A Cars forum. AutoBanter

If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Go Back   Home » AutoBanter forum » Auto makers » Chrysler
Site Map Home Register Authors List Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read Web Partners

Had my 300M aligned



 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1  
Old March 1st 06, 11:32 PM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned

For those paying attention, after getting the clunk fixed (turned out to be
a inner tie rod bushing), the more competent dealer left the steering wheel
crooked. So I took it to Merchant's tire, etc store after checking with
them that they would listen to my concerns about doing the alignment
correctly (as described by Bill, Steve and others here). So I printed out
the advice previously posted here, highlighted the important stuff and took
the car over.

They said they understood the issue and only a moron would do it wrong and
they weren't morons. In any case they did the alignment and took a road
test. The front end was indeed off, according to them and after they
aligned it, the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and switched
front wheels and that solved the problem. Car is now properly aligned,
steering wheel is straight and the car tracks straight.

By the way they said that they fix a clunk once per month in their shop in
these cars caused by bad bushing in the left inner tie rod. In their
opinion it is being cooked by exhaust heat because a pipe is too close to
it. I haven't heard that theory before. One of the guys owns an Intrepid.
At 50k miles he replaced the steering rack. It now has 100k miles on it and
nothing else has gone bad on it except for the weather stripping. I told
him Bill's suggestion of cutting the weather stripping and buying one
additional piece for splicing.


Ads
  #2  
Old March 2nd 06, 01:15 AM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned

Art,

I'm not sure I get it.

"the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and switched
front wheels and that solved the problem"

Why would they have to switch wheels for the car to steer straight and not
drift? Something still doesn't sound right.

One idiot lowered the air pressure on one of my friend's front tires to get
the car to go straight. I'm afraid to let anyone touch the alignment on any
vehicle.



"Art" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> For those paying attention, after getting the clunk fixed (turned out to
> be a inner tie rod bushing), the more competent dealer left the steering
> wheel crooked. So I took it to Merchant's tire, etc store after checking
> with them that they would listen to my concerns about doing the alignment
> correctly (as described by Bill, Steve and others here). So I printed out
> the advice previously posted here, highlighted the important stuff and
> took the car over.
>
> They said they understood the issue and only a moron would do it wrong and
> they weren't morons. In any case they did the alignment and took a road
> test. The front end was indeed off, according to them and after they
> aligned it, the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and
> switched front wheels and that solved the problem. Car is now properly
> aligned, steering wheel is straight and the car tracks straight.
>
> By the way they said that they fix a clunk once per month in their shop in
> these cars caused by bad bushing in the left inner tie rod. In their
> opinion it is being cooked by exhaust heat because a pipe is too close to
> it. I haven't heard that theory before. One of the guys owns an
> Intrepid. At 50k miles he replaced the steering rack. It now has 100k
> miles on it and nothing else has gone bad on it except for the weather
> stripping. I told him Bill's suggestion of cutting the weather stripping
> and buying one additional piece for splicing.
>



  #3  
Old March 2nd 06, 01:37 AM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned


"NJ Vike" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> Art,
>
> I'm not sure I get it.
>
> "the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and switched
> front wheels and that solved the problem"
>
> Why would they have to switch wheels for the car to steer straight and not
> drift? Something still doesn't sound right.
>
> One idiot lowered the air pressure on one of my friend's front tires to

get
> the car to go straight. I'm afraid to let anyone touch the alignment on

any
> vehicle.
>
>
>
> "Art" > wrote in message
> ink.net...
> > For those paying attention, after getting the clunk fixed (turned out to
> > be a inner tie rod bushing), the more competent dealer left the steering
> > wheel crooked. So I took it to Merchant's tire, etc store after

checking
> > with them that they would listen to my concerns about doing the

alignment
> > correctly (as described by Bill, Steve and others here). So I printed

out
> > the advice previously posted here, highlighted the important stuff and
> > took the car over.
> >
> > They said they understood the issue and only a moron would do it wrong

and
> > they weren't morons. In any case they did the alignment and took a road
> > test. The front end was indeed off, according to them and after they
> > aligned it, the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and
> > switched front wheels and that solved the problem. Car is now properly
> > aligned, steering wheel is straight and the car tracks straight.
> >
> > By the way they said that they fix a clunk once per month in their shop

in
> > these cars caused by bad bushing in the left inner tie rod. In their
> > opinion it is being cooked by exhaust heat because a pipe is too close

to
> > it. I haven't heard that theory before. One of the guys owns an
> > Intrepid. At 50k miles he replaced the steering rack. It now has 100k
> > miles on it and nothing else has gone bad on it except for the weather
> > stripping. I told him Bill's suggestion of cutting the weather

stripping
> > and buying one additional piece for splicing.
> >

>
>

That is a common problem with tires. Its a radial tire pull. What should
have been done next was to have the tires road force balanced to see if the
tires were any good. The OP makes no mention of that being done

Glenn Beasley
Chrysler Tech


  #4  
Old March 2nd 06, 03:10 AM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned

The 300M is very sensitive to any imperfection in tires. The original
Goodyears that came with the car were replaced by Chrysler for vibrations
and the new ones were replaced by me with Michelins when the second set of
Goodyears went bad after 10k miles. Lots of people had drifting problems
with the 300M. Personally, I think the guy doing the alignment today was
going for perfection after hearing all the problems I had had with the front
end of the car. I doubt I would have perceived any drift.


"NJ Vike" > wrote in message
ink.net...
> Art,
>
> I'm not sure I get it.
>
> "the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and switched
> front wheels and that solved the problem"
>
> Why would they have to switch wheels for the car to steer straight and not
> drift? Something still doesn't sound right.
>
> One idiot lowered the air pressure on one of my friend's front tires to
> get the car to go straight. I'm afraid to let anyone touch the alignment
> on any vehicle.
>
>
>
> "Art" > wrote in message
> ink.net...
>> For those paying attention, after getting the clunk fixed (turned out to
>> be a inner tie rod bushing), the more competent dealer left the steering
>> wheel crooked. So I took it to Merchant's tire, etc store after
>> checking with them that they would listen to my concerns about doing the
>> alignment correctly (as described by Bill, Steve and others here). So I
>> printed out the advice previously posted here, highlighted the important
>> stuff and took the car over.
>>
>> They said they understood the issue and only a moron would do it wrong
>> and they weren't morons. In any case they did the alignment and took a
>> road test. The front end was indeed off, according to them and after
>> they aligned it, the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and
>> switched front wheels and that solved the problem. Car is now properly
>> aligned, steering wheel is straight and the car tracks straight.
>>
>> By the way they said that they fix a clunk once per month in their shop
>> in these cars caused by bad bushing in the left inner tie rod. In their
>> opinion it is being cooked by exhaust heat because a pipe is too close
>> to it. I haven't heard that theory before. One of the guys owns an
>> Intrepid. At 50k miles he replaced the steering rack. It now has 100k
>> miles on it and nothing else has gone bad on it except for the weather
>> stripping. I told him Bill's suggestion of cutting the weather stripping
>> and buying one additional piece for splicing.
>>

>
>



  #5  
Old March 2nd 06, 03:54 AM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned

Art wrote:

> The original Goodyears that came with the car were replaced
> by Chrysler for vibrations


Why did they go back to the Eagles for new 300 and Charger?
  #6  
Old March 2nd 06, 04:12 AM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned

Bill Putney wrote:

> Art wrote:
>
>> ...One of the guys
>> owns an Intrepid...I told him Bill's suggestion of cutting the
>> weather stripping and buying one additional piece for splicing.


Oops - hit 'send' too soon. I don't recall that I would have offered
that suggestion. However I am aware of that technique from the 300M
Enthusiasts Club - perhaps I linked you to a thread there that conatined
that tip. Either that, or it was someone else and not me.

Bill Putney
(To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my
address with the letter 'x')
  #7  
Old March 2nd 06, 04:50 AM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned

Nickels and dimes?


"MoPar Man" > wrote in message
...
> Art wrote:
>
>> The original Goodyears that came with the car were replaced
>> by Chrysler for vibrations

>
> Why did they go back to the Eagles for new 300 and Charger?



  #8  
Old March 2nd 06, 04:57 AM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned

Google's memory is better than yours.

In your own words:
"Besides DI.net that Greg mentions, you might check out the 'Black Trim
and Wetherstripping' forum on the 300M Enthusiasts Club forums
(http://300mclub.100megs42.com/forums/index.php). Pretty much that
whole forum has been on the subject, though not many recent threads
because the subject's been pretty much beat to death. Because the
weatherstripping is so expensive (if, say, you need to do all four
doors) the solution that seems popular is to buy one door's worth of
weatherstripping, remove the threshold, slide the ends of the
weatherstrip apart, fill in the gap with a piece cut from the new piece,
and re-install the threshold.

Bill Putney "


or visit:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.a...a86f79fe90467f






"Bill Putney" > wrote in message
...
> Bill Putney wrote:
>
>> Art wrote:
>>
>>> ...One of the guys
>>> owns an Intrepid...I told him Bill's suggestion of cutting the
>>> weather stripping and buying one additional piece for splicing.

>
> Oops - hit 'send' too soon. I don't recall that I would have offered that
> suggestion. However I am aware of that technique from the 300M
> Enthusiasts Club - perhaps I linked you to a thread there that conatined
> that tip. Either that, or it was someone else and not me.
>
> Bill Putney
> (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address
> with the letter 'x')



  #9  
Old March 2nd 06, 05:03 AM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned

Both tires only have a few thousand miles on them and look brand new.
Unfortunately they have had to drive around in a clunky incompetently
repaired car their short lives. In any case, the drift was very small and
probably not perceptible to most people. The shop was just trying to sweat
the details after hearing my story. By the way the car is gorgeous. I had
it detailed and I had Colors on Parade (a car paint franchise) re-do some
body work because the clear coating at one edge of a previous repair was had
chipped off. They did a great job. Car exterior looks like new. Hopefully
it ships to my in-laws next week.


"Bill Putney" > wrote in message
...
> Art wrote:
>
>> For those paying attention, after getting the clunk fixed (turned out to
>> be a inner tie rod bushing), the more competent dealer left the steering
>> wheel crooked. So I took it to Merchant's tire, etc store after
>> checking with them that they would listen to my concerns about doing the
>> alignment correctly (as described by Bill, Steve and others here). So I
>> printed out the advice previously posted here, highlighted the important
>> stuff and took the car over.
>>
>> They said they understood the issue and only a moron would do it wrong
>> and they weren't morons. In any case they did the alignment and took a
>> road test. The front end was indeed off, according to them and after
>> they aligned it, the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and
>> switched front wheels and that solved the problem. Car is now properly
>> aligned, steering wheel is straight and the car tracks straight.
>>
>> By the way they said that they fix a clunk once per month in their shop
>> in these cars caused by bad bushing in the left inner tie rod. In their
>> opinion it is being cooked by exhaust heat because a pipe is too close
>> to it. I haven't heard that theory before. One of the guys owns an
>> Intrepid. At 50k miles he replaced the steering rack. It now has 100k
>> miles on it and nothing else has gone bad on it except for the weather
>> stripping. I told him Bill's suggestion of cutting the weather stripping
>> and buying one additional piece for splicing.

>
> Glad you got some results. Others have responded about the implications
> of swapping the tires to get it to go straight, so I won't say anything
> about that (other than to point out that sometimes the *only* way to
> *really* get things right is to get new tires *and* a proper alignment and
> all the kinks worked out at that point in time - by the time a bad
> alignment is straightened out, the tires may develop bad wear patterns so
> that no matter how good the subsequent alignment is, things are still not
> ideal until new tires are put on and a good alignment repeated - I guess I
> said my piece after all).
>
> Bill Putney
> (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address
> with the letter 'x')



  #10  
Old March 2nd 06, 11:24 AM posted to rec.autos.makers.chrysler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Had my 300M aligned

Never heard of a radial pull but it seems that they should have informed Art
that there's another issue than to switch tires.

--
"Now Phoebe Snow direct can go
from thirty-third to Buffalo.
From Broadway bright the tubes run right
Into the Road of Anthracite"
Erie - Lackawanna



"maxpower" > wrote in message
...
>
> "NJ Vike" > wrote in message
> ink.net...
>> Art,
>>
>> I'm not sure I get it.
>>
>> "the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and switched
>> front wheels and that solved the problem"
>>
>> Why would they have to switch wheels for the car to steer straight and
>> not
>> drift? Something still doesn't sound right.
>>
>> One idiot lowered the air pressure on one of my friend's front tires to

> get
>> the car to go straight. I'm afraid to let anyone touch the alignment on

> any
>> vehicle.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Art" > wrote in message
>> ink.net...
>> > For those paying attention, after getting the clunk fixed (turned out
>> > to
>> > be a inner tie rod bushing), the more competent dealer left the
>> > steering
>> > wheel crooked. So I took it to Merchant's tire, etc store after

> checking
>> > with them that they would listen to my concerns about doing the

> alignment
>> > correctly (as described by Bill, Steve and others here). So I printed

> out
>> > the advice previously posted here, highlighted the important stuff and
>> > took the car over.
>> >
>> > They said they understood the issue and only a moron would do it wrong

> and
>> > they weren't morons. In any case they did the alignment and took a
>> > road
>> > test. The front end was indeed off, according to them and after they
>> > aligned it, the car drifted slightly so they brought it back in and
>> > switched front wheels and that solved the problem. Car is now properly
>> > aligned, steering wheel is straight and the car tracks straight.
>> >
>> > By the way they said that they fix a clunk once per month in their shop

> in
>> > these cars caused by bad bushing in the left inner tie rod. In their
>> > opinion it is being cooked by exhaust heat because a pipe is too close

> to
>> > it. I haven't heard that theory before. One of the guys owns an
>> > Intrepid. At 50k miles he replaced the steering rack. It now has 100k
>> > miles on it and nothing else has gone bad on it except for the weather
>> > stripping. I told him Bill's suggestion of cutting the weather

> stripping
>> > and buying one additional piece for splicing.
>> >

>>
>>

> That is a common problem with tires. Its a radial tire pull. What should
> have been done next was to have the tires road force balanced to see if
> the
> tires were any good. The OP makes no mention of that being done
>
> Glenn Beasley
> Chrysler Tech
>
>



 




Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Should I get my 300M aligned? Art Chrysler 7 February 24th 06 12:45 PM
Focal 2002 Chrysler 300M (ultra-modified 300M) MoPar Man Chrysler 1 January 8th 06 08:43 PM
300M Trailer questions, What is the answer?!? Steve Chrysler 10 May 20th 05 12:02 AM
300M Club has a new forum home Bill Putney Chrysler 0 October 24th 04 04:44 AM


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 02:54 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright ©2004-2024 AutoBanter.
The comments are property of their posters.