[meelliott]

Hi I am new to the forum, I decided to join after talking to a friend who is a Honda mechanic about my continuous issues with my alignment . He said the 2004 is notorious for this issue.

I have completely replaced my tires 3 times in the 5 yrs I have owned my car, each time due to severe alignment issues that cause my front driver side tire to lose all of its tread. The first time I took into my dealer and I was told it was my fault, and same with the second time. Then once again in March I noticed my tread was gone again on the same exact tire and was once again told that it was my alignment so I replaced all 4 tires and had the car re-aligned, now 4 months later I have noticed my tires are like pigeon toed!

Does anyone else have this problem? Is there any solutions?

 

[elementbryon]

Howdy, welcome to the club.

Have you had all the service done at the same garage? It sounds to me like they are not fixing the alignment at all and just keep selling more tires. If it is the same corner every time it also sounds like they are not rotating your tires enough, or at all, to balance the wear more evenly to all four tires. Also if only one tire is wearing out you do not need to change all four tires at once. You can replace two at a time as long as the overall diameter is within an inch+/- IIRC.
I would go to a different shop or dealership this time.

Good luck and let us know what happens.

 

[ramblerdan]

Did you get a printout with specifications with each alignment? If that wheel couldn't be brought into spec, they should have told you so and found a way to fix it.

 

[boxedup1]

they must be doing a crappy alignment. im lowered with -1 negative in the front and -2 negative in the rear and have no wear issues at all. all the toe is set to zero also. the good years if thats what you have are crap and wore horribly at the correct pressures and correct alignment. get your alignment done somewhere else and get the print out.

 

[Generation "X" Dad]

Did you get a printout with specifications with each alignment? If that wheel couldn't be brought into spec, they should have told you so and found a way to fix it.

they must be doing a crappy alignment. im lowered with -1 negative in the front and -2 negative in the rear and have no wear issues at all. all the toe is set to zero also. the good years if thats what you have are crap and wore horribly at the correct pressures and correct alignment. get your alignment done somewhere else and get the print out.

What they said ^^^^

If you have the receipt from your alignment(s) and tire purchases, that should be more than enough to prove you are not at fault if it is indeed shoddy work being performed by whoever is working on your Element.

I think the concern your friend is mentioning about the 2004's is the Dueler tire which came stock on the 2003-2005 Elements. Being nice, they are complete ass. They would wear the inner and outer edges and according to Honda, it is normal. As per Shop Talk:

Element Tire Edge Wear Is
Normal

Have you received any complaints of tire edge
wear from ’03–05 Element owners? Due to the
shape and tread design of the tire, normal tread
wear can look like accelerated edge wear on these
tires. This wear doesn’t affect the tire’s
performance. Remaining tread life should always
be measured at the tread grooves. If you suspect
the tire wear isn’t normal, check if the tires are
inflated to the specified cold inflation pressures
listed on the doorjamb sticker and the wheel
alignment is within spec. Also check if your
customer is following the recommended tire
rotation schedule in the O/M. If the vehicle
checks out OK, and your customer has been
faithfully following the tire rotation schedule,
then check with the tire manufacturer for
warranty resolution.

I have seen 2003-2005 Elements at work with this Dueler tire wear on the edges and I didn't like it at all. It's funny though because other tires don't seem to wear like that. The Michelin Harmony's or LTX M/S's we've put on Elements seem to magically wear fine compared to the Duelers .