I normally go by 70Monte355, but something is going on with my account and I can't log in. I am going t have to get with Dirk on what need to do since I no longer have my email address I ued here..anyway,

It was my 87 Iroc 305 TPI. It has the stock 2.73 gears with limited slip.

We are talking about at least 4 drag strip style starts with my spare tire on the passenger rear.

I have started to hear a humming coming from the rear. I think it is my bearings.

What kind of damage can be done by doing this? Before lecturing me about it, I don't condone what happened to my car nor did I know about it until I seen i going down the road.

 

you never wanna run two different size tires in the rear. size as in height. what happens is the shorter tire has less distance to travel to make a complete rotation. this makes the clutches in the posi unit work harder even going straight. heat builds up on them and evenrtually you posi will go south. always try to make sure each tire is the same height. even 1 inch isnt safe.

 

yeah he's right it would make the rear end gears work harder than usually to try and keep both wheels going.

if you think you might have hurt something, i would open the rear end and see if anything is wrong. i would change the fluid and add the correct posi additive and see if anything changes.

 

Aside from the danger of damaging the gears or posi, "donut" spare tires are only rated to a certain MPH. Usually 40-50. I know you said "drag style starts" but I gotta say it...

Even driving down the highway with a spare makes me nervous because of all the potholes around here.

I'd hate to think what would happen if you blew that donut out at 90mph.

 

You want to use the same brand/style/size exactly, even the same height tires with different makers have different rates of rolling resistance. I have seen many posi's go away from this.

 

Thanks guys...

I see a little bit of a lecture coming from some of you so I am going to tell you what happened.

I was coming home from work and my tire blew out of the sidewall. I put my donut on and went home to find my receipt for the tires before heading to sears. I just wanted to take the tire there, but I was afraid Sears would give me crap about not knowing the mileage. So I drove the car very slowly over to the local sears. They looked at my tire and agreed to give me another and discount me on a 2nd tire.

I asked them how long to do and they said about an hour. Now...here is where I screwed up. I left my car. My husband and I took off into the mall. We got to the center and decided to step out back and smoke a cigarette. That is when we saw this kid racing my car. We went running after him, but we didn't make it before he picked up his buddy and went at it again.

So...this is where I am scared of what happened. Sears said they would change my gear oil, but that is it. They already aligned my car, cause it needed it and I was sort of hoping the humming was coming from somewhere else. They had to replace my alternator and my battery because their guy left my manual fans on.

I am not stressing out yet, because all they said is that they are going to change my gear oil and that is it. I know they don't have a leg to stand on and are admitting guilt just by changing my gear oil. Plus I have been dying to call the local TV station to try to get them out there to do a story. I want everyone to know that they need to be careful leaving your car anywhere.

 

i'd take to the manager, the district manager and the police or sheriff, maybe not i nthat order. it sure sounds like unauthrized use of your car, even if you left it with them to get the tires changed.

 

thats some messed up sh|t!!
so a ears employee was racing around with a friend, with a donut spare tire and a regular sized tire.

i would tell them you want new posi gears, because they inflicted severe damage to your car if your hearing humming now.

they need to pay for what they have done.

 

I would just be careful how you approach the manger with this, yes the kid had no right doing that to your car, but at the same time, he can say that you drove the car there with the spare on the rear and say U could have possibly caused the damage.

 

I caught a guy at the muffler shop doing a brake stand in my car.... he was a friend of a friend, so we laughed it off.... but he was like:



when he saw me.

 

Well, it seems the good folks at Sears Corporate office are reading this post. The GM called my hubby today and it appears that their whole view of just changing my gear oil and nothing else is changing. My husband told Sears that we would update this post to show what they are doing.

Well, last Wednesday or Thursday (I was out of town, but Kevin is documenting all his conversations with Sears) the Sears GM for our region called my husband and told him that he would not pay to have the gear oil changed at a GM dealership so it could be inspected. He stated that the local Sears could do it and that if I wanted it changed I would have it done there. I thought that was a little strange because the manager at the Sears automotive section of the local sears I was dealing with told me that they didn’t do anything like that. In fact, Kevin and I almost did it, cause he gave me the option of taking it to the dealer or doing it myself. Well, at the time I was freaking out of the idea of leaving my car with anyone. So, I opted to do it ourselves. Then it dawned on me that if I changed it then they would say something happened because of something I did.

Anyway, I set up an appointment to come in Monday, 8/5 to get it done at 8am. Of course I watched them like a hawk. They put in the gear oil in, but never put the limited slip additive. They also stated that it would not be inspected, just changed.

Meanwhile, the GM of Sears called Kevin and told him that they would not pay to have the dealership look at it, however, call him after it is done and we would talk if they found that any damage could have been done by the kid racing my car.

Later….the GM of Sears called Kevin again. Apparently, somebody at the corporate office or something saw this post and he got another call. Now, he was being nicer to Kevin. Saying they didn’t want any negative publicity and before we did anything to make sure we got up with them to see if we could work it out. And that is when Kevin promised that I would keep updating this post on how they are rectifying the entire situation.

Kevin called me and told me what the GM of Sears said. Then Kevin and I went over what Sears had done this morning. Kevin then called the GM of Sears back and told them about the additive not being added.

I haven’t talked to Kevin about that conversation, however, the local sears automotive manager called me regarding them not putting the additive in and that he wanted my car to go to the dealership right away and that they didn’t want any further damage to be done to the car. Well, my dilemma now is I don’t have a ride to work. The only other car I could drive is my Monte and I have antique plates on it, plus I would never commute to downtown Charlotte in it. I have invested way too much in that car for some idiot to ding it in the parking lot or run into the back of me. Not to mention it isn’t insured as a commuter. As an antique vehicle, I can only drive it to car related events. The 90 Firebird currently has the tranny pan dropped so Kevin can replace some part in it. The 78 TA is a project car and isn’t running and Kevin needs the suburban to get to work and there is no way to car pool. So, now they want the car there first thing in the morning and they are providing me with a rental car.

So, I am getting happier that a trained professional is going to look over my gears, because I know I have some issues.

Anyway, as promised, here is my Sears update. Expect more later, as I promised Sears I would. I guess we should never under estimate the power of the internet. I used this board more for lurking and getting advice and I don’t give out a lot. But this has shown me that I need to contribute more. Thank you Dirk for creating such an awesome place where it is obvious that my voice will be heard when need be.

 

A new Rear end it is. They are putting it in now and the car should be ready tomorrow or Friday.

They didn't even give the dealership or me any grief over it. When Kevin called the GM and told him what the mechanic said, he wanted to go in half and Kevin said no. Next thing you know they are paying for the entire thing. I guess you can't blame a guy for trying.

 

I would have no qualms about letting sears take the entire bill for that fiasco. If they had ruined it completely I'd have been in their corperate office demanding to speak with the boss.

Are they putting quality stock replacements in? Just to be **** I'd get a list of the parts. Thats just the way I am though. Other people might be nicer.