Re: [Chrysler300] 300M Tires, Followup

["Thomas Miller" <tfm@xxxx>]

Well gang, I did temp fate this afternoon and rotated my 300M's Michelins. The car now shows 49,000 miles on the odometer (25,000 miles since I got the Michelins, and 41,000 miles since the front of the car was smashed, reapired and realigned). I'm pleased to report that she still goes straight down the road with absolutely NONE of the dreaded shakes to be found anywherebetween 0 and 85 MPH. I'd also say from the looks of things, these tires might just have another 25,000 miles in 'em! Here's a link to them from Michelin's web site:

http://tires.michelin-us.com:80/catalog/tires/pilotxgtz4.html

and here's a link to them over at the Tire Rack mail order place:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/michelin/mi_pilotxgtz4.jsp


They're kinda pricey, but have been worth it. I'd probably buy them myselfif I had to.  

Best Regards to all,

Thomas F. Miller
300M, 300C

tfm@xxxx 

614.975.4164 voice/page




>>> "Thomas Miller" <tfm@xxxx> 12/02/01 10:45AM >>>
Ken,

I've had vibration problems with my '99 300M also. Here's the story:

I purchased my 300M in November of 1998. It had about 80 miles on it as the dealer I purchased it from had done a swap for another new car to a dealer in another town. The car was built in August of 1998, had an aftermarketspoiler on the back of it and was sitting right in the middle of the showroom floor her in Columbus, Ohio at Bob Caldwell Chrysler-Plymouth. Oh, thethrill. I finally get my turn in life and am driving a brand new Chrysler300!, and am driving it right off of the showroom floor no less! It was abig moment for me.  

In May of 1999 with around 8,000 miles on the clock, I had the misfortune of smashing the front end of my car. Hard. About $12,000 worth. Not hard enough though to bend wheels, pop tires and the such. Hard enough though that it was off the road for 6 weeks in the body shop. Frankly, I wanted the car totaled, as I had leased it for 5 years and didn't want stuck with a car that was beyond repair for the rest of the lease period. My trusty body shop cam through for me though as the car looked straight and drove straight without a lick of vibration or pull in the front end. I was pleased. 

In the fall of 1999 at around 18,000 miles I decided that it was time to rotate my tires (still the original Goodyear Eagles). So, I put the car up on four jack stands and and rotated my tires by swapping front for back on the passenger side, and front for back on the driver's side. Here's where my vibration problems began. things were really OK at highway speeds of 65 - 80 MPH. But, around town, at 30 MPH, a rather annoying shake would causethe steering wheel to move back and forth about an inch! Puzzled, I took the car to my local Goodyear dealer and dropped $40.00 on "lifetime" balance for all four wheels. Now, my shake was gone at 30 MPH, but I had it at 60 MPH. I took it back and talked to the tire dealer about it. They balanced the wheels again, but this time broke the tires of the bead and re positioned them 180 degrees around from where they were originally mounted. Still no difference. I had the shakes at around 60 MPH. I was pretty disappointed to say the least. Now what do I do? I'm certain that the Chrysler dealer is going to notice that the car has been hit and tell me to get lost,the Goodyear dealer hasn't a clue, so I'm feeling pretty screwed at this point.  

A few months later at around 24,000 miles, I stop by to see my dealer friend to see what's new a generally shoot the BS. He asks me how my 300M is doing (knowing that the car had been smashed pretty hard) and I told him how pleased I was with the car except for this annoying shake problem. He looked at me and said, "yeah, we've had some problems with the Goodyear tires. I'll have our service manager order you a new set of Michelins. " To which I replied, "Oh, OK. Pro-rated on tread, right?" To which he replied, "Nope, no charge to you, under warranty!"  

Three days later, my 300M had 4 brand new Michelin Z rated Pilot Z4s mounted and balanced and my shakes were gone! Boy oh boy was I a happy camper. Free tires at 24,000 miles! The dealership's service manager told me that they had had numerous problems with the Goodyear tires. He said he had onecustomer that he had put 3 sets of Goodyears on trying to solve the "shakes" and couldn't make them go away until he switched that customer to Michelin.  

I'm now at almost 50,000 miles on my M, and the shakes haven't been back. I'm going to tempt fate today and go rotate my tires!  

As much as I like to "Buy American" I'm about done with Goodyear. We now have Michelin tires on our 300M, 98 Dodge RAM pickup (40,000 miles with no problems), and on our Maserati TC (Michelin MXV3 V-rated) with no problems either. On the Goodyear side of things, my '95 LHS came from the factory with Goodyears and they were noisy and I barely got 45,000 highway miles out of them. My experiences with Goodyears on my '87 Shelby Lancer and '86 Turbo Daytona (both purchased brand new) were also marginal at best.  

For the life of me though, I can't come to grips with the science behind what the heck threw my tires permanently out of balance just by rotating the entire assembly front to back? Anybody have a hypothesis on this one??!!

Best Regards to all,

Thomas F. Miller
300M, 300C

tfm@xxxx 

614.975.4164 voice/page

>>> Ken Krull <kdkblk@xxxx> 11/30/01 11:03PM >>>

This summer I bought a 99 300M with less than 18,000 miles. Because of
a shake in the steering wheel they replaced one tire then, because of a
bad belt. Just had tires rotated and the shake is back. Haven't called
the dealer yet. Have others had similar problems? Makes me wonder if
Goodyear hired Firrestone's Quality control department. The tires are
Eagle LS 225/55R17.
Ken Krull
New Paris, In.



To send a message to this group, send an email to:
Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

For list server instructions, go to http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm 

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ 



To send a message to this group, send an email to:
Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

For list server instructions, go to http://www.chrysler300club.com/yahoolist/inst.htm 

To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
Chrysler300-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 

 

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/