About 3.5 weeks ago, I hit a gigantic piece of metal sitting in the middle of I-285 north of Atlanta, GA, doing about 80 in my 2k2. Needless to say, the results were not good -- 2 flats, 2 bent wheels, sliced brake lines, sliced fuel line, broken fuel pump, ripped open the quarter panel, and the side spoiler on the drivers side, along with some miscellaneous damage. Ouch.

So I file a claim with my insurance company. They eventually have an adjuster come out to inspect the vehicle, I get an itemized breakdown of the estimate, and they begin the repair work (at a body shop that the local Nissan dealership, Peachtree Nissan in Atlanta, GA, uses itself). The total damage after all was said and done came out to be about $6,900.00. Ouch. The problem, however, isnt with the body work, that's fine. The problem is with the tires.

Both tires on my drivers side were shredded. Both wheels were bent as well. We're talking the stock Craptenzas on the stock 17x7's. Now, I thought the adjuster would be smart about this, and replace all the tires since, you know, its not very smart/safe to replace one tire and one tire only on an axle, and you cant exactly swap the rotation direction of a radial tire by moving it to the other side of the car.

Well, of course, what happens other than I get two bright new shiny wheels, and two bright new shiny Craptenzas to go along with them (I caught them too late to see if they could replace all 4 tires with the tires of my choosing and paying the difference out of pocket, otherwise I would have). And of course, they do nothing else but mount these new tires both on the drivers side.

So, as it stands, I have two brand new tires on the drivers side, and two almost-bald tires with 23k on them on the passenger side. I _KNOW_ that Nissan doesn't recommend this. I dont know if the body shop or the Nissan stealership mounted the tires -- but I would have thought this issue would have arisen at some point during the repairs.

Secondly, on my itemized breakdown of the estimate, the dealership lists a front end alignment. This is 100% pure and total horsecrap. My car is pulling so far to the right it practically steers itself, and the steering wheel shakes so hard at highway speed it makes it difficult to hold it straight.

Does Nissan infact let mismatched tires on an axle go? Surely that can't be in specification! Does anybody know how bad I'm going to get screwed around with trying to get two new tires for the passenger side, paid for by my insurance company? I picked the car up this evening, so by tomorrow AM when I'm making some calls I'd like to have some ammo about how unsafe my car is with different tires on every axle. Lastly, how bad they're going to play with me about getting the car re-aligned, because clearly it was NOT on the first time around, even though the dealership claims they aligned the car.

Arg I'm frustrated.

 

Hi... normally I would side with you on a situation like this but it seems like a scenario of your own creation. I'm glad you're all right and everything but lets look at the big picture here. The insurance company replaced everything that was damaged new. What more could you ask for? You forgot to tell them u wanted 4 new tires?

No big deal man, either by 2 more potenza's or buy a set of 4 better tires and sell the new ones on ebay.. it's not like you paid for them anyway, so think of it as a discount on your new tires.

Oh btw, your alignment issues are almost certainly being caused by the tires on your driver's side being taller and more treaded than the tires on your passenger side. Once you even it out, there ought to be no problems.

 

I agree, your insurance did everything they should have done...I had the same thing happen to me with a pothole on my SPEC-V and I asked for a specific tire and they took care of me...can't get mad if you don't ask.

 

^^^ what he said. That's also bad for the differential because the tires will spin at different speeds. I would get the tires matched up ASAP.

I don't think you got screwed, you got 2 new tires out of the deal to replace ones that wre worn. SO now you only have to spring for 2 instead of 4. But, someone should have brought it to your attention. That's not a good pratice to have mis-matched tires on an axel.

If you still have miles left on the old tires, I would take the two new ones and put them up front and get the older tires on the rear.

I had a similar situation, but I only had to replace 1 tire. I was about 50% through the tires. I had them put 2 new tires up front and rotated two of the older tires to the rear. The other good tire that i had them replaced became a full sized spare. WHen the older tires wore out completely, I put their replacements up front and brought the replacements to the rear. I'm just now getting to the point where I have all 4 corners worn the same amount, took 6 rotations, so it's doable if you want to save $$$. This was on a very sporty car with Z rated tires, it didn't hurt performance at all.

 

Have a tire place mount and balance the two worn tires onto the rear of the car, and put your 2 new ones up front.

 

Oh, I'm not trying to scam anybody, here -- it just seems to me that, from an insurance point, they cannot return my car to a safe operating condition by providing me two new tires on one side, given the severe alignment and traction issues.

Basically it comes down to the fact that I'm going to be getting two new tires, I'd just obviously rather have insurance pay for them rather than myself, as I think there's a valid reason for them to do so.