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.

Reply to
Art
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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.

Reply to
NJ Vike

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

Reply to
maxpower

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.

Reply to
Art

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

Reply to
MoPar Man

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')

Reply to
Bill Putney

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')

Reply to
Bill Putney

Nickels and dimes?

Reply to
Art

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

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Pretty much thatwhole forum has been on the subject, though not many recent threadsbecause the subject's been pretty much beat to death. Because theweatherstripping is so expensive (if, say, you need to do all fourdoors) the solution that seems popular is to buy one door's worth ofweatherstripping, remove the threshold, slide the ends of theweatherstrip apart, fill in the gap with a piece cut from the new piece,and re-install the threshold. Bill Putney "

or visit:

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Reply to
Art

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.

Reply to
Art

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

Reply to
NJ Vike

Didn't realize the M has issues with certain tires. A error in engineering?

I have the stock Michelins are and there are fine although, a little rough but I like the handling.

Reply to
NJ Vike

Bill,

That was me about the club. I'm a former member. The club is good for the information but I'm selling mine. I would like the new 300C as I need the head room :-(

I will miss this car. It is a very nice looking vehicle, IMHO.

Reply to
NJ Vike

I should never have doubted you! :)

BTW - that link is no longer good for the Club. The right link is now

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Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Art wrote:

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Reply to
Bill Putney

It happens particularly when the tires aren't ever rotated, and don't wear evenly. If the car is badly out of alignment you can have the tires all wear differently. Then when the car is properly aligned the tire wear can make it pull funny.

Rotating the tires is a quickie fix. You can also do nothing and over time the problem will correct itself, as the proper wear patterns eventually reestablish. Or you can play around with balance weights and sometimes get it fixed that way. Of course, an out of alignment vehicle makes the tires wear a lot faster.

Ted

Reply to
Ted Mittelstaedt

Reply to
philthy

Although the car is similar to the Intrepid, it has a firmer suspension and both share aluminum suspension parts. Aluminum does not absorb vibrations like steel so many people feel the combination of aluminum parts to save weight and a firmer suspension meant trouble for the 300M when it came to any imperfections in tires.

Reply to
Art

A tire with a separated cord will cause this and over time will not correct itself. That's why a road force tire balance machine is used

Glenn Beasley Chrysler Tech

Reply to
maxpower

Is this the same a high-speed balance?

Reply to
NJ Vike

Okay - thanks.

Reply to
NJ Vike

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