 4 year old truck, you don’t drive a lot - and that probably means short trips.
Most tire wear occurs when cornering - and most vehicles are set up for that. My guess is that the short trips is aggravating the situation.
My comments still apply; outer edge wear is due to too much positive camber or too much toe-in. A lightly driven truck that has not been wrecked would more than likely point towards the toe part of this.
The reason why I asked if you were charged for an alignment and if you received a printout is this.
Alignment is normally considered a maintenance issue and is not warrantable. Maybe they did not want to risk offending you by charging you for an alignment on a very low miles truck and since Toyota ain’t likely paying for this under a warranty claim they took the easy way out; the placebo effect.
I would be tempted to get an alignment done somewhere else, get the printout, and then at least confront them if the printout shows too much positive camber or toe-in.
This would not likely mean a reimbursement and any contact with Toyota’s regional office would also probably be a dead end (especially considering Toyota’s current troubles) but it would let them know how you feel.
Mechanics work on commission and this means someone had to pay for that alleged alignment; you, the dealer as a good-will (not likely), or Toyota under warranty (also not likely).
If they claim warranty covered it then they should produce a copy of the claim, which must be on file. Hope that helps.
I can understand more wear on the outside edges because I drive shorter trips (and more cornering). However, having tires that are almost literally bald on the outside edges at 18K seems a tad excessive to me.
If you remember from my original post, I usually rotated all my vehicles tires at 10K miles. I’ve since started doing it every 5K for my other vechicles. For my tamcoma, my plan was to rotate at 10K so as the front and rears would be similar in terms of wear and then rotate every 5K. The tires that are on the front right now had almost no wear while they were on the rear. They have about 8K since they’ve been on the front and the outside tread is almost gone (like I said). To put that into better perspective, the tires have been almost ruined in 8K miles.
I’m not trying to get a free set of tires out of toyota. If I had driven the vehicle in abnormal way that caused premature wear, then I would live with it and change my driving habits. What I don’t want to do is spend $600 or $800 on new tires and 20,000 miles later be going through this again.
Basically, I’ve maintained and driven my Tacoma in a “normal/average” fashion (at worst)but the tire wear I belive is excessive.
Complain to Toyota of America. They should be glad to get a complaint about something other than throttle or brakes. Also, NOW, they might be more responsive to ANY complaint. Make sure to complain more than once. IF they don’t give you satisfaction, take your truck to an independent alignment shop, BEFORE the tires get worn out from misalignment.