This is the bulletin put out by GM, it applies to police cars. but from our Impala tire wear and reports on the net I know it's not just police cars. my husband called GM, the person on the phone didn't seem to know about it. he'll receive a call back and is to take the car to the dealer (who is the one who told him about the problem) and the dealer is to contact GM to say what's wrong. how can GM reps not know?? seems GM is thinking "ignore the problem and it will go away."
the solution is to replace the rear wheel spindle rods.
Component Description:
11. WHEELS Bulletin Number:08032
Bulletin Date:Jun 2008
Vehicle: 2,007 Chevrolet Impala
Summary:
GM: A CONDITION EXISTS ON YOUR POLICE VEHICLE THAT MAY CAUSE REAR WHEEL MISALIGNMENT, RESULTING IN LOWER TREAD DEPTH ON THE INBOARD SIDE OF THE REAR TIRES. CSC LETTER. ( NHTSA ITEM NUMBER - 10026504 )
Nick52284,
I have gone thru 3 sets of good tires now. Tires lasting from 10-12k miles before they hit cords. This is after the dealer does an alignment to spec. Funny thing is I have never seen the alignment specs from the dealer, I only get "aligned to spec". My wear is on the inside of the tires just as described in the police bulletin. I have tried different brands each time and get the same result (wear to the cords in 6 months or less). The bulletin only applies to the police version becasue GM doesn't want the bill for the thousands of ordinary customers repairs. There are enough complaints of this exact thing on any Chevy site that you can find. We aren't all nimrods.
You may be a guru, but I think you don't know what you are talking about.
Paul
Testimonial: "I left a comment but I think it went under my original post. our car was fixed as described in the "police car" bulletin but under our warranty."
We bought a 2008 new and went thru 3 sets of tires by 24k. Almost killed my family because the car would hydroplane on wet roads at any speed. We finally parked the car at dealers lot and have refused to drive since oct 09. GM offered us $1000 voucher towards purchase of another GM haha our lives are worth $1000 bucks. Filed complaint w/NHSTA and contacted my Senators/Congressman for help. GM knows they have a problem with this model and are not admitting it FILE YOUR COMPLAINTS w/NHSTA and lets force them to admit the problem
I have the same rear end tire alignment problem on my 2008 Impala. I have now gone thru 2 sets of tires. Most current one lasted 7 months, 12k miles. Tires are rated for 60k miles. The inside of the tires are getting chewed up.
I've looked at the car from the rear and I can see that the alignment is poor, the tires bow out at the bottom as if there were way too much weight in the car.
I'm calling the dealer on Monday to see what can be done, this is a ridiculous issue to be fighting about. The manufacturer should cover this no questions asked. My wife (a civilian) drives like a grandma, there's no way we caused this.
The reason the bulletin only applies to police edition vehicles is because the suspension is different on those police package cars, the suspension is stiffer and has bigger sway bars for pursuit purposes, i have seen problems with civillian impala's but its not because of the spindle rods the problem is because of crappy tires. those goodyear integrity's have issues with the OUTSIDE tread wearing faster, the bulletin is for inside tread wear, also being that your car is going on 3 years old yes 3, check the build date, it is a normal maintenance item to have the alignment done at least once a year.
if your wearing tires out to the cords in 6 months then you have a very serious problem with your rear suspension thats far byond the bulletin. if you didn't buy the car brand new i'd honestly check into a carfax for any kind of side or rear end collision. even if that bulletin does apply to your car for some unknown reason, that still doesn't justify the kind of wear your explaining. so again your problem is something more severe than what the bulletin states. if the wear your complaining about is as bad as you say it is, there would be a safety recall not just a bulletin.....
also
i don't appreciate you saying that i don't know what i am talking about. i work for, and have worked for a gm dealer for years now. not once have i seen a civillian impala have the rear spindle rods replaced. i'm not blind and i'm very good at what i do. you can't argue with a 4.0 out of 4.0 customer satisfaction rate 3 years in a row, and yes i am a technician, how many cars have you personally fixed to give you the right to say i don't know what i am talking about? if you've been working on cars for more than 11 years then by all means i apologize!
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Dont align to spec,bad spec
This is a GM failure new tires will not fix this! It will not go away without a major fix not even with alignment! original specs are no good! If they aligned to spec its a waste of ur money and time!
Same issue idiot above must not know what he is talking about cause im burning thru tires in weeks gm needs to recall it
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our problem was solved in 2009 by the Chevy dealer ordering the necessary parts under our warranty. he had the info of what was needed. the car was low-mileages and so it was covered. (we also had bought the extended warranty.) the Chevy rep on the phone was very nice but couldn't do anything without the supervisor's okay and they would not pay for the back tires. this couldn't be handled as a recall.
our 2007 Impala is not a police car but still had the same problem! the tread wear was as explained in the bulletin and our car had only 12,000 miles on it when we bought it in 2009.
I'm the original poster. I posted this on Jan. 4 but it went into comments under that first post.
our 2007 Impala is not a police car but still had the same problem! the tread wear was as explained in the bulletin and our car had only 12,000 miles on it when we bought it in 2009.
our problem was solved in 2009 by the Chevy dealer ordering the necessary parts under our warranty. he had the info of what was needed. the car was low-mileage and so it was covered. (we also had bought the extended warranty.) the Chevy rep on the phone was very nice but couldn't do anything without the supervisor's okay and they would not pay for the back tires. this couldn't be handled as a recall.
there had to be alignment after the bad parts were replaced.
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