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Michelin Pilot sport Cup tires on the Z06/Z07

Fitz

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 18, 2008
Messages
70
Location
Tucson AZ
Corvette
2015 Velocity Yellow Z06/Z07 Coupe
When my Z06 was ordered I specified black rims to go with the velocity yellow paint. When I picked the car up it had painted silver wheels so the Dealer obligingly offered to send the wheels out and have them powdercoated black for me. That was on January 5. The tires came off the rims readily enough BUT they have been unable to re-install them. Contact with the factory reveals that every single set of those tires that have been removed cannot be re-installed without the factory machine, and the techs at the factory have no solution. So, if you are tempted to have someone remove those tires DON"T!
 
Let me get this straight...

GM puts these tires on cars and the dealer network does not have the equipment to mount them?

For Godsakes. That the dumbest thing I've heard in a while.
:mad

What did the Michelin people say that is so special about the tires that they require a special machine?
 
Let me get this straight...

GM puts these tires on cars and the dealer network does not have the equipment to mount them?

For Godsakes. That the dumbest thing I've heard in a while.
:mad

What did the Michelin people say that is so special about the tires that they require a special machine?


Michelin says they need the 'correct' machine to mount those tires. What a help that was. Bowling Green is aware of the problem but, as yet, there is no solution so my Z06 is sitting on stands in the dealers shop without wheels and it has been that way since January 5th. Yes, it is the dumbest thing I have ever heard as well. At the moment I am on hold on a call to my cousin Guido. No, not Guido Sarducci, the priest from Saturday Night Live, but Guido the knee breaker from Chicago.:mad
 
Michelin says they need the 'correct' machine to mount those tires. What a help that was. Bowling Green is aware of the problem but, as yet, there is no solution so my Z06 is sitting on stands in the dealers shop without wheels and it has been that way since January 5th. Yes, it is the dumbest thing I have ever heard as well. At the moment I am on hold on a call to my cousin Guido. No, not Guido Sarducci, the priest from Saturday Night Live, but Guido the knee breaker from Chicago.:mad


I would contact GM customer service and get a case file started and ask them how you might possibly be compensated for this debacle. I would (if it were me) ask to have the DSM get in touch with me personally and have him give a logical solution to this problem, and how it even happened in the first place. I would want GM engineering's side of this too.

That is just my opinion though. I hope a solution is worked out soon for you (like overnighting the correct wheels and tires to your dealer, mounted and balanced). Good luck with it. :)
 
I would contact GM customer service and get a case file started and ask them how you might possibly be compensated for this debacle. I would (if it were me) ask to have the DSM get in touch with me personally and have him give a logical solution to this problem, and how it even happened in the first place. I would want GM engineering's side of this too.

That is just my opinion though. I hope a solution is worked out soon for you (like overnighting the correct wheels and tires to your dealer, mounted and balanced). Good luck with it. :)

The case file with GM corporate customer service was opened yesterday and I have contacted the regional service manager. We have a meeting with the Dealer and his staff on Monday.
 
Unbelievable
 
The case file with GM corporate customer service was opened yesterday and I have contacted the regional service manager. We have a meeting with the Dealer and his staff on Monday.


That's a good start. Honda had a PAX tire from Michelin that was a run flat and used a wheel that was specific to that tire, you had to replace a PAX wheel with a PAX tire and if you wanted a different tire you had to switch wheels. The PAX tires took specific tools and about an hour each to mount and balance. I would ask the DSM if your tires are run flats and specific to only that wheel supplied by Michelin or GM, hopefully it is not. Good luck with it. :)
 
Unbelievable

This has been like a three Stooges movie. Funny, as long as it isn't happening to you then it's just endlessly frustrating. The machine necessary to mount these tires is a European machine. Makes sense but after spending all day on the phone there are exactly three in the entire state of Arizona. The tire shop at the dealer managed to get one of the rears mounted yesterday so now I am waiting for one more tire.

I'm not sure who is going to break first, me or the dealer, but I did manage to get a conference call set for today between me, the senior customer care rep at corporate and the Chevrolet DSM. At least GM corporate has been very helpful. Now, if I can just contain my Irish temper for another couple of days.....:mad
 
It's Back!

9 days to dismount wheels & Tires, powdercoat the wheels and re-mount everything. The corporate people and I still have issues but those are based on a parts order, not ineptitude.

Given the trouble remounting those tires on the rims if you are tempted to do what I did make sure the people who dismount your tires hace the European no-touch machine to get them back on the rims. 5 days to mount 4 tires is a bit much.
 

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Z06/Z07 Tires

9 days to dismount wheels & Tires, powdercoat the wheels and re-mount everything. The corporate people and I still have issues but those are based on a parts order, not ineptitude.

Given the trouble remounting those tires on the rims if you are tempted to do what I did make sure the people who dismount your tires hace the European no-touch machine to get them back on the rims. 5 days to mount 4 tires is a bit much.

Going forward whenever a tire needs repair or replacement you have to take it to a business with this special equipment? That is an absolute mindboggler...............
 
Going forward whenever a tire needs repair or replacement you have to take it to a business with this special equipment? That is an absolute mindboggler...............


And you will have to do it a lot if you drive the car, those sticky tires do not last very long at all.....:)
 
9 days to dismount wheels & Tires, powdercoat the wheels and re-mount everything. The corporate people and I still have issues but those are based on a parts order, not ineptitude.

Given the trouble remounting those tires on the rims if you are tempted to do what I did make sure the people who dismount your tires hace the European no-touch machine to get them back on the rims. 5 days to mount 4 tires is a bit much.

So that's the bottom line....the required equipment is a "European no-touch" machine?

My guess is those machines are not as unusual as some might think. Maybe the problem, here, was the dealer didn't have such a machine and then would not do the research necessary to find a tire specialist with such a machine.
 
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The black wheels do look fantastic though...

Mac
 
I am such a geek... I was fascinated to watch this machine in action... :upthumbs

Mac

ps: gonna go watch it again.:ugh

Amazing isn't it?

However, in all fairness GM should have required dealers to have the machine before selling cars which require it.
 
So that's the bottom line....the required equipment is a "European no-touch" machine?

My guess is those machines are not as unusual as some might think. Maybe the problem, here, was the dealer didn't have such a machine and then would not do the research necessary to find a tire specialist with such a machine.

You're right, they aren't that uncommon. 3 BIG O tire stores in Phoenix have one and the rest of that chain has one on order to keep up with the new Michelins BUT here in the backwaters of Tucson, where they get all hot over a ford pickup, they still use those ancient machines that mount a bias ply tires on steel rims. Call a shop in Tucson and ask if they have a Euro no-touch machine and you get dead silence or raucous laughter. Most of these guys think a Lamborghini is a weird sort of meatball sub. The Corvette platform team got way out in front of the technology with the Z06 BUT I wouldn't have it any other way. I am waiting for the 750 mile mark to roll by and then I am going to take that beast up one of the nearby mountain roads and twist it's tail a little!
 
Most of these guys think a Lamborghini is a weird sort of meatball sub.
That's a great line! I'm gonna have to find a way to work that in someplace.

I'll have a foot long Lamborghini with extra sauce, please. :rotfl

Mac
 
You're right, they aren't that uncommon. 3 BIG O tire stores in Phoenix have one and the rest of that chain has one on order to keep up with the new Michelins BUT here in the backwaters of Tucson, where they get all hot over a ford pickup, they still use those ancient machines that mount a bias ply tires on steel rims. Call a shop in Tucson and ask if they have a Euro no-touch machine and you get dead silence or raucous laughter. Most of these guys think a Lamborghini is a weird sort of meatball sub. The Corvette platform team got way out in front of the technology with the Z06 BUT I wouldn't have it any other way. I am waiting for the 750 mile mark to roll by and then I am going to take that beast up one of the nearby mountain roads and twist it's tail a little!



You are correct, we have one too, if in reality that is all that was needed.

The dealer should not have been allowed to sell a certain "vehicle" unless all the special tools had been received to service said vehicle.....
 
Pretty slick machine but two things come to mind:
1, Maintenance on said machine
2, MBTF on all those moving parts.
 

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