On August 1st, 2024 at 64,000 miles I had an alignment which corrected the steering wheel grabbing symptom.
The result from taking my car into Toyota today says my car needs an alignment. How can that be? And the roads are pothole-free.
Brake linings - Rear Disc LR -6mm. RR- 6mm.
That was in response to your tire wear complaint. The technician is not going to investigate your sequence of tire replacement, the amount of tire underinflation during the last two years or if any suspension work has been performed. The sale of new tires or a tire wear complaint is an opportunity to sell a wheel alignment.
Multi point inspections are performed quickly and for free, it is not like inspecting an airplane. There might have been one tire @ 5/32" at that time, would you have been willing to buy a new set of tires during that visit? 5000 miles later you are due for a service and your tires have worn more.
As I recall, you modified the suspension with an aftermarket kit.
Is that correct?
Get a tire depth gauge and these for yourself. They are inexpensive. You can buy one like the image below for less than $4. Ask a relative to test the tread depth at a few places in the tires. You should compare depths at the same place on each tire.
+1
I do that periodically–even after I get the inspection report when it is serviced. Sometimes the measurements on the inspection report are accurate, and sometimes they’re not accurate.
TECH tip, make sure to slide the gauge across the tread groves just a little to make sure you are not on a wear bar, the wear bar is raised up 2/32 (standard across the board on all automotive tires sold in the USA), so it would give you a false 2/32 less tread, meaning on the wear bar shows 5/32 and in the grove correctly shows 7/32 as an example…
Also, make sure to check the tread depth gauge as the metal (stinger) will push up inside the plastic giving you a false reading, simply put it on a flat surface and push easily down on it, like checking tread depth, and it should show you 0/32, if it shows anything else it is wrong/out of calibration…
Yes I have had guys bring me paper work saying the tires are at 18/32, after I had already looked at them, and I am like let me see your gauge, I do the test (just to show them) and it shows 14/32 on a flat surface, (meaning the tires are at a real 4/32) and I just say dude really?? and throw it away and hand them a new one… lol
When you have done it long enough you get a real good feel for it and can stick your finger in the grove and tell how much tread is left (around 6/32 and under on the feel for me), sometimes you can just look at the groves and be pretty accurate…
18/32? Or 8/32?
And I thought my load range E tires had deep tread.
I just plain don’t trust those “courtesy inspections”. Ever since my Local Toyota dealer said the rear wiper, transfer case and front differential on my car was good. There is none of that on a 2013 Camry 4dr.
Yes 18/32, I have had them write down 24/32 or more, yeah some people just don’t have any common sense…Mostly new guys…
Yes the average P tire is 10-12/32 new, I sold a new set of all season (not summer) OEM Goodyear tires that only had 6/32 brand new…
Thank you. I will definitely purchase what you suggested.
I don’t understand tires. I feel the tire cuts ( the design ) and they feel pretty fat, like they got lots of meat. I don’t understand how it only has 2/32 reading on it.
To clarify what I am trying to say, the grip on the tires are deep. They are not shallow at all. Am I touching the wrong places on the tire when determining tread wear? Do I need to feel the center of the tire instead of the edges ?
You don’t measure tread depth by “feeling” a tire. You need to buy a tire depth gauge, as @jtsanders suggested and illustrated.
I googled this and I now understand where to measure.
I was touching the edge with my fingers to feel how low the depth was.
When your vehicle runs a negative camber on the rear (especially with staggered wheels), and the car sits low to the ground, it can be hard to tell what the inner part of the tread looks like, I have seen rear tires that look great while just looking at them, but once you are able to look at the entire (inner) tread, you will see a lot more wear on the inner edge due to the neg camber wear… Meaning, 6-8/32 of tread on the easy outer grove and steal cords showing on the very inner tread… BMW’s with staggered wheels/tires are very bad about doing it, tires almost look newish, but cords showing on the inner edge…
That is one advantage for Asymmetrical tires, is that a lot of times the inner most tread has a different harder rubber compound to help slow the camber wear some…
Do asymmetrical tires help with twin i-beam?
Miscellaneous. I usually check tread depth on new tires so I can judge the wear myself later on. On caution though you have to read the proper scale on the device.
I don’t have a brother but back about 1965 my brother in law was driving his 61 merc down the road and saw one of his four wheels bouncing in the ditch. Bearing wear ignored but at least he could recover the wheel. Of course bearing are different now but they still serve the same purpose.
Most (if not all) asymmetrical tires are more performance designed and may not even be available in a Ford truck size, but I would say probably not due to the twin I-beam cambering out when the suspension drops and cambers in when it compresses, basically it is constantly cambering in/out…
I put some very expensive Turanza Serenity Plus (no longer made grr) asymmetrical tires on 4 or 5 vehicles at the time, that were designed to beat out the MXV4’s at the time and blew them out of the water in traction, I tested both on a test track with the end of a straightway with a 90, that was covered in water (water truck) and was not able to break traction with them like I could the MXV4’s…
But on my Vibe/Matrix, with basically 0.0 camber at all 4 corners, the inside of the treads are at about 7/32 and the outer about 4/32… The harder inner tread was designed to slow down wear with a neg cambered chassis… Other than that they are wearing perfectly smooth, no feathering/cupping, I always cross X rotate them and check/set the alignment every 5000 miles…
Most of the time they’re a joke. Just a marketing ploy. And most of the time no inspection is ever done. It’s a numbers game.
And this only frustrates me more. I expect businesses to back what they say.
Our shop does inspections but they don’t upsell. They don’t hide the reasons. They want us to have safe cars and want to generate work when it’s justified. For instance, they told Mrs JT that her Odyssey will need tires at the next oil change and I was already planning for new tires.
