I have exactly 1000 miles on my car. As soon as I drove it off the lot I noticed that it was out of alignment and pulling to the left. At about 200 miles I took the car in to have the alignment fixed. They said they fixed it. But when I left the dealer it was still not fixed. At about 750 miles I took it back to the dealer to have the fix the alignment. And of course they still did not fix it. This time he even said "I made sure to get the factory specs this time"

So I call my service rep and tell him that it is still not aligned. He says that he did it to factory specs and that I should take it to another dealership.

This gets me to today. I call a second dealership to make an appointment to get my alignment fixed and ask about the tires getting replaced because driving on non-aligned tires for 1000 miles will have a huge effect on the longeity of high performance tires. The dealship says to call Mitsu of America which I do and Mitsu of america is its the origional dealers responsibility to replace my tires. So now the original has 48 hours to call me.


Am I entitled to new tires because driving 1000 miles on non-aligned tires will definatly have an effect on the life of the tires?

 

well at a minimum they should have to pro-rate the tires for you. you have probably 90% tread left so they owe you at a minimum new tires at 90% off. I would say they owe you new tires though

 

i would think they do, since the problem was caused by them not aligning the car, which dammage the wheels, so they technically caused the wheels to wear like that

 

How do you kow the alignment is not right?

 

I have an OZ and after 9000 miles the tires were wearing really bad on the outside and there was hardly any wear in the middle. I went to the dealership and they said they don't cover tires but it was obviously an alignment problem so i ended up calling yokohomo and they paid for new tires. I'm not sure what tires are on the EVO but try calling the tire manufacturer if there starts to be uneven wear. Mine were supposed to last 20000 but since they were completely bald after 9000 they paid for the new ones. The dealer did jack.

Craig

 

cbpotts, your tires were not inflated enough and thats why the tires cupped on both the inside and outside of the tire, make sure u keep them inflated bud

 

This should be in general. Its not a question of tire wear rather a question of dealer responsibility. Could someone please move it back.

Thanks


Also I know that they are out of alignment because the wheel is turned like 5 degrees to the right. If i hold the wheel straight my car goes to the left

 

It's alignment troubleshooting that is why someone sent it here.
The steering wheel being off means nothing as far as alignment.
All it means is the tech did not have it on dead center when he se the alignment. I could align the car perfectly and put the wheel off by 90 degrees and it will drive fine.
Are you even showing odd wear on the tires? And why is it their responsibility if you drove it for 500 miles before gonig back again?

 

timzcat is right. The car can be perfectly aligned with the wheel not centered.

If your sole reason for believing that the car is out of alignment is that the car turns left when you hold the wheel straight, then there is likely no problem with your car.

 

how else am i suposed to know if it is aligned properly? unless the wheels are pointed in different directions. as far as I am concerned i should be able to hold the steering wheel straight and the car should go straight. end of story. Its their responsibility becasue they should have checked the alignment before it left the dealership. second, it was about 500 miles before they had an apointment that I could make. unlike some people i purchased a new car for the reliablitly of it and because I have a job and other thing that i need to do and cant simply just go to the dealership as soon as i notice a problem.

 

The point is, the alignment is probably right, just the steering wheel is off-center. Take it back to the original dealer and tell them the steering wheel is off-center and you want it fixed. Have them check the alignment just to be sure it is in spec.

I think most of us who have an Evo have jobs, too.
You picked it up the first time and the wheel was off-center, why not turn around and give it back? How does a alignment make a car unreliable? You have any idea how many cars come out of the factory with poor alignments, from every car maker.

 

This is why it is unreliable, either the dealer is doing unreliable work or the car is not holding to the work the dealer did. Either way it makes no difference to me. I am looking at the work orders right now and it says that car pulls to left when steering wheel is straight. Both times this was not fixed.

 

A car can be in-spec on alignment and still pull or veer. I had an alignment done on a different car, everything within Toyota's specs, but it pulled hard to the left. I looked back over the sheet, and several areas were at or near the extreme - I had the max toe on my left wheel and min toe on the right, both still in spec, but the back of the car was basically turning.

Lesson: get a copy of the final alignment sheet, look it over, and make sure everything is fairly "middled". If everything looks ok, go for a quick drive at a variety of speeds. If it's not right, turn around immediately and get it fixed. That you waited 200 miles the first time and 550 miles the second time would lead me to say you are on your own for the tire wear.

 

Incoming flame....everyone duck

Some of you guys are such ******. Saying its his fault for the tire wear because the dealership didn't align the tires properly and he didn't turn around immediately. Some people don't have four cars laying around and actually wanna have their car and maybe he actually trusted the dealership to do it right and didn't even realize it was messed up to begin with. So just lay off, its the dealerships fault.

 

This is my point exactly. I usually end up picking up my car on the way home from work which is actaully right when the dealership is closing but they are nice enough to wait for me when I am a couple of minutes late. Second, the road I take from the dealership to my house is a curvy road so it is hard to reconize the error. Most of my driving is in heavy traffice so that also makes it hard to notice. but when i get on the freeway it becomes efident and that might be a day or two after I have picked up the car.

As soon as I notice the problem I call the dealer and make an appointment to bring the car in.