Tire disaster.. need opinions

Holy shit this thread went off the rails.

Anyways.

We got this sorted out. First off-

Toyota dealership saw another shops work, saw a lady walk in, and took advantage of her. They claimed it was a alignment issue, yet the truck was out of spec by .2 degrees. Yeah. That'll cause the truck to vibrate like it's making milkshakes, totally. Assholes. They then claimed that 1.25 Oz's used on the wheels was FAR too much for a single wheel...


I have more than that on my girlfriend's Sentra.

Tire shop didn't wanna deal with the hassle of warrantying tires, so they told her it was a alignment issue because they knew she didn't know better. Again, fucking assholes.

Long story short, one front tire was egg shaped, the other is mildly egg shaped, and replacing both will fix the issue.

Also, in past she has wheeled the truck (I was there), hence the need for all terrains.

 

Awesome! Glad you took care of it!

 

Simple get toyo at3 in stock size . Problem solved .

 

Now your talking! Toyo are one of the best. I have had numerous sets without a single issue!

 

I just saw this thread after I posted one very similar to it. I feel OPs pain.

 

Omg .. i was going to do an update sooner but I wanted to wait for a response from Toyota.. it's been a freaking nightmare but .. MaverickT883 you very much helped me through this and I appreciate you immensely!! Also huge shout out for sticking up for me on the wheeling bit .. I think people are super opinionated when it comes to tires as i just learned frim this post.. and that's OK.. this is the tire I settled on .. I wanted looks an functionality and that's what I choose to do with my truck.. why does anyone choose any mod they choose .. cause it's their truck and their style .. and I think some of them are silly too but that's my opinion!!

OK.. so went back to 2nd Time Around with what Toyota printed out and the higher up staff was mortified at the bill I showed them. They used that to get 2 new Mickey Thompsons under warranty! They had to order them in and they came yesterday and installed today! They are riding smooth!! This proves everything toyota did was a pure lie and not required!!

As for Toyota. I tried to reach out to them via phone calls and was transfered to a voicemail that didn't record x4 times over the last 2 weeks and they supposedly were passing my message along to someone that would call me back .. yeah OK.

Oddly enough I got some text message this morning asking if I would suggest them to family and friends ... I was not nice in my response! Apparently that peaked someone's interest and I got a call from Brock from ottawa Bank street Toyota... needless to say I was angry/frustrated on the phone and the call ended with him adding a 500 credit to my account at that specific location ... which I'm hesitant to use because they could cause more damage to claw back the money or even the mechanic out of spite.

The reason this hits so hard is I'm actually at this point homeless and a friend is taking me in ... I'm faced with a health problem that is life changing and fighting with my insurance company to please give me the treatment that is available.... and they are denying it .. needless to say.. I could have done without this train wreck.

 

best wishes brotha. glad the tires are at least riding good for now!

 

Glad they sorted it out. It amazes me to this day that techs try to cheat on alignments. I get that 99% of the people out there do not understand them, but it's not to hard these days with forums like this to find someone that does. At minimum Toyota should be refunding you, not giving you store credit. It is also not hard to see when a tire has hop. If it hops on a balancer, it will hop on your vehicle.

 

You could always use the credit at the parts counter. I hope you get everything else in your life sorted out as well. Kee your chin up, shit always gets better.

 

posts like OP's and experiences such as this one are why I try to DIY everything. To an extreme where I am now at a point that the only thing I don't have the ability to do myself is an alignment, (Barring the shoestring method). We obviously have a difference of opinions of Roadforce balancers, but the benefit of having one in my garage means I can buy tires online at the best price possible and in the event one is defective, I have a way of providing proof for a warranty claim with the tire manufacturer.

 

Nothing wrong with doing things yourself. The more you can do, the better off you are, but there are some things that it makes more sense both cost and time to have someone do. I don't and never will own tire mounting equipment. Just not something I could ever justify the cost. A decent rim clamp machine and balancer will easily run you $10k used. A road force alone will cost you $15k for something that still works. An alignment machine is an easy $50k plus the rack. That is a lot of money to tie up in something you use once a year. The key to getting it done is finding a reputable shop with knowledgeable techs.

Sadly it isn't only women that get taken advantage of. My last alignment the tech tried the exact same nonsense on me. I got my print out. Pretended not to know what I was looking at. Ask the service advisor to explain it. He pointed out the red and the green. I asked a little more. He just said "it was off, they adjusted it". I stopped him at that point and said "get your service manager and let's go look at my truck. He responded with something like "you can't see what was adjusted." I insist. We go to my truck. I ask the service manager to show me the tool marks where my alignment was adjusted. He looks at me like I am crazy. We get on our backs, I point to the adjusting sleeves that were still covered with grime and ask how it is possible that my toe was adjusted, but there were no tool marks. He got into a song and dance about how it's the set up time and that I wasn't necessarily that things would be adjusted. I ended it there. The key to getting the service you are paying for is being able to know what needs to be done.

 

Yea I scored my balancer for 1,700, still works great just needed some cleaning and a couple of minor issues. For mounting I'm using a manual machine with some mods to make it function as a center clamp machine. Definitely not cheap but between mine, my wifes, family members, and friends, the cost has been offset by convenience, care, and savings.

 

I think the Michelin defender M/S is being discontinued for the M/S2.

 

The problem with tire selection is most people overthink it. I’m one of these people, At 38k miles I sized up and went with a set of Toyo H/T 265/70/16. They are a great tire, but weren’t for me, a much louder tire, low mpg, and handling was more like a truck with no power steering. Most of my riding is 95% highway with the 5% in the fall for hunting off of logging roads.
So I switched back to 245/75/16 with Firestone Destination LE3; quiet, great handling, great mpg.