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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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')

 

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')

 

Nickels and dimes?

 

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
(http://300mclub.100megs42.com/forums/index.php). Pretty much that
whole forum has been on the subject, though not many recent threads
because the subject's been pretty much beat to death. Because the
weatherstripping is so expensive (if, say, you need to do all four
doors) the solution that seems popular is to buy one door's worth of
weatherstripping, remove the threshold, slide the ends of the
weatherstrip apart, fill in the gap with a piece cut from the new piece,
and re-install the threshold.

Bill Putney "


or visit:

http://groups.google.com/group/rec....ing+shrink+bill&rnum=1&hl=en#73a86f79fe90467f

 

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.

 

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

--
"Now Phoebe Snow direct can go
from thirty-third to Buffalo.
From Broadway bright the tubes run right
Into the Road of Anthracite"
Erie - Lackawanna

 

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.

--
"Now Phoebe Snow direct can go
from thirty-third to Buffalo.
From Broadway bright the tubes run right
Into the Road of Anthracite"
Erie - Lackawanna

 

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.

--
"Now Phoebe Snow direct can go
from thirty-third to Buffalo.
From Broadway bright the tubes run right
Into the Road of Anthracite"
Erie - Lackawanna

 

I should never have doubted you!

BTW - that link is no longer good for the Club. The right link is now
http://300mclub.org/forums/index.php?sid=426876de8fc01e7e267dc347d2afee34

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

 

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

 

when the toe setting is off then the tires develope a wear pattern and that
alone can cause a drift so wheel swapping is a common fix

 

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.

 

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

 

Is this the same a high-speed balance?

--
"Now Phoebe Snow direct can go
from thirty-third to Buffalo.
From Broadway bright the tubes run right
Into the Road of Anthracite"
Erie - Lackawanna

 

Okay - thanks.

--
"Now Phoebe Snow direct can go
from thirty-third to Buffalo.
From Broadway bright the tubes run right
Into the Road of Anthracite"
Erie - Lackawanna