I have a problem with the tires I purchased for my 207 HHR. They are Goodyear Fule savers. Since they were installed the car had made many strange sounds. The service forman at the deakership I use said the noise is coming from the tires and the rear tires are cupping on the inside, but the alignment is ok. What tires are recommended for the HHR? It came with Firestone. Thank you.

 

You can run any tire you want. It may be just a slipped belt in the tire.

All tires are hand made and no company makes them all perfect. I know Goodyear even x rays their tires like many others but still you can get a shift in one.

If you do not have many miles I would check into getting them checked by Goodyear and they may prorate it for you.

You can have this issue with any tire. Going back to the OE Firestones are a step back as they are a very old model and cheap.

I run Goodyear triple treads with no issues as many here also are doing and just installed Eagle GTs for spring.

I have family retired from Goodyear and have family and friend who are or have worked for most of the companies. I also work with all the major players at work too from racing to street.

Being from Akron has its points for knowing tires learning from the people who design and build them.

Things are a little cleaner and automated but still hand built. The builders still mark their work.

Keep in mind cupping could be a slipped belt but it also could be a bad shock too. Very often bad shocks will cup a rear tire. There is very little alignment to the rear of the HHR.

 

Cupping rear tires indicate bad wheel bearings and/or shocks. I'd bet on bearing, but could be shocks, not much difference in price to fix. But if the shocks are original get new ones anyway, they are dead.

Bad bearings you may be able to visualize. Park at the top of a gentle hill and walk up behind the car, you may be able to actually notice a camber to the rear wheels. If there is any camber, they are bad.

 

Thank you! I missed that one. It would also account for the noise too.

I would say bearing or shock and the tire was just a victim.

 

Let me just run one other possible by you here.
In the past I had owned 3 brand new Chevy Venture Vans
2002 .. 2004 .. 2005.
All 3 had the same problem and I took all 3 into the Chevrolet Dealers and showed them that @ 20,000 miles I started getting a whine/howl and it was comming from the rear tires that were cupping.
Each time I was told that there was nothing wrong with the vehicle and it might be shocks or rear wheel bearings or tire balance or Yadda Yadda.

I finally had an opportunity to talk to the owner a small independant Front end/Brake shop in the small town where I now live.
I had taken my 2005 in for a Front End alignment check and pointed out the rear tires that at the time had 21,000 miles on them and asked his opinion.
As it turns out he was a top Tech Mechanic for a Chevrolet Dealer but had left and started his own business.
He looked at both rear tires and said .. No problem .. I can fix it.
I was very suspicious of his reply and asked him what he was going to do.
He said I think I have some of the correct Shims to correct the problem.
I will install the shims and do a (4 way alignment) for you, A critical part of the Fix.
That completely fixed it and I continued to drive the 2005 for 100,000 miles and the tires wore perfectly. The Van also handled much better.

I dont know if the HHR can be checked and shimmed, but I thought it was worth mentioning as another possible reason for rear wheel cupping.

SF

 

It is a possibility but not a very common one like a wear item like a shock or bearing. Often if you have to shim means the rear axle has been tweaked by a curb or a jack etc..

Besides he said the alignment checked out on it.

 

Two things here in my case. None of the vehicles had been curbed or jacked, not that that can't happen.

1. All 3 Brand New Vans had the exact same problem at the same mileage. Had I not purchased more then 1 Van I would never have discovered there was a fix.
Rear axle not tracking properly.
My guess is all the Venture Vans long wheel base had the problem and Chevrolet never figured it out or even tried. I gave them every chance at different Dealers to look at the issue.
This EX Chevrolet Tech knew immediatly what the problem was and how to fix it.

2. He said during the process the front was not properly tracking the rear.
A 4 way alignment properly done on a Quailty machine that is correctly calibrated is the key other then the Tech working on your vehicle.

How many Front End alignments are really thoro or do the mechanics just mostly Assume.

3. The same goes for Wheel/Tire Balancing.

 

Sounds to me the Venture has a spec issue in assembly that kept the rear out of alignment. This is not common but can happen. During the time these were built GM had some issue that were never corrected.

Most front end alignments are pretty complete with todays equipment. Unless the guy is using a really old machine and is lazy it is hard to not get it right.

Same for balance as most machines so all the work but putting on the weight.

No need to assume as you set up the car and the machine tells you what to do in most cases and on all 4 wheels.

Hell they even have tire machines now that will pick up and load the tire that needs changed if you want it too.

It is amazing what many of the tools will do today compared to what I had to learn on.

I remember the old scopes we used to use and now they are collector items. The new GM Tech tools are amazing. Plug it in and let it read nearly all the system.

 

Copierguy See my post about tire noise problems. All of the reasons given in the replies I heard from the 2 places that indicated "directional tread tires" is the beginnings of that rear tire cupping on the inside tread. Maybe there is a solution ??

 

Cupping on the inside is pretty sure to be a bad wheel bearing, or excessive toe-out. Yes, there is such a thing as shimming the rear bearing mounts, it is a rare mechanic that is capable of figuring it out.
And if you align bad parts, you just get a bad alignment and when you finally replace the bad part the alignment will STILL be bad because it was based on bad parts.