Johnhav430

Went to the gym this AM, Mr. New Timing belt, OEM LCA bushings, coolant tranny fluids.....I drove in like I was the mayor of our small town!

Upon leaving, everything was going well, but I hadn't put my Oakleys on and if anyone saw me driving without, I potentially would "lose status." So it was critical that I got my precious Oakleys on my face asap. Well, I happened to be turning and I curbed my RF rim! Moron!!!!

My first impulse was sometimes, seemingly innocent meetings with the curb do serious hidden damage. So the first thing I did was to get on the interstate and take her up to 100 mph to see if anything was shaking....nope. I have never gone over 85-90 before, 100 may have been overreacting.....

Still, I was not satisfied, and so I called Firestone and dropped her off (it was early enough, like 9:45 AM)......I figure if something is broken, they will tell me. On my Maxima, AAA told me (they mounted/balanced my eTailer tires) that we'd normally recommend an alignment, but you've got some play on your left tie rod, so there'd be no sense in doing it before you fix that...

Anyway, got my car back, and one setting was out when done, the right rear camber is -1.9, with -1.8 being the limit. There was lots of red before, basically the only all green before was the front left. Not to mention that the steering wheel was ever so slightly to the left, when going straight, and now it's in the middle. I paid $179.99 for the lifetime alignment--figure Lexus gets $90 for 1 (cheap actually), so after 2, I would break even.

In the end, I have a scrape on the rim, I don't care that much, they're snow tires, but the rims are only 2 1/2 mos. old, so that's pretty stupid. I believe in beating myself up and telling everyone when I act stupidly, like the Cambridge Police. But in the end, I'm better off having aligned the car, it needed it. Plus it was in the back of my mind with the LCA bushing replacement 2 wks. ago....all's well that ends well....

Scootymad

It could be worse. I curbed my nice 20's within 24 hours of ownership going through the McShnit drive-thru. Still haven't lived that one down

ancdmd

I'm more concerned with the fact that you wear Oakleys than you curbing your new rim.

2KHarrier

Firestone? Wow, I'm surprised they didn't sell you 4 struts, tires, rear brakes and a "Transmisson Flush"...

You pretty much got out of there unscathed... Good work!

Johnhav430

hahahaha I know they get slammed, but I have to admit from my experience, their customer service is great. I would never bring my 335i to them--it isn't that it's such a difficult car to work on, but it starts with being able to lift it and use adapters. Many shops crush the lift points. I let it go with the LS (not that they lifted it doing the alignment).

Anyway, the proof is in the pudding, the printout showed before, 3/4 wheels were out of alignment, including the steer ahead. Afterwards, all green, but they could not get the rear right camber to -1.8, it's at -1.9. Now the dang car drives like a dream with the steering wheel perfectly centered.

True story, I asked the BMW dealer, how come you guys get $70/wheel to mount/balance, when Firestone gets $17? A mgr. starts smiling and says because over their you get a tech who makes minimum wage working on your car. (this isn't true, we all know that, it's kind of condescending) At BMW, you get a tech who breaks the sensor wire adjusting the rear toe, and then denies it (true story, they lost in the end) So I say, you guys use Hunter Road Force for $70, right? He goes, we have it, but no, we would not. That would be extra. It's only needed when there is an issue, which is maybe 15% of the time. I will admit, the BMW procedure is to weight the driver's seat when performing an alignment, and Firestone confirmed no, they will NOT do that....

At the end of the day, I think they did a good job on the LS....

Gronemus

I've had nothing but good results using the Firestone dealer over in Menomonee Falls. I had two sets of tires mounted and balanced there back in November at a very reasonable cost. Both sets mounted without any issues (my Blizzaks are directional so I was sure to confirm that all four were mounted properly) and balancing was spot on. What you would expect going to any shop perhaps, but we all know that sometimes things don't always turn out as expected.

Also, when I first got my LS back in October one of the little things that I wanted to get resolved was that it had a very slight drift to the right even though the steering wheel was centered. I've had other vehicles alignment done over there in the last couple of years and they have performed a good job with those. So after I received an online coupon for a nice discount on a four wheel alignment I set up an appointment to get the LS looked at. Long story short, all of the parameters were within spec with the exception of the rear camber which was slightly off. Since they ended up not making any adjustments at all on my car they did not charge me anything. So I ended up with the printouts and my wallet intact. The slight drift to the right disappeared after I mounted my Blizzaks so it will be interesting to see if the drift comes back after I remount the regular tires back on in the spring...

Johnhav430

That is fascinating that yours too has rear camber out of spec. My left was at -1.7 which is within, but the right was a -1.9, just missing the -1.8 limit. What gives....do we have worn parts that prevent the camber from coming in a little? One will often see older BMWs with too much negative camber, first gen X5's come to mind....

But I tell you the correction of the steer ahead or the wheel being ever so slightly off to the left was done spot on, totally worth it for that alone!

Gronemus

In my case, the left camber was at -1.9 and the right is at -2.0. They actually gave me a photo of the rear suspension showing me the arm(s) that would have to be replaced in order to get the camber back into specs. When I got back home I did a little bit of searching on this site and discovered that this seems to be a routine issue with this model. One of the possible consequences of having too much negative camber will be excessive inner tire wear which had me a little worried though. I'm guessing that the tires that came with my car when I picked it up in October (Goodyear Assurance Comfort Touring) have about 60 percent of the tread remaining and since they only show a very slight inner wear at this point I've decided to just leave the arms alone at this point. If the winter tires which I just started using for the first time, start to show some uneven wear then I'll hunt down the proper length lower arms and change them out myself.

It would be nice to know what the rear camber measurement was on my car when it left the factory? I'm also curious if all 430's left the factory with the same length lower control arms (same part numbered part)? It would have been nice if the part would have been designed originally with adjustability built in to it similar to some of the aftermarket pieces available. Oh well, enough wishing for one day...

tallcaguy

Are Oakleys perhaps a safety hazard? There's the panic stop if they slip off. The need to remove them at any time to clean all smudges of any size. Checking the rear view mirror frequently to make sure they haven't slipped. The neurons required to smile correctly. Maybe it's time for a government safety program that addresses this important subject. Oh wait, no more government regulations of any kind. Just get mini headlight washers for them (auto rain sensors of course) and wear using designer duct tape (frogs, spiderwebs, hand written "Lexus" or comparable)

mannye

Don't feel bad. After a particularly bad day two years ago I was very sad (death in the family) and now I know why they say not to drive around if you're exceptionally emotional (especially angry or sad, but even super happy) because you can get distracted. I figured that taking the "05 for a full detail/wash would kill a couple of hours and I always feel great when the car is spotless inside and out. So I am driving down the road, see the light turn green about a block ahead of me and for some reason become engrossed in the radio control and guess what? The guy at the green light was similarly amazed by the texts on his telephone so by the time I roll up to him (sitting at the green light) WHAM! both cars totaled.

For those of you that are wondering why these cars cost so much, the driver door opened, and I got out completely unscathed. The airbags and seatbelts and whatever black magic they do with the the front crumple zone worked like a charm. Not only was I OK, but the other guy also walked away clean. He was also in a Toyota...but an SUV.

Quicky ran out and bought another LS430... 06 this time.

Johnhav430

All of the above are good questions, but you have to understand where I live...our police department had to assign 4 officers to protect Tiger Woods when he was here golfing back in '13 at the Open. This necessarily meant that there were 4 less officers watching the teenagers hanging out at the local Wawa. There's been complaints of profiling and wrongly citing cars for DWX (driving without xenon). This was adopted quite some time ago, around 2004, in an effort to get folks whose cars had halogen headlamps to move out.

I guess yesterday I just had one of those moments. It would have made total sense that I put my Oakleys on prior to leaving the parking lot. But this Ford Raptor had me all twisted up, I can't get out with anything less than 4 tries going back and forth, and I see NO backup cam on this monstrosity. So my mind was not all there....I'm getting on the main road and I realize I could be seen DWO (driving without Oakley--it's a non moving violation in our town but still $93), and that's when it all went south with the curb and the rim.....

edit this is what I was faced with trying to get out of the space....shoulda had the Oakleys on already....

Johnhav430

Good to hear that you were unscathed, and got back into another LS.....all kidding aside sometimes we don't realize that we're distracted, yet we are based on the results....

tallcaguy

Jeez and I thought CA had crazy regulations. DWX? DWO? We've got DWOC (driving w/o cell and it's illegal. Well that's what I've been told by the younger generation) Do you have cell phones back there yet? Trying to deal with the complex challenges of putting on designer glasses while watching some bird fly overhead (a raptor) doesn't sound like such a great idea. Too many neurons. Good idea to recruit the nearest cute woman to assist with the challenges. If you are within spitting distance of a gym, that's easy. Just don't actually spit

mannye

You both have it easy. Here in Miami Beach ever since the real estate resurgence of 2010, body fat percentage cannot exceed 4% on women and 2% on men. If you're suspected of DWF (driving while fat) you will be pulled over for a roadside caliper test. Those driving exotics are held to an even higher BS (beauty standard) with much higher fines if something like a golf club membership lapses.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Which Oakleys?