by brokenwing9768 » Sat Dec 18, 2010 12:00 am
I was recently in car accident and it wasent my falt. I got my car back today and it looks great but it doesnt drive right now. My car is brand new and now it pulls to right, I was hit in the right front fender. Im taking it back on monday, but the repair shop said they fixed everything. I know it never did this before. I think my car should be returned to me in the same conditon it was in before the accident.
Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 07:18 am Post Subject:
I agree. Thanks for sharing.
Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 04:16 pm Post Subject:
You might ask them to rotate your tire from the right front to elimate the possibility that the belts were damaged if it was impacted. We find all to often, a tire with a bad belt will cause the car to pull to the side of the bad tire.
If the front suspension was aligned, they should have a print out of the before and after readings to document that, in fact, the vehicle is in proper alignment and is within the specifications of the manufacturer.
We will move the tire to the opposite side for just a test to see if it is the tire that is bad. If you move the tire to the left front and now it pulls that direction, it will confirm that it is a tire issue and not a body or suspension problem.
Front alignment equipment does get out of calibration and perhaps an alignment from a different piece of equipment or vendor could rule that out.
Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 07:25 pm Post Subject:
Thanks but the whole weel had to be replaced tire and rim. any other suggestions?
Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 07:25 pm Post Subject:
Thanks but the whole weel had to be replaced tire and rim. any other suggestions?
Posted: Sat Dec 18, 2010 07:39 pm Post Subject:
Is the tread pattern the exact same as on the original tire? There are a multitude of tires sold as duellers and michellins that are Sears only, firestone only, walmart only versions. Same for many other tires. I have gone to great lengths to match up the exact tread pattern on discontinued tires or where the manufacturer changes tread designs to ensure that there is not an imbalance of traction that could cause a pull. If this is the case the manufacture recommends replacing tires in sets as well as struts to ensure that this type of issue does not arise. They probably even charged bettement on the new tire when it caused a worse situation and did not improve the value of the life of the entire set of tires. You are certainly entitled to be placed in the same condition you held prior to the loss and whatever the cost is, should be added to the claim to make you whole.
Another thought is that new tire treads are softer and the traction is different. If you had oem tires on your vehicle you may have had a softer composition. Imagine you had a shoe that was a year old with a leather sole, and you had to match it up with only one new shoe since one was lost or destroyed. Wouldn't you imagine that your gait or walk might be affected?
Posted: Sun Dec 19, 2010 03:18 pm Post Subject:
I only have 2,500miles on the car. Do you think that the tire tread would matter after only that many miles? I had wondered that myself but considering the miles I just thought, they would laugh at me.
Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 06:33 am Post Subject:
Do you think that the tire tread would matter after only that many miles?
What MikeoftheOzarks was referring to was the tread pattern, not the amount of treadwear. If you mix tread designs left and right, the resistance (aka: "coefficient of friction") can cause the car to pull in one direction or another. Even though a tire may be branded Michelin, they custom manufacture tires for Sears and other retailers that differ from other Michelin tires.
Aside from that, if your wheel alignment was knocked out of whack, that could easily account for the pull -- many body shops are not going to take the time to realign the front-end. Some other structural/mechanical parts could have been damaged. So could a tire not properly inflated (or a tire overinflated on the opposite side).
Too many possibilities to explore.
Posted: Mon Dec 20, 2010 06:47 am Post Subject:
"coefficient of friction")
The phrase of the day...brought to you by the letter Z.
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