front end......

[imdawrlus]

ok heres the story...about a year ago i got four new (oversized) tires, balenced, inner and outer tie rods, new idler arm and a front end allignment (from the dealer)...thought everything was great for about a year until i was changing my oil and decided to rotate the two front tires...took a look and BOTH tires have EXCESSIVE wear on the outsides....to me it dont sound like they did a good job on the allignment....so anyways after i rotated the tires i test drove it and it pulls to the left now....all was fine before......also, the vehicle is probablly about .5 to 1 inch LOWER on the drivers side so i figured i want to do shocks (if thats the problem).....and since it has 170 K miles on it i also want to do upper and lower ball joints and maby wheel bearings........

my question is....

1. should the dealer acknowlege that they screwed up when they alligned it and fix it after i make all the repairs???

2. is the reason it sits lower on one side due to the shocks??

AND

1. is there anything else that i should replace while i'm there?? i read about how a lot of people like to replace the stock control arm bushings.......

what do you guys think about all this??? the more i think about it this whole "stealer" thing really pisses me off because when i got the allignment a year ago i had to bring it back to them a second time because the steering wheel was wayyy off center.....THOUGHTS?? thanks!!!

[LEADFOOT]

The shocks have nothing to do with the ride height. The lean is called the GM lean most all s10's and blazer's or all gm trucks for all I know have it. With over sized tires the alignment can go out at any time. Its easier for the alignment to out with oversized tires. How long after the alignment did you notice the wear?

[Kale]

Is your Truck 4wd? Personally I don't like the dealership that I have in my town. The sales Persons are cool, the Service Department sucks. I don't trust them to change my oil, how can I trust them to do any other work on my truck. After I Shattered my rear Differential and got it fixed at the GM service Dept. I had one of my "Wrench Turning Geneuis" Buddies take a look at what they had done to it and He had to re-shim one side of it. (GM Warranty covered the Rear diff , Lucky me) I don't trust the GM Service Dept. If you have another shop in mind, or some good friends that know a ton of suspension systems, Rear aligning your steering isn't all that difficult regardless unless you don't have the know how. A set of wrenches, tape measure and some patience.

[firehawkclone]

What size tire's we talking about here?you should have got a print out of the allignment settings of before and after!

you can check all of this stuff your self,jack the truck up and put another floorjack under the lower a-arm right under the spring.so now you can grab the wheel and pull and push the top and bottom and watch everything move.I.E. upper/lower a-arm bushings,wheel bearings,ball joints and if you pull front/back you can see all the streering I.E. idler,centerlink and so on.

Or go and get a few free allignmet checks and they should check all of this before they can even check it.

[bvr775]

the left pull after rotation indicates a radial pull(bad tire), rotate the front to the rear and see if it correctes the problem. If so you need new tires. A year on the same tires is actually pretty good. I go through 3 complete sets a year.
After 170k it's amazing that they would even do an alignment without replaseing the bushings bushing genrally need to atleast be looked at every 50K and replased as needed.

definatly check your berings and ball joints. If you have a 4x4 loosen up the tension bars.

If you tread shows signs of feathering you'll need to look at the shocks. It's possible with the larger tire option that the shocks may be too soft or worn. If you still have the oem shocks you need to replase them anyway.

don't worry about the lean it wont hurt anything, but if it really conserns you call up summit and get the belltech coil spring spacer for the s-10s.

[imdawrlus]

yes the shocks are stock as far as i know...the only thing i looked at on the tires was the excessive wear on the outside edge on BOTH of them....i have two different size tires (bigger in the back) i have 235-75 's on the front if that helps...its agrovating because i had the exact same problem with the prevous set of tires but not as bad (yet)...it pulled real strong to the right when i bought the truck to i decided to swap the two front tires to see what would happen and it began to pull just as strong to the left...brought it to the tire shop and the guy said something about the "bands" seperating on the tires and now their junk.....WHAT CAUSES THIS??? because this would be the second set of tires in under a year that it has happened to....keep in mind that it drove straight as an arrow up until i swapped the tires a couple days ago.....THANKS!! i'll be in the chat for a little while if anyone wants to meet me in there....

[bvr775]

band sepration is caused when the steel belts sandwiched between the rubber plys break. genraly they rust and break because of puncters and slices in the outside plys of the tires, but the age of a tire and how you drive has allot to do with it as well. you hit curbs, turn corners real fast real sharp(showing off), potholes, constant speed bump abuse,over heating the tires(burnouts) or runing the tire at the wrong air pressor you'll damage the tires(invest 5 bux in a good tire gage).

you get a nail in your tire, tell the shop to use a plug not a patch. This completly seals the rubber. Slow down when turning. use a freinds car to show off. ***** to your city consel about the huge pothole in front of driveway. slow down over speed bumps or speed through the parking lot to avoid them(don't hit the baskets). you should run between 30-35 psi. don't trust the tire gauges at the local gas station.

i drive over allot of unpaved roads with my job and i have a big problem with breaking belts, but I also do allot of hyway driveing, about 2500miles in an average month, so bias ply tires aren't an option and i can't pay 200bux and up for good ATs when it's not uncommon for me to run a a peise of rebar or a spike trough the sidewall of a tire that has 10k on it after just a few months. beside even with the high dollar tires I'm still going to have to do 2 new tire changes in a year just from milage. compair 200bux each to the price of a set of copper radial gts at 80bux a tire and the shop i get the tires at actually honers the road hazard every time I F^*&up a tire in the plants.

[OBI WAN]

LIke I said elsewhere on another Chevy Forum, has anyone checked the upper ball joints!!!!

[bvr775]

the uppers are the easyest to replase, but noone ever checks them.