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Comments
Will this repair void the balance of the warranty? Is there a fix for the back? I have a 2006 matrix xr fwd with 14000miles on it and have the same problem as the other folks. The dealer says continental tires are problem, but they say it is alignment problem. Thanks for your info and help.
penyok
Thanks,
Chris
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Steve
Steve
This time I took it to the dealer as I was also due for maintenance so they rotated the tires. They also set they set the pressure on the tires (something like that) and reset the little light that kept going on. Well, about a week later the light comes up and I did nothing about it until my front tire became totally flat. Ok so it was due to a nail in the tire Hopefully that is it. I have less than 5K on this car.
Still, I'm going to keep a close eye on the tires because I've read too many "horror stories" (as my sister called it) regarding tires and Matrixes. :confuse:
Anyone have problems with 07 Matrix I have only read about previous models.
Continental Tires. Very much appreciate reading about the experiences of others and hope that it will shortcut the arguments with Toyota.
Can you please send me the settings you ended up with? Thanks.
Carey
I have a 06 matrix with the same tire wear issue.
I have conties on my car
Where can I get teh kit to fix the rears
Appreciate your help bro
Michael
Can you supply me with the settings that the shop set your tires. I also have a 06 Matrix XR FWD and I replaced my Contenentals at 18K. Thanks.
Bill
I'm happy/unhappy owner of Matrix 2006 with tire/alignment problem/story. Big disappointment with Toyota Motor Company and local Toyota Dealers - they do nothing. Finally I order front&rear camber kit and I setup an appointment to next week.
Is this solution really works?
The factory aligment setting are ok?
Do I need any corrections to factory settings?
Is the Matrix still driving well after all setup?
Could You give me answer by my email?
Thanks
Paul
apmidura@gazeta.pl
Our Matrix now has 29,000+ miles, 15,000 on the Yokamaha tires. The original tires lasted less than 15,000. Yes, Toyota was ABSOLUTELY no help. Three times in the shop, no resolution.
I have rotated the tires 3x since installing the new tires, with no excessive wear or other problems. The shop used the factory camber and toe settings. I replaced only the front camber bolts. I do have a minor pull to the left. May be the rear end geometry, but I have not had the rear aligned yet.
Sorry for the late reply, I do not always check this stie. Installed two 17mm EZ CAM XR adjusting bolts, one on each front wheel. Here are the results:
Initial Final
Caster Left 3.12º 2.98º
Right 2.94º 2.93º
Camber Left -0.91º -0.44º
Right -0.78º -0.31º
Toe Left -0.06º 0.00º
Right -0.19º 0.02º
Total -0.25º 0.02º
Not 100% sure if this has solved the problem since I only have about 2,500 miles on the new tires, no adjustments were made to the rear wheels however if I see any more wear problems, the car will go.
Steve
Sorry for the late reply, I do not always check this stie. Installed two 17mm EZ CAM XR adjusting bolts, one on each front wheel. Here are the results:
Initial Final
Caster Left 3.12º 2.98º
Right 2.94º 2.93º
Camber Left -0.91º -0.44º
Right -0.78º -0.31º
Toe Left -0.06º 0.00º
Right -0.19º 0.02º
Total -0.25º 0.02º
Not 100% sure if this has solved the problem since I only have about 2,500 miles on the new tires, no adjustments were made to the rear wheels however if I see any more wear problems, the car will go.
Steve
Will monitor wear closely.
Here is the web site address for filing a complaint:
www-odi.nhtsa.dot.gov/ivoq/index.cfm
Quote "The source of the noise may be damaged transmission coupling assembly and 2 ball bearing assemblies."
Wonder this has anything to do with the premature wearing out of tires?
I'll post my print text once its created so that you can re-create the same and pass them out too-
Im fired up, they made me feel like I was crazy
I started having problems at 12000 mi. tire noise. I was able to baby them to 24000
06 Matrix AW
The first is that the "specs" themselves are fairly aggressive. The settings are designed for good handling, not good tire wear.
The second is the amount of allowable deviation from spec - the tolerance. Most factory specs are too wide by half.
Put those 2 together and you have the problem.
To support this conclusion: There is a range of mileages when noise / wear is reported and it is quite wide. And there are a lot of folks who are reporting no wear / noise issues. I think the differences are where the actual alignment values are - the further away you are from the inside limit, the sooner the problem emerges.
Tires? These tires have appeared on BMW's, VW's, and Mercedes and they don't seem to have wear issues.
Judging by the number of posts here and on other forums I would say the problem is dimishing because most people that were going to notice it, have already and had their tires replaced. A lot of others probably just and said darn, when told they needed new tires and never suspected a defect. And Toyota is not using Continental for the 2007 or 08. Another reason I say tires are the problem is that I have not heard anyone say they had the problem with Goodyears, or other brand.
If anyone has information about other brands with the same problem I would love to hear it.
If the Yokohamas don't cup I will be happy.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Toyota did nothing to help me out with this problem. Disappointed with them!!! So, cough up the $400 to buy adequate tires. I will never consider Continental tires for any replacement tires for any vehicles I own. Also, the horrible response from Toyota will be a consideration for the next car I buy. What idiots!!!
At ~16K the wear was pretty bad on all tires and the service manager still agreed to cover 1/2 of the tire cost...but not the balancing or alignment. After quite a bit of discussion they did agree to pay for 1/2 of that cost also. I said I don't want to be replacing the tires every 15K and paying for alignment and balancing every 3 months. The service manager said "If you think the Matrix is bad, you should see the problems with the Sienna."
The Toyota customer service representative (1-800-331-4331) said there are currently no problems or recalls listed about the Matrix but they would make note of my complaint...but not actually do anything about it. I was told to call the tire manufacturer because it was probably a tire problem, not anything to do with the car.
I had always heard good things about Toyota but after my experience with this car I will try and unload this one and go back to a Subaru.
:P
A co-worker has a Matrix, which is up to almost 40K miles on the original tires, according to her. I went by her car and stooped down to peer which brand they were: Goodyear Eagles! Hers is an '05, FWD.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
If the first, then it may relate to the problems people are reporting. If the second, then that's just an issue with the tires and your driving pattern, most likely.
2014 Mini Cooper (stick shift of course), 2016 Camry hybrid, 2009 Outback Sport 5-spd (keeping the stick alive)
Thanks a lot!
It's probably somewhere around 32-34 lbs.
We installed Michelin Hydroedge tires. There is less tire noise, the ride is stable, gas mileage is a little better, and less hydro planing. We have put over 12000 miles on the tires. I rotate every 5000 miles and keep 34psi in them
Tedd
I have a 2006 AWD matrix which I bought used with less than 5k on it. I was given the same run around with a Toyota in Washington PA . I took my car to them to get the car aligned and to get it documented, I was having the same problem with less than 9k on the Continental tires. I have seen this tire complain and told the head mechanic about my concerns. He said it was the tires and I would have to deal with them. I took it to a local Tire shop in my home town after Toyota did the alignment. Less than 25 mile since they did it. The car was out of alignment and two tires where low in pressure. The local tire shop rotated my tires and said it they should wear back in but my tire life will be shortened. I got 18k out of the orginal tires. I now have new tires from the local shop and they are wearing just fine.
I will never use the Toyota dealer in Washington PA again. The date on the printout for their alignment was several days before my car was even given to them. Even after talking to them about it they did nothing. Needless to say don't go to a dealer.
Good luck,
Martin
I'm new to this group.
I have a 2006 base Matrix 5-speed with 12k mi. and Continental tires. Bought it a year ago. After reading this thread I went out and looked at the rear tires, which were rotated from the front ~4k miles ago when I bought the car. The inside tread bands are cupped and worn down much more than the other 4 bands. I would expect a camber problem to affect the second from inside band to be affected a little, but it's just the far inside one and it's dramatic. The tires on the front are starting to show the effect after 4k. The tires are a little noisy and I imagine it was quite a bit worse when the worn ones were up front.
I took the car to a Goodyear shop I've used for years and trust, and had them do an alignment check. On the front, left camber was -0.5 deg., right -0.8 deg. This is funny because the left side seems to be worse. All other measurements were in spec. I was half way expecting the front camber #'s to be at least at the negative end of the range.
The combination of reasonable alignment #'s and the far edge wear convinces me it's just the crappy tires. OTOH I've used Continental tires on my bicycle for years because they're by far the best performing and most puncture resistant bike tires I've ever used.
I read this thread because I was thinking of buying an 07 Matrix, and after talking with a friend who had one and didn't have tire problems at about 12K, I decided to get one anyway, thinking maybe it was something in earlier models, or just a hit-or-miss sort of condition. I bought my new 07 Matrix (base model, automatic) and am happy with it, and thought no more about the tire wear/camber issues.
Welllll...I got an email from the same friend, he's had it in the dealer shop, dealer says he needs new tires now (23K miles). Odd cupping, tread wear on the inside, etc. Same old thing.
So I went right out to the driveway to check my car--I have 14K on it right now, and I haven't really looked closely at them for a long time...like I said, I sort of forgot about the issue. Damned if it doesn't have wear on the inside edge, and nowhere else...it's been rotated and balanced every 4K since I got it, and I haven't been abusing the thing; just normal, conservative (by many standards) driving. The tires on my friend's are the Continentals, and mine came with Goodyear Eagle RS-A's. So, I don't think it's the tires, necessarily.
The best idea in this thread that I've seen is the one about the camber adjustments, that makes the most sense to me (it's back at Msg # 70). I think I may get some camber adjustment bolts and go that route, try to save these tires I have. That's what my friend is going to do--he took the thing to his "tire guy" with the info about the camber adjustment bolts, and the guy thought it sounded right, and he's going to install a pair of them.
If anyone else out there has put the camber adjustment bolt kit on their Matrix, let me know--I'm curious how that went, and if you could do the work yourself, and what the model number of the bolt kit was. I want to deal with this myself--I can;t imagine it's going to do any good talking with the dealer about it.
Thanks for any input and help--
Are you thinking about getting the shims installed?
I'm probably going to go ahead and get my shop to install the camber adjustment bolts. They seems to think it made sense; it's a starting point, at least. I think I've been lucky enough to catch the wear early enough, so that I can still use this set. Hope so.
I should note, for accuracy's sake, that in my post above I mentioned having wear along the inside of the tires...it's actually the outside edge. So that's too much positive camber. My friend's Matrix is showing wear on the inside edge--again: seems to be all over the place.
Nice gallery of tire wear here, as a reference
We own a 2006 base Matrix and have experienced the abnormal tire wear you describe exactly. Tires gone at 14k, lots of vibration, cupped tires, etc. Toyota was NO help in three visits. It appears that the problem originates from poor assembly at the Canadian plant. The jig welded strut mounts were miss aligned and therefore cause the miss alignment. The solution we used was adjustable camber bolts to compensate for the missalignment. They are not in the Toyota parts book, so Toyota will not install them.
We were forced to use an independent shop for the alignment and install because Toyota REFUSED to acknowledge the poor construction. We wanted to keep the car instead of selling it because of alignment problems. We have 25k on the new tires, even wear on all 4.
If you can get satisfaction from the dealer, good luck!! We solved the problem directly and received no compensation from Toyota. 80k tires gone in 14k?? No problem for Toyota.
We have also had major oil leaks in the motor and trans repaired 3 times under warranty. So much for legendary reliability.
Good Luck, you will need it to deal with Toyota Warranty work!!
The Camber bolts solved the tire wear problem for us. I installed Moog Magna Cam, if I remember, Carquest PN K929. Unbolt the bottom camber bolt, install the adjustable bolt, go to the alignment shop, align the suspension.
We have 25k on the new Yokahama Avids, no abnormal wear.
Good luck, pack