DaVeed

My 05 Z51 has about 14K miles and I have been watching the run flat tire pressures like a hawk since delivery at the NCM last July - also taking a peak at the wear patterns on the tires from time to time but not near often enough given the cost of these tires. Noticed the car pulling slightly last week so I inspected all tires carefully and found the inside of the right front tire wearing badly and the inside left front showing wear as well. Ran by the local Goodyear store and sure enough the front tires needed to be replaced while the rear tires were fine.

Ok, haggled a bit and they ordered two run flats for a price of $378 plus balancing, tax and mounting - all in all about $850 for two front tires.

Back in an hour and they allowed me to drive the C6 on the alignment lift. Forty minutes later I am back on the road having learned a lesson about watching more than tire pressure.

I get 5 minutes from Goodyear and I start getting high pressure warnings on the DIC for the left front. Thought the tire sensors may have to reset themselves so I continued on and then the High Pres warning started up on the right front. WTF? Pressures read 45 psi on the L and 41 on the R. WTF? Called my contact at the Chevy dealer and he said Goodyear had probably ruined the sensors in mounting the tires. Said it happens all too often when a gorilla or untrained geek starts mounting tires.

Went back to Goodyear and whipped out my pressure gage with the manager standing there and the damned pressures were pretty much what the DIC was showing. These idiots never adjusted the pressure after initially mounting the tires. I was PO'ed. I never imagined that you could spend almost a grand and leave Goodyear without the idiots checking the final pressure. The Spaniard who mounted the tires thought the Spaniard who re-installed them on the C6 would make the final adjustment.

The sensors are fine -- but I will be finding a different Goodyear dealer for the rears when their time comes. I took the car to an alignment shop and watched as they lazored everything back into perfection.

Lession learned: align the thing every year (it's $75 FGS) and know your Goodyear dealer from friend's references.

jmess

I had an AmericasTire tech overinflate my Lexus left front tire to over 60 PSI; my gauge went up to 60 PSI and it was pegged. Brand new tires and wheels; I didn't really feel a problem during the short trips I made the first day. I decided to double check pressue the next day before heading out on a long road trip and freaked out when the gage pegged

That is why pilots use check lists so they don't forget something that is routine.

Now I always check air pressure and wheel lug nut torque as soon as I can. I assume it isn't right.

BobILoveAVette

Best thing to do is do it yourself. I've had oil change gurues overinflate, underinflate tires that originally had the correct pressure. I usually tell them no thanks when checking tire pressures. Just concentrate on the correct amount of Mobil 1 to add when refilling.

Atomic Punk

years ago i had a tire guy at big 10 tell me that you need to align a new veihicle after afew thousand miles becuase the front end will break in and may be mis-aligned. did it then and haven't since. may true but i just thought the guy was trying to make some $$

Lebowski

ALWAYS check tire pressure whenever you think it may have been adjusted by a shop. I have no idea why, but for some reason a huge percentage of shops I've been to (including Goodyear and dealer service depts) have improperly inflated my tires, sometimes to 40-45psi.

bradb

Made it ride like a Z51, didn't it?

Zuntov

Just had a rear tire patched at Goodyear. Only one tech could run the "special" machine for run flats.
Got the tire back with 45 lbs. in it.

cfl70

it is true you need a special tire mounter for the runs flats.they are about 10k.ive seen my share of after markets places break tire presure sensors on wheels and not eveb know.

jogar80

Well that I have also heard, from more than one person. An uncle of mine has a mechanic shop, although he does not sell or install tires. He also says this is true. I took my vette in for an alignment at about 1200 miles and the fronts did need some adjustment, rears were fine.

vertlove

Whats more wierd about this story is that most workers are from Spain ? Try mexicans next time.... Either way watch your car like a hawk when they are working on it.

Lebowski

Never happened in my vette (haven't had it long enough yet), but in my prior vehicle (ford F150) it happened all the time. Kind of makes you wonder how well they do everything else if they can't get the simplest thing possible right.

BigJoe

That is pretty good advise, actually. The factory settings aren't that great to begin with and a certain amount of settling will occur. I always get an alignment done around 750 miles. Its free at the dealer in the first 1000 miles if you can show that it is pulling.

Wayne O

After an oil service and 'inspection', my local dealership returned the car with vastly over-inflated tires. I immediately purchased a digital tire pressure gauge and now check my tires (down to .5 lbs pressure) every week. It's discouraging to know a lot of so-called service facilities don't bother to check. Like always....if you want something done right....do it yourself!

Vettin08

Yikes! Next time try this
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/OEFtRr...m=1&pagemark=1

Have them delivered to either yourself, or your new favorite GY dealer, and have them mount/balance for you.

Always check pressures afterwards. Very rarely, if ever, have I found them to be correct. Usually they are inflated to the tires max pressure.

Glad it worked out for ya!

67 fastback

and DON'T forget to re-torque the wheel nuts with a torque wrench after the mechanics touch your stuff

last thing you need is a wheel coming off

VET4LES

When I had WCC do the chrome wheel exchange on my C6 the shop foreman told me they over inflate the tires to get a good seal. He said when I returned home (45miles) to adjust the pressure to 30 psi. Sure enough about half way home the DIC told me I had over inflated tires. I don't know if he knew what he was talking about because I have never been told that before.

Gearhead Jim

If the car is giving you tire pressure readings that look bad, there's a good chance that they ARE bad.

In other words, trust your DIC.

StarJack

That's funny because the exact same thing happened to me the week I bought the car. The "manager" had to work the machine and even after asking them to check pressure I had 40 odd lbs in the one they patched.

jp32

I've almost ALWAYS found one or both to be way WRONG every time they touch any tire.

The tire pressure is messed up even when I explicitly tell them to inflate to a specific pressure. It may be that they check with the air at the wrong temp (rough rule of thumb: 10F temp change equals about 1psi pressure change). So, I always tell them to just go about 2psi higher than I want, then bleed it down to exact pressure when the tires have been temp equalizing in the shade for a while (one side in the sun will make a huge difference!).

For the torque, they almost always overdo it. Most everyone seems to think that "some is good, more is better", but this is WRONG! Especially for alloy wheels, which will crack when over-torqued. some mechanics insist that they must alway get it right and show me their "torque bars" that go between the air gun and the socket -- they say 80ft/lbs right on them. But when I check, most of the time the actual torque is way over 100ft/lbs.

So, I just get them mounted, bring them home, equalize and adjust the pressure, remove the lug nuts, clean them, put a touch of grease on the threads (for accurate torque and proper strain -- without it, the nuts will be too loose even at high torque readings), and torque them accurately, drive 25-50 miles and recheck the torque.

If you want it done right, do it yourself.

marshall5758

Are you sure you should put grease on the threads? seems like they would have a tendency to loosen up after use...