What is a road crown? - Forester Alignment problem

[Cricket Fan]

Got the car back from the dealer. Fixed the alignment but the car
still pulled to the right. The technician mentioned that this is
because there is some problem with the Geolander tires. His notes
indicate "road crown." I am not sure what this is. Anyway, he
rotated the tires to get the car to stay straight. And that works a
bit. But the problem, he said, will come back if the tires are
rotated again.

If the tires are indeed the issue then, SoA says, it is not their
problem and I should talk to Bridgestone/Firestone. Any suggestions
as to how I should proceed with this. I would like to get the tires
replaced if they indeed are the problem. The car is 6 weeks old with
2000 miles on it. I believe subaru has sold a defective product.

 

[Rob Munach]

Got the car back from the dealer. Fixed the alignment but the car
still pulled to the right. The technician mentioned that this is
because there is some problem with the Geolander tires. His notes
indicate "road crown." I am not sure what this is. Anyway, he
rotated the tires to get the car to stay straight. And that works a
bit. But the problem, he said, will come back if the tires are
rotated again.

If the tires are indeed the issue then, SoA says, it is not their
problem and I should talk to Bridgestone/Firestone. Any suggestions
as to how I should proceed with this. I would like to get the tires
replaced if they indeed are the problem. The car is 6 weeks old with
2000 miles on it. I believe subaru has sold a defective product.

If rotating the tires fixed it, the problem is caused by radial tire
pull - a very common problem. I have had several brand new dunlops do
this. Ironically, 10,000 miles later when I rotated them, the problem
was gone.

 

[Sparky Polastri]

Got the car back from the dealer. Fixed the alignment but the car
still pulled to the right. The technician mentioned that this is
because there is some problem with the Geolander tires. His notes
indicate "road crown." I am not sure what this is. Anyway, he
rotated the tires to get the car to stay straight. And that works a
bit. But the problem, he said, will come back if the tires are
rotated again.

If the tires are indeed the issue then, SoA says, it is not their
problem and I should talk to Bridgestone/Firestone. Any suggestions
as to how I should proceed with this. I would like to get the tires
replaced if they indeed are the problem. The car is 6 weeks old with
2000 miles on it. I believe subaru has sold a defective product.

Well... "road crown" sounds like a description of the shape of the road
surface designed to make water run off to the sides, i.e. "crowns" in the
middle where it is highest.

That said, the problem is then that if the car is not completely level, it
pulls on you.

Try some experiments on known level surfaces.

It seems like there should be some pull due to slope, but if it's level then
there's still a tire/alignment problem. (Have you tried taking it somewhere
else for a second opinion?)

 

[Caden]

Got the car back from the dealer. Fixed the alignment but the car
still pulled to the right. The technician mentioned that this is
because there is some problem with the Geolander tires. His notes
indicate "road crown." I am not sure what this is. Anyway, he
rotated the tires to get the car to stay straight. And that works a
bit. But the problem, he said, will come back if the tires are
rotated again.

If the tires are indeed the issue then, SoA says, it is not their
problem and I should talk to Bridgestone/Firestone. Any suggestions
as to how I should proceed with this. I would like to get the tires
replaced if they indeed are the problem. The car is 6 weeks old with
2000 miles on it. I believe subaru has sold a defective product.

Nearly all roads are crowned. But if you find a nice stadium parking
lot or the equivalent somewhere...

 

[Cam Penner]

Got the car back from the dealer. Fixed the alignment but the car
still pulled to the right. The technician mentioned that this is
because there is some problem with the Geolander tires. His notes
indicate "road crown." I am not sure what this is. Anyway, he

http://autorepair.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-684a.htm

 

[PaulW]

Got the car back from the dealer. Fixed the alignment but the car
still pulled to the right. The technician mentioned that this is
because there is some problem with the Geolander tires. His notes
indicate "road crown." I am not sure what this is. Anyway, he
rotated the tires to get the car to stay straight. And that works a
bit. But the problem, he said, will come back if the tires are
rotated again.

If the tires are indeed the issue then, SoA says, it is not their
problem and I should talk to Bridgestone/Firestone. Any suggestions
as to how I should proceed with this. I would like to get the tires
replaced if they indeed are the problem. The car is 6 weeks old with
2000 miles on it. I believe subaru has sold a defective product.

The car is 6 weeks old and the dealership is telling you that the issue is
not their problem?... That is a load of crap and the dealership is trying to
pull a fast one on you.

They sold you the car and they have to stand by the product that they
sell... What would they tell you if any other part on the car was faulty...
That too isn't their problem? If the tires are the issue, then Subaru, not
you, has chosen that product to spec the vehicle with, and they have to
deal with the problem. Get them to fix it, they owe it to you for
purchasing their product with your hard earned cash.

Good Luck,
PaulW.

 

[Cricket Fan]

news:(e-mail address removed)...

It seems like there should be some pull due to slope, but if it's level then
there's still a tire/alignment problem. (Have you tried taking it somewhere
else for a second opinion?)

It has been very frustrating so far. The dealer that I tried to buy
the car from tried to fix the problem, but he was very unresponsive
and didn't do the job right. The service center there tried to
shrug-off the problem as sailing.

So I took the car to another dealer after getting some positive
feedback about their service center. The staff seemed knowledgeful
and co-operative. They admitted the alignment problem. Fixed it
supposedly. But the weren't able to get the car to go straight. So
they rotated the tires. That seemed to get the car to go straight a
bit. Therefore, they think it is the tires(tyres ).

It is turning out to be hopeless to deal with SoA. They promised me a
call back after talking with the last service center. But I haven't
heard anything back.

Anyway, I would just be happy if there isn't a persistent problem with
the car that affects the reliability.

 

[Cricket Fan]

It has been very frustrating so far. The dealer that I tried to buy
^^^^^^^^^^^^
should read "The dealer I bought the car from..."

 

[Cricket Fan]

Yep! Exactly my point. SoA started arguing that they do not
manufacture the tires. So I should, talk to the Bridgestone/Firestone
because they cover the warranty on the tires. They started talking
about signing the documents after reading the manual. 258 pages of
reading before buying the car. I told them, they would not sell too
many cars that way.

Nevertheless, my point is I did not buy tires separately for the car.
As far as the auto sale is concerned, I bought the car from Subaru
that had the tires on them.

I am thinking of resorting to some consumer protection agencies to
take this matter up.

With the amount of alignment issues that I have seen on the board, I
am sure there will be many lawyers seeing dollars on a class action.

 

[Chris Phillipo]

Got the car back from the dealer. Fixed the alignment but the car
still pulled to the right. The technician mentioned that this is
because there is some problem with the Geolander tires. His notes
indicate "road crown." I am not sure what this is. Anyway, he
rotated the tires to get the car to stay straight. And that works a
bit. But the problem, he said, will come back if the tires are
rotated again.

If the tires are indeed the issue then, SoA says, it is not their
problem and I should talk to Bridgestone/Firestone. Any suggestions
as to how I should proceed with this. I would like to get the tires
replaced if they indeed are the problem. The car is 6 weeks old with
2000 miles on it. I believe subaru has sold a defective product.

The bad alignment ruined the tires, tires will continue to wear unevenly
even after the alignment is fixed so whatever SOA is saying they can jam
it up their ass because it's their worksmanship that ruined those tires,
not Bridgestone's tire design.

 

[Edward Hayes]

Did you receive a before and after computer print-out of the cars' alignment
so you know it was aligned properly??