So, I've been having a bit of a wheel vibration on the highway over 60mph and my wheel is a bit crooked to the right as well. I know that usually these problems are caused by misalignment and imbalanced wheels however I have brand new tires and rims from Subydude which were balanced and mounted at Auto Innovations down in Milpitas and I also had an alignment done at Immortal Motorsports in Hayward just about a month ago so I'm pretty sure my problem isn't coming from a misalignment or imbalanced wheels.

I decided to bring it back to Diablo Subaru in Walnut Creek where I bought my car in 2004 since it is still covered by the warranty. However when I told them about my new wheels and that my car had just been through an alignment they insisted that 99.99% of the time the problem stems from those two things so they are going to do another balance and alignment and even if that DOESN'T fix the problem, they are still going to CHARGE ME . That sounds pretty shady to me, anybody have any suggestions or am I just going to have to pay my overpriced dealership service???

Thanks!

 

Hrm, I haven't been in that situation, but I would take both of my alignment receipts and papers to the dealership and let them know that it's not an alignment problem.

The problem could have resulted from an impact gun and your wheel studs/lugs if you took it to a tire shop to mount your rims and tires.

Other than that, I don't know what the problem could be.

 

GST maybe? Go get your car... Call mike

I have gone to WC Craparu and that place is rude, I wont go back. I was just getting parts too. They dont stock anything. The russian dude behind the counter has a personalty like the iron curtain.

 

I always use firestone for alignments. Why..... I bring them my spec and they do it. I bought a lifetime alignment for $130 two years ago. Everytime I hit something, Jump my car in the dirt, Swap out struts, New tires. I bring it back and they reset my alignment for free....

Everything else I use GST....

Yes if the over torque your wheels you get streched studs, Also warped rotors..... Do you have lug centric or hub centric wheels on you car?

 

I'm about to go through th same isht....


I took my car in for an aligment...told the guy that I wanted a certain spec...he said it was weird. I said do it anyways. He couldn't. They got me all of -.25 camber in the front....I usually run a minimum of -1.3. And they put -1.3 in the back. Pretty much stock specs.

Well since I took my car in I've had a HORRIBLE clunk in the back of my car. It literally lifts my car up and own.

I ordered some camber bolts for the front to get my camber back to -1.3 to -1.6 hopefully. But now I have to take it back and pay AGAIN. I got charged $120 even though they couldn't do my speck.

So now I have to take it back to them to fix the stuff they couldn't do and pray the don't screw it up again and they cut me a deal. Hopefully they don't jerk me around on the clunk. I'm 100% sure it was a result of there work that my car is screwed up.


Good luck.

 

Also radial tires can pull to one side.. Its called a radial pull. So if the alignment specs out fine. Take the tires and swap them to the other side. If the car pulls back the other way. You have a radial pull.... This can happen with NEW tires...as well.

If your tires are worn bad from a bad alginment. Getting the alginment fix doesnt fix the tires. Once they are worn they will wear that way.

Do your tires look worn or cupped?
Cupped is where the front of the tread bar is higher then the rear of the tread bar.

This can cause tires to make noise, pull and vibrate

When was the last time you checked your air pressure?

One more thing to help with my post count.

 

Make sure when you get a alginment done...... You have atleast 1/2 to 3/4 tank of gas. The weight does throw off the adjustments.

Just not a full tan or a empty one....

 

Install your camber bolts before you go... Otherwise they are going to charge you to install them.....

Oh and thanks for yet one more post to my count...

 

if a shop does work to fix a problem, and it doesnt fix the problem, they did the work for free.

 

if you got an alignment already and steering wheel is still crooked but the specs on the sheet say that its ok. . sometimes if shops dont get there alignment racks serviced and one side of the rack is higher than the other it will throw your steering wheel off center. . .it happened to me on our alignment rack. all my cars were coming off the rack with the steering wheel crooked to the left and i couldnt figue out why so i measured everything and found out one side was lower. fix the problem and everycar drove straight after that.

as far as the vibration. you should take the wheels back to auto innovations and tell them your getting still getting a vibration. i dont know if all shops do it but they should recheck the balance for free just like what SnoHumper said and you should watch the guy as he does it.

 

Thanks for the input guys! I'm glad that I could help your post count 06STI

I'm pretty sure my wheels are lug centric, they're Rota Tarmac 2's and my tires have less than 500 miles on them and show no uneven wear.

Could the vibration and crooked wheel have anything to do with the strut, spring or control arm?

The only reason that I went back to the dealership is because my car is still under warranty and I thought they could take care of it if it wasn't an alignment/balancing issue because if it was just that, I definitely would've taken it to GST or S&S up in Concord.

 

Wheels are not lugcentric, they are actually hubcentric, which means they sit perfectly on the hub..so that wouldn't cause vibrations

We work closely with AI, When they mount wheels that were purchased from us they tell us if they are out of round before even mounting the tire so chances are the wheels/balancing is ok.

I'm sure AI would double check to see if the wheels balance out for you though

 

Could also be wheel bearings. I'm taking mine in soon to have them replaced. BTW, even before they do an alignment, they should be able to check it as well and see if it is out of spec.

 

He's not Russian, BTW.

He used to work at my dealership, and commute from WC. He's nice enough once you get to know him...

 

shouldve brought it to capitol ex dealers =)