Those of you with GXP's and alignment issues, did the dealership cover or repair anything? I went back and searched and I know another member was told that the manual supposedly said the GXP needed alignment a few times a year but it turned out to not be true. I'm at 32,000 miles, bought the car at 16,xxx miles as a GM certified vehicle. I figured mine was fine, but then yesterday I checked the right rear tire on a whim to find that the inside is ******* worn down completely!! It seemed odd that I had driven 16k miles and the outside/middle of the tire hardly had any wear on it. The driver side also shows wear on the inside but it's not as bad yet. I may go to the dealer today but I don't feel like dealing with the bullshit they'll probably give me. Whats everyone else's experience with this?

The front brakes are probably gone too and I'm starting to feel the ISS issue (slight pulling when braking to a stop while slightly turning). Damn GM and their design flaws!

 

An alignment is a customer responsibillity.Just like oil changes. Thats what they will tell ya.

 

Thats what I'm thinking. I think she got all pissed at me when I tried selling her, everything was fine before that lol.

 

When i worked for a gm dealership a few years ago it was you could get an anlignment done under warenty but it was like only the first few thousand miles or something like that. After that they figure if the aligment is out its due to customer "use or abuse"

 

Why do the GXPs have this problem so much and not the montes or impalas?

 

Driver side

Passenger side

 

wow the passenger side is pretty bad. I was thinking maybe the GXP are worse because of the Performance Handling characteristic that GM wanted them to have. Part of the designed way for the front and rear tires to wear about the same.

 

Get an alignment and new tire ASAP, that isn't a road worthy tire ya got there. The bad thing is, that looks like camber wear, not toe wear. I'm not sure about GP's, but the Impalas don't have an OE camber adjustment, have to get some sort of kit to adjust the camber.

 

I had the exact same issues that you are having, mine were down to the cords at 18,000 miles. Even though we all seem to have the same issues, I still think they are still bad *** cars.

 

I'm not exactly sure what the mileage limits are under warranty, but I'm pretty sure its less than 12,000 miles. Unless there is a bulletin or recall, they wont pay for it.

You can adjust the camber, you just have to take a grinder and elongate the upper or lower bolt hole in the strut. If the camber is off, it wont be by alot. Most of these newer W-body cars that wear the rear tires have incorrect rear toe. We see it a lot on the Impala's. The cop cars even had a recall which has us replacing the toe links with an updated design.

 

Well I'll be going in for an alignment today and new rear tires, I may do the fronts too as they're getting closer to the wear indicators. My front rotors are grooved so they're toast too, I'll be doing that myself though. My pocket is going to be hurting .

 

Yeah those potenzas are expensive.

You can get them really cheap on discounttiredirect.com

No tax and free shipping.

 

speedshifter wrote:

You can adjust the camber, you just have to take a grinder and elongate the upper or lower bolt hole in the strut. If the camber is off, it wont be by alot. Most of these newer W-body cars that wear the rear tires have incorrect rear toe. We see it a lot on the Impala's. The cop cars even had a recall which has us replacing the toe links with an updated design.

DO NOT GRIND OR CUT OR ALTER ANYTHING.

There are aftermarket cam bolts through all local autoparts outlets. Simply remove the upper of the two mounting bolts at the axel end of the strut, loosen the lower one set your camber then tighten both. Do all four corners of your car and problem is solved. GM stealerships will not do this for you. Go to a good alignment shop.

Get the shop to put all four on and reinstall your wheels, put the car back on the tables and give it multiple shakes. Then install their alignment equiptment and DO NOT LIFT THE CAR AGAIN UNTIL FINISHED!!! Now most shops have a inflatable pad or bag they can fit in between the tire and strut, inflate it on each wheel and set the camber for that wheel and lock it down.

Set all the alignment parameters to the min spec for your car and suspension package. Set the Toe at -0.05deg.

The bolts you need are called Camber Bolts (I have a part number 81260 if that helps)

You can change the top bolts out yourself and then take it to the alignment shop to save some bucks. Here in Canada my cost was like 40.00 a bolt but compared to the price of tires and the amasing increase in handling the have paid for themselves many times over.
Before your alignment fill your gas tank, it does make a difference!

 

You get 1 free alignment during your 3 year / 36,000 miles warranty period.

 

Straight out of GM service info:

GM does not specify a rear camber adjustment because in theory you should not ever need to adjust rear camber. Real world scenarios are different and if your car was built with camber a tad off, or your car had been in an accident and not repaired correctly, you need to adjust the rear camber. There should be no issues with grinding the strut holes in the rear just like you do on the front.

I do stand corrected, GM says only grind the lower strut bolt.

GM DOES NOT CONDONE OR RECOMMEND AFTERMARKET STRUT BOLTS.

 

Oh and if you are using GM approved alignment equipment (sold thru Hunter Engineering) there are no need for air bags or other such devices. Hunter alignment equipment allows you make adjustments with the suspension unloaded and uses calculations to compensate for that. Rolling compensation is also used to accurately calibrate the sensors.

Call it a stealership, but coupons are out there so that you can get your alignment done at a GM dealership for a competitive price. At least you will know it was done correctly.

 

OH well I guess I`ve been told. GM knows best!!! That is why there are sooo many GM`S with problems or would this be because it was done correctly to start with.

 

Hey buddy, I'm just laying out the facts for ya. Don't come on a GM message board and knock GM

 

Alright, I had it aligned.

Right Rear
Camber = -1.0
Toe = -0.11" Now: 0.07

Left Rear
Camber = -1.7 Now: -1.6
Toe = -0.28" Now: 0.07"

So you were right, toe was screwed. Can't decide what tires to go with on the rear, if its just the nature of the car to kill them I don't see why I should stick some baller ones in the back.

 

Yeah, my toe was also negative. That means the tires were pointing outwards. With the toe fixed, you shouldn't wear out the rears any faster than the fronts. My car has 37k miles on it, the fronts are bald and the rears still have over half life left.

You really dont have much of a choice on rear tires for the car: OEM Potenzas, Goodyear Eagle F1 A/S, Kumho Ecsta LX Platinums, or Bridgestone Blizzaks. Nobody else makes a 225/50-18.