Tracking/balancing question.

D_murph

I got my 2 front tyres replaced during the week here and when I first got the car back, the tracking and balancing was perfect. I could drive at motorway speed (and above) and not a shake or a vibration out of the steering wheel.

However, the steering wheel was not set properly so I was having to hold the wheel a bit to the right to go straight. This would not have been such a big issue but when I sent it in, it was a bit to the left to go straight so there was now a massive difference so I took it back the next day to get it sorted.

After a re tracking, I got the car back and it was only a bit better (will do but not perfect) but a new problem has cropped up. It now seems like the balancing is wrong despite hitting no pot holes etc and now the bloody wheel is vibrating like crazy at 100KMH or above so what could they have done with the tracking to cause this?

I was there the whole time and they never did any more work on the balancing or air pressure. They only re adjusted the tracking to straighten out the steering wheel.

Just to re-cap...

After the first visit, the car was as smooth as new and after they re tracked it, it seems like the balancing is out now even though they never touched it .

Any ideas as to why this is the case? I reckon the wheel alignment is out now and the vibration I am feeling is due to this somehow but I would like to hear a few more opinions please.


P.S. I am not going to say where I went but they scratched all 4 of my wheel trims when they took them off by throwing them face down on the concrete floor of the garage like they were rubbish :mad::mad:. For this reason alone, I will not be going back there again. I'd rather pay someone who has a bit of respect for my property than try to explain to some lang ball how he actually made my car worse to drive even though I know I should get them to do the tracking again after this as its their fault.

I should have left it as it was the first time I suppose but I am sick of having my steering wheel in every different position after getting tracking done so this one time, I decided to follow it through. Too much to ask for to get something done correctly these days I suppose :rolleyes:.

sundodger5

ok first thing is if the steering wheel is off centre the tracking is not right.
Tracking should have nothing to do with vibration, it may be that a balance weight has fallen off.
I would give them one last shot (if you are feeling generous) at it. After that refund and get the job done elsewhere.

D_murph

sundodger5 wrote: »

ok first thing is if the steering wheel is off centre the tracking is not right.
Tracking should have nothing to do with vibration, it may be that a balance weight has fallen off.
I would give them one last shot (if you are feeling generous) at it. After that refund and get the job done elsewhere.

I agree that the tracking should have nothing to do with the vibration but I find it highly unlikely that I lost a wheel weight just after getting it done again. The steering does not feel 100% right when I'm doing over 100KMH either but that could just be me. Its very strange .

It definitely felt a lot better to drive it after the first visit though.

I cant really get a refund from them now as I bought the 2 tyres at the time and they have been used now.

sundodger5

just get a refund for the tracking and balancing. a wheel weight could fall off anytime if not fitted correctly. also depending on the tracking gauges used they may have removed a weight to facilitate correct fitment of the gauges to the wheel. then they just forgot to put it back.
has been known to happen occasionally.

D_murph

sundodger5 wrote: »

just get a refund for the tracking and balancing. a wheel weight could fall off anytime if not fitted correctly. also depending on the tracking gauges used they may have removed a weight to facilitate correct fitment of the gauges to the wheel. then they just forgot to put it back.
has been known to happen occasionally.

Thanks mate :cool:. I reckon they forgot to put back the one on the drivers side as there looks to be a mark there where it was once. Whether or not this was where one was for the last tyre, I do not know but it could be the problem.

Ill get it sorted out tomorrow. Decided to keep away from them on a Monday .

mickdw

IF they cannot get the wheel straight, they dont know how to do the job. They have had 2 guesses already, I wouldnt give them any more opportunity tbh.

D_murph

mickdw wrote: »

IF they cannot get the wheel straight, they dont know how to do the job. They have had 2 guesses already, I wouldnt give them any more opportunity tbh.

Believe me, I wont. I was just referring to monday morning jobs in general .

I have never had any crowd anywhere get the wheel exactly straight on any of my 3 cars since I started driving. Is it a difficult thing to do or something ? The only time I had the wheel straight was when I bought it new and the same goes for the previous car also.


This crowd managed to give me back the car worse than it was when I took it back to them the second time so they can f**k off now and especially after making a mess of my wheel trims :mad::mad:. The steering was closer to straight after the second visit and would do fine if it wasn't vibrating at anything above 90 - 100KMH and on a motorway at 120, its pretty bad if driving dead straight ahead. Not too bad in slight bends though.

sundodger5

With a problem job like this one seems to be i would do it this way.
1 leave the engine running while tracking the car.
2 quick spin round the block then back up on the ramp gauges back on.
after that if it has gone out a lot on the drive i would be doing a more in depth check of the suspension other than the usual quick wiggle of the wheels and visual check while underneath.

D_murph

The car is only 3 years old and I bought it new. It was fine until I gave it to them and it has never been crashed or treated roughly so Its not something I'm too worried about in that regard.

They need not worry about it any-more now either .

Good idea about leaving the engine running also. That should ensure they do not move the steering wheel while adjusting the tracking because that spring loaded clamp does not seem to do the job from my experiences.

It should only be a quick and easy job to someone that knows how to do it correctly tomorrow.

Thanks again .

Green Hornet

On the subject of the steering wheel, I've always had issues with that too. Usually end up going back and asking them to tweak it a little one way or the other to resolve it as much as possible.

Strangely enough, I've watched them do it and the wheel does look centred when they put the "gripper" on it but as soon as I go out on the road it goes off again.

Been the same for the last 4 Honda's that I've had. Maybe it's a Honda thing :rolleyes:. Maybe it's just that I'm over fussy!

Could it be that the wheel is centred when on the rig but the road camber requires a little "steering" to go straight?

D_murph

I doubt its a Honda thing, I drive a Ford .

I went to another place today and got the balancing done. Apparently, the last crew took off the wheel weights to re track the car and forgot to replace them :rolleyes:. The car is a smooth as it ever was now so hopefully thats the end of that.

Cheers for all the help everyone .

sundodger5

Green Hornet wrote: »

Strangely enough, I've watched them do it and the wheel does look centred when they put the "gripper" on it but as soon as I go out on the road it goes off again.

The wheels sit on skid plates when you do the tracking to help them "float". they are metal plates on bearings. the idea is that they eliminate the drag from the traction of the wheels as you do the adjustment.
Sometimes the weight of the car is a little too much and despite the steering wheel clamp the drag is too much.
That is why if you have the car running it helps. Engine running = power steering runing.