OK - since i know no one is going to read anything longer than a few sentences (since my post does not include any pictures), i'll keep this brief.

I have been noticing with increasing frequency and intensity a shuddering/increased road noise coming from the front of my car. I got it used a little over a year ago from Sewell. When I bought it, I confirmed with them that I wanted NEW tires on the car. They confirmed that the car did, in fact, have new tires.

Skip forward almost a year. Whenever I am cruising at speeds between 0 and 30 or when I am braking down to a stop, I notice that there is some shuddering and "noise" from the front of the car. At first, I thought it was the brakes/rotors. I changed the pads and when I had them off I looked at the rotors...the rotors were fine, so that wasn't it. Then, I took it to the dealership to have an alignment done (since I was also pulling to the right a tad).

The shuddering and noise has only gotten worse. As a last ditch effort, I took my car to Sears today to see if balancing the wheels would do anything (even though I know that off-balance wheels would start shuddering at higher speeds). The guy didn't have my car in there more than 5 minutes - he came and grabbed me and said he wanted to show me something. (THIS is where it gets good).

He has my tires turned all the way to the right so that I can see the inside tread on my tires. Let me preface this with the fact that the OUTSIDE tread is still about 1/3-1/2 of an inch deep. The inside tread? Totally bald to the point that some of the steel belt was partially exposed in some spots. Needless to say, at some point the camber was adjusted incorrectly and the inner tread has been completely trashed.

I can only assume that the tires were new (like they promised they were). Also, I have never adjusted my wheels in any way (in other words, I never adjusted the camber). I have never taken my car to anywhere other than Sewell. I have put maybe 10k miles on the car since I got it. In my mind, it is safe to assume that they screwed up when they put the new tires on (given the significant tread remaining on the outer part of the tire). Thus, I feel that I am completely justified in asking for a new set of tires since they messed mine up. Is this a legit claim, or do you think that I am S.O.L. on this?

SPARK NOTES: I bought the car last year, it supposedly came with new tires. I now have a thrashed inner tread (totally bald), but a significant portion on the outer part of the tire tread is left. I believe that this was caused by a poor installation/camber adjustment by the dealership since I have never touched the camber on my wheels.

All in all, IF the tires were new, I have only put 10-11k miles on my car. I don't drag or overly abuse my tires - there is no other way that I could have a bald inner tread other than if the camber was set too negative. What should my recourse be with Sewell???

 

No recourse. It's a well-known "issue," and something you should regularly monitor on your car (tire wear and "cupping"). It's common for people to only get 20-25k miles out of a set of tires on a G35, even with side-to-side rotation. Less if your driving style is aggressive.

 

Whoever did your alignment and camber adjustment dint do it right.

Do you have any suspension mods? If yes, get a camber kit to get a proper camber adjustment.

 

syshs - i have no suspension mods at all at the time.

Unlucky - how is the inner part of the tread being bald "normal"? especially after 10k miles? the majority of the tread still remains on the outer portion of the tire. this has NOTHING to do with driving style. the steel belt is showing after 10k miles...give me a break.

 

In that case, you will be able to get back in proper OEM specs without needing a camber kit. All the best man!
Bad alignment and/or bad camber adj = Improper tire wear.

 

I totally agree - I know for a fact that the camber was improperly set/adjusted when they put the tires on my car before they sold it to me. My question now is - why was this not noticed and/or pointed out to me when they did the alignment (which was about a month and a half ago)??? Or, did the alignment only speed up the process and wear them down even faster? I have no way of knowing what was done when...

 

Well, if everything (tire mount and alignment) was done at the dealership, then you can go back to them n ask for money back and/or new tires.
And just be safe, get your alignment done somewhere else.

 

to my knowledge, there is no camber adjustment on the front our cars with out adjustable A-Arms. A lot of alignment shops will give you a little bit of positive toe-in on the front to try and compensate for the camber.

The rear has some adjustability but "spec" still is 1 degree negative camber. And technicians will give you some toe-in to compensate again.

Either they never put new tires on or there is something more going on with your car. A lot of alignment shops will check your alignment for free so get a spec sheet and post it up.

There are some pros on the forums that will be able to tell you whats going on.

Ask the dealer to show you on an invoice when the tires were installed. Trust me, they will have some kind of documentation stating that the tires were replaced. (i used to work at grubbs and they document everything)

good luck

 

it was indeed all done at Sewell Infiniti. i'm sure they built the cost of the tires into the price that they sold the car for, so i can't really ask for a refund. i'm just going to tell them that i want a new set of tires....and i'm definitely not getting my alignment done there anymore, that's for damn sure.

 

btw if you de-badged your car, sewell will say thats why your tires are trash

 

haha - nah, i haven't debadged it (yet). they really don't have any ammo against me, so it will be an uphill battle for them to try and say that it was my fault.

 

Good luck - I know our cars ride low but thats retarded that its what we expect when it comes to tire wear. Sure if we get a drop we get bad camber but when you take the car in for all of your work at teh stealership and you have NO mods done. You expect OEM specs. 95% of anyone else would just go get tires and be done ...

OP - if you get the stealership to give you new tires cause of their lack of "doin sh*t" right - you sir are the man!

 

Well, I'm takin it in today to see what they are going to tell me. As for the wear and tear with our low rides - I totally agree; however the back tires were put on at the same time and the tread on the inside is fine for those...just another reason why I feel that something was done improperly with the front camber at some point by them.

We shall find out if I'm the man or not tonight...lol.

 

It's not camber that eats tires like that. It's toe.

Toe gets messed up quite easily from hitting pot holes and curbs.

You should have watched your tires closer and gotten it aligned when you first noticed the wear issue.

If Sewell does anything for you, be VERY happy! Make sure you get a cookie for me

 

I had 2 cookies the last time I went in. MMmMmmMMmm.


On a lighter note...talk to James Saliva. He is pretty nice serviceman and he doesn't treat you like a dick. Good luck with your car....Sewell has always treated me right.