OK, fair enough. It just came across differently.

You'll find I stick very close to the Ford manuals for the car. I have an extensive background in engineering and will only very rarely deviate and only based on sound engineering.

Since a denial of warranty cannot be based on an unrelated issue to the failure in a claim (I acknowledge that they can be very beaureaucratic and obstinate if they want) they will find darn little in what I do and talk of in posts to use in denial of warranty on my car.

To date I have not deviated from their manuals on this car. On another Ford car, an 01 Mustang Cobra (4.6L DOHC), I have extensively modified the lubrication system. Since the car now has 250,000 miles on it they likely won't see any claims from me. But in the end the things I did to that car improved the lubrication (~5-6K per qt & 27 mpg @ 75 on the interstate).

Had there been a claim it would have been on them to show a relation between my mods and the failure. Since I also monitored oil chemistry they might have had a difficult time showing such.

Didn't mean to lecture.

It just bothers me that they would monitor sites like this. I've done engineering failure analysis over the years and they wouldn't need to monitor sites like this to figure out what some one did. They're just looking for an easy way to tell a dealer how to say no to claim.

 

Bill-

I'm confident that any "monitoring" is for owner feedback.
And at that, it is by a few people, some of the time.
It is not to the point of people tracking down you or your car.

GaryG was being a bit paranoid because he does a lot of "unconventional" things with his car(s).

I think it is funny that they put in the new manual to not shut off the car when moving because of him. I say with confidence it was because of him, because he was the only one promoting it ( for a while ) before he found better ideas. But that does not mean Ford got it from this site. Gary is quite the chatterbox, and he may have even slipped and told someone in person! Who knows. But while Ford employees read some of these pages, some of the time ( and why shouldn't they? ) it is normally for the betterment of all.

I had one Ford engineer in 2006 write to me in person to person email, because he is not allowed to post publically in the name of Ford that:

"While running your tires at 44 psi does not harm the tires, it may in fact over time harm the car, in the form of increased shock and vibration from the stiffer tires... "

 

OK, got it.

You know... I did see some black helicopters the other day, they were the ones with the silent rotor blades...

Do you think...? No, couldn't be, Ford doesn't make helicopters.

 

Today, about 13:30 MST there was a Black SUV with black windows, A Ford Expedition in fact, parked outside my home.... Had 2-way radio antennas....

 

OK... OK!

BTW on that 44 psi in tires. I had to learn to be very careful with pressures in my Mustang tires. If too high by even a little they wore out the center tread.

I believe that long before 44 psi damages the shocks & suspension it will have worn out the center tread of the tires and maybe several sets of tires.

 

Only slightly so... see the "Let's Talk Tires" thread.
I got 73,000 miles with 44psi for 'most' of the life of the tire.

 

You may had tires to wide for the rim because steel belted tires solved that problem long ago.

GaryG

 

Re: My Mustang tires, not so.
They were the exact same specified size as the OEM tires.

Turns out the back end of a Mustang is far, far lighter than the front end (that 4.6 L DOHC engine fills the compartment). The front tires always wore just fine since they carry the load of the engine.

 

I've owned 13 Mustangs most of which had the small block 5.0L and others with the 427, 428, 390 cubic inch engines. Never had center ware problems. I keep 50psi in both my FEH's and no center ware problems.

This has been the subject of many threads in the hypermiling forums where people are running far higher psi in max 44psi rated tires than myself. No one has reported center tire ware.

Read this article:

Myths about pressure


Let’s put to rest some common misconceptions. The tires will not balloon out creating a peak in the center portion of the tread when tire pressure is above 35 psi. There is a steel belt that prevents this from happening. Also, you are not overstressing the tire with higher pressure, and the tire will not be forced off the rim with higher pressure. The picture above is Bobby Ore of Bobby Ore Motorsports driving a Ford Ranger on two wheels. The tires on the left side have 100 psi in them, and they happen to be tires and rims from a 1999 Crown Victoria! This is a dramatic example of how pressure holds the tire in shape, and how much stress a tire can handle.
http://www.officer.com/article/artic...on=19&id=27281

GaryG

 

The previous post by GaryG is false.

If you run tires above recommended pressure they wear the center.

If you run them low they wear the outer edges.

Steel belts do not correct this. If you consider the hoop stress versus the tire face that goes on the road...

Those engineers that study the physics of tires don't call them "balloon" tires for nothing.

Just bogus.