Long Sunday read (something about tire vibration and Ford service and "franchises" sucking)

[SegFault]

@SegFault I read your whole post. You mentioned the tire was completely flat and then aired up and plugged. Have you put a full size spare on the same wheel and tested it close to that speed? Is your wheel aftermarket? Sometimes slight imperfections show up at higher frequency / speed. I'm saying what if there was some slight wheel damage that led to other wear in the bearings. Anytime someone claims something on a service report, I would make them replicate it for you.

Spare is on a stock 17" steelie that came with the truck but with the same size of tire as the other 4 (265/70/17). I haven't tried that, mainly because it wouldn't be a like-for-like test, but it may be worth doing anyway.

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[JasonTremor]

If you can find a shop with one of these machines, who has a tech that knows how to use it, they can diagnose the tires to see if they are the issue. Many shops have the balancer, but they don't rotate the tire on the rim to get the force number in spec or the tech hasn't been trained on its capabilities.

 

[Apples]

Let's not blame Ford or its dealerships. There are bad dealerships, and we all know it. But... Ninety-nine percent are honest businesses, doing their best to handle just about any and every thing owners do to their vehicles. We (not me!) jack them up, put huge tires on them, and wonder why they won't corner and stop like they once did! Replacement shocks, replacement wheels (wrong offset), non-authorized engine mods, after-market lighting, one piece driveshafts, and all manner of other mods to suit our fancy, are all outside of Ford's franchise guide lines.

Ford also realizes that owners will indeed modify their vehicles. Yet, they will still service modified trucks, sell you tires, re-shoe brakes, and replace broken parts. But if you've replaced all manner of parts, which Ford did not authorize, then the repair is on you! This includes diagnosis of any issue.

All of this reminds me of the postman who was shot dead, because he brought a homeowner his property tax bill! So stop shooting the messenger.

 

[SegFault]

Let's not blame Ford or its dealerships. There are bad dealerships, and we all know it. But... Ninety-nine percent are honest businesses, doing their best to handle just about any and every thing owners do to their vehicles. We (not me!) jack them up, put huge tires on them, and wonder why they won't corner and stop like they once did! Replacement shocks, replacement wheels (wrong offset), non-authorized engine mods, after-market lighting, one piece driveshafts, and all manner of other mods to suit our fancy, are all outside of Ford's franchise guide lines.

Ford also realizes that owners will indeed modify their vehicles. Yet, they will still service modified trucks, sell you tires, re-shoe brakes, and replace broken parts. But if you've replaced all manner of parts, which Ford did not authorize, then the repair is on you! This includes diagnosis of any issue.

All of this reminds me of the postman who was shot dead, because he brought a homeowner his property tax bill! So stop shooting the messenger.

Tell me you didn't read the original post without telling me you didn't read the original post. The suspension in question is a Ford Performance Fox leveling kit, installed by a Ford dealership ('dealership B' in my tl;dr post.) Dealership A wouldn't perform any basic troubleshooting because the suspension wasn't stock, even though it's all Ford parts installed by a different Ford dealer. They also claimed the drive shaft was "wobbling", but wanted to charge me to repair a _stock_ component that's on a vehicle with a year left on the original 3/36,000 warranty.

But do go on about unauthorized parts like engine mods and lighting and postmen getting shot over property tax bills, it seems relevant somehow.

 

[Discount Tire]

@SeaFault, I apologize for all the troubles you have had. PM headed your way.

 

[D Fresh]

Seems like you wasted a lot of time trying to get multiple Ford dealerships to fix a Discount Tire problem.

So it's their fault you couldn't apply some deductive reasoning and fix your tire?

 

[airline tech]

The key one word is this story is - PLUG, Never PLUG a Radial Tire, Only PATCH, if it was fine before flat repair - Then it's either belt damage, stressed for being flat with weight on it or - If it was actually PLUGGED (This is HUGE NO-NO) for radial tires, when the probe was inserted into the tire it broke a belt. You should only PATCH a radial tire - Period.

I am a former Auto Tech who spent 8 years working for a shop whose main business was Tires. I cannot even count how many tires I have mounted & balanced in my life, and flat repairs as well.

To find and see the (Vibration) Tire, while it's on the balancer look at the tire spinning from (side view) - And you can see the tire (out of round) bump (^) or front view look for side to side wobble (-) This wobble is due to slipped/damaged belt)

Most tech's just put tire on balancer and - pull off old weights (if they are diligent) and balance it, they don't check for imperfections unless you specifically ask them to do it.

I would put spare on, just to see if vibe disappears, if so, replace that specific tire or go with completely different set. (Not Cooper) I have had my own personal issues with Cooper's and the very same issue you are having, Pulled Cooper tires with only 300 miles on them (note -not on the Ranger)

Since, you have had the suspension checked with possible driveshaft issues, I'm wondering if the shaft is sticking, intermittently - Vibrating when it's sticking (only)

As far as alignment, if they are different manufacture machines, the attachment heads sometimes mount differently plus the machines sometimes have calibration (software database) differences. Giving you different specs
I have only used the older Hunter machines, (Light source on the heads, pointing towards a screen on the wall) Old school with today's tech as this was in the early 90's (the last time, I did an alignment)

But I'm leaning toward broken/ damaged belt from the PLUG.

 

[SegFault]

The key one word is this story is - PLUG, Never PLUG a Radial Tire, Only PATCH, if it was fine before flat repair - Then it's either belt damage, stressed for being flat with weight on it or - If it was actually PLUGGED (This is HUGE NO-NO) for radial tires, when the probe was inserted into the tire it broke a belt. You should only PATCH a radial tire - Period.

But I'm leaning toward broken/ damaged belt from the PLUG.

What you're saying describes *exactly* what happened to the tire: I found it completely, zero PSI flat after backing out of my garage when the dash TPMS alarms started yelling at me. I have no idea how long it might have been flat, I work from home and drive the truck once or twice a week. So there's a good chance it sat for most of the week completely flat in the garage. And it was definitely plugged, not patched.

 

[SegFault]

@SeaFault, I apologize for all the troubles you have had. PM headed your way.

Update, a month late: @Discount Tire warrantied out all 4 tires and covered a new set at no charge, so many thanks to them. All of the vibration from before is now gone, it's like having new truck again.

 

[Discount Tire]

@SegFault Fault, thank you for the update. I'm glad to hear your local store took good care of you.

 

[dtech]

Ford service scheduling app is pretty bad. I've not been back to the dealership after purchase, but I need a wheel alignment and want to use my ford pass points. I call the service dept, no one answers but I leave my contact info, the next day I get a text telling me the "easiest" way to schedule service is to use their online app - tried but I found it to be really poor, don't kno if all dealerships use the same app, heaven forbid. Usually when I encounter stuff like this that's not intuitive or just plain sucks I go find another source I want to use my Ford points. Should I just forget the points - I have 43k, not sure what that translates to in $$ .

 

[RedlandRanger]

Ford service scheduling app is pretty bad. I've not been back to the dealership after purchase, but I need a wheel alignment and want to use my ford pass points. I call the service dept, no one answers but I leave my contact info, the next day I get a text telling me the "easiest" way to schedule service is to use their online app - tried but I found it to be really poor, don't kno if all dealerships use the same app, heaven forbid. Usually when I encounter stuff like this that's not intuitive or just plain sucks I go find another source I want to use my Ford points. Should I just forget the points - I have 43k, not sure what that translates to in $$ .

It is somewhere around $200. I used mine to buy some maintenance parts and some factory touch up paint.

 

[dtech]

It is somewhere around $200. I used mine to buy some maintenance parts and some factory touch up paint.

thanks for the info - now the dealership texts me back saying " we don't have alignments as an on line option as those are vehicle specific in terms of availability" WTF kind of business is this, they don't answer the phone then text me saying it's "easiest" to schedule online. And they say "I should" be able to use my Ford Pass pts. I mean if they can't tell me 100% that I can use my points I'm going elsewhere for the alignment, it's a common service for vehicles and they fail to include it as part of their online service scheduling ?
The last time I had an alignment done was at brakes plus and they quoted me a price on the phone, then when I had it done they attempted to charge me $20 more saying because a 4wd costs more, I made a huge stink in front of other customers and they promptly backed down.

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