I have a 2006 vet with 17K. I have been told that my front and rear wheels are out of alignment. The noise from these tires is unreal, at first I thought it was the rear end or a wheel bearing.

The dealer claims this is a maintenance item. The car was brought in twice to check on the noise, both time they told me it was the tires, but they never said why. I do not beat the car nor do I race or burn out.

Has anyone else had this problem and how did you deal with it.

Thanks

 

I don't understand. Did you get an alignment, or not?

Improper alignment can cause odd wear patterns which can make the tires even noisier than they might normally be. It's been said that even from the factory the alignments can be out, which will cause some of the tire noise. At 17K miles, I don't think you're going to be able to correct the noise or the wear pattern.

So, you may want to either hold onto the tires the way they are until they wear out without an alignment, or get an alignment and get new tires at the same time.

Or, you could take a chance and get the alignment and see if that helps with the noise issue.

 

The wheels have yet to be aligned. The car is off the road until April. I spoke to the dealer again this AM and he informed me that they will pay for the alignment and will see how far off the wheels are. Then he may be able to get something back from GM if they are too far off. He agrees that the car could have been delivered with the a bad alignment. I wonder if someone else has had this problem. Thanks for the response.

 

I just had my car aligned, It had been out from the factory!

Front was toed in too much, RR slightly toed out.

Only 5300 miles.

I had slight feathering but not enough to cause any noise. I swapped the two front tires (Z51 w Supercar tires) now I have to deal with the sensors LF and RF

Car seems to drive the same.

Futile

 

Where is it written that everything from the factory is held to any kind of tight tolerances?

You could be at the far end of the alignment specs and still pass by factory standards. How about spring settle? Your car has some miles on it the springs sag and guess what? Your alignment is off.

Every new vehicle should be checked at 3 months or so, then again if any tire wear or other problems appear.

 

Good advice. My '08 is 3-months old with 2K so I think it's time to get the alignment checked. It's short money and I'll have peace of mind after it's checked.

 

the feathering especially in the rear can be noisy and also in the rear causes some very bad wear to if not addressed early enough. The front can be knocked out by hitting just minor things like dips or pot holes hard enough.
So having said that its pretty easy for me to say that the factory settings could have been fine but just got moved a bit.
The toe on the front can be out just a bit,, say an 8th of an inch,, and an alignment tech might make it sound like more then what is is. One half turn or so of the tie rod is all it would take to fix.

Also adjusting toe will not cause the car to ride any different (unless its out an unreal amount) So someone saying "My car rides fine so how can the alignment be out?" is pretty common for someone to say. i would say this,,, that even tho some of us dont drive em too hard the fact that we cant rotate our tires along with some agressive driving and tires made more for performance then high milage puts us in a bad spot. So the alignment being dead on is pretty crucial.

one last thing , the alignment heads go right onto your rims and usually scratch them unless the tech is VERY carefull. so talk with him directly if you can. Good luck, paul

 

Also the inside of tires will wear out on the front like the car is out of alignment on Z51 models due to the aggressive alignment they have for hard cornering. I had my runflats to the cords on the inside edge before realizing it since there was about 4/32 left on the rest of the tire. Sounds like you do not race or track your car. You can ask them to flatten out the front tires which will make your tires wear better and last longer. You will never be able to tell the difference unless you are on the track. Then you may lose a tenth of a second.

 

I replaced my OEM runflats at 18,000 miles due to the roar and noise. When tires were removed all 4 still had a minimum of 5/32 tread left. Replaced with Firestone RFT's ride is smooth and very quiet. The tires I removed looked great with perfect wear across all 4. I think the compound of the tire starts to get hard or something causing the noise, but thats just my opinion.