weird tire balance - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

merriam1998 · 03-23-2009, 02:43 PM

I had four new michelin tires installed and balanced in Sears. After that, I got steering wheel shaking at 65 mile and up.

I went back to Sears, and the technician had all the four new michelin tires rebalanced. Unfortunately, the shimmy is still there.

Finally, I went to some Toyota dealer. They checked it out and found out that the two front wheels were incorrectly balanced. And they charged me $79 for it. There is NO more shimmy, then, even I hit 90 mile on highway.

Does Toyota dealer really have some high-tech balance machine? or It is due to the careless work at Sears? I thought tire balance is NOT a hard job and could be done at most garages.

BTW, do you think I need have the two back wheels rebalanced too at Toyota dealer for another $79?

***Tom in Tacoma*** · 03-23-2009, 04:24 PM

It could be that the Toyota dealer used a 'Road-Force' tire balancing system. It's a much more accurate way to balance tires as it simulates a rolling road force as the tire spins. Now, having said that, it's entirely possible that the good folks at Sears screwed the job up (can you tell how I feel about taking cars to Sears?).

Regarding getting the back tires done - I would only do so if you feel a shimmy in the seat of your pants or on the floorboard. It could be that you might notice it after your next scheduled tire rotation.

Have you considered taking the paperwork from the Toyota dealership back to the Sears Automotive center and having a discussion with the manager? By rights they ought to offer a reasonable solution to you, the unhappy customer.

Hope things work out for ya!

rdaufan · 03-23-2009, 06:10 PM

I wouldn't let Sears put air in my tires. They've messed up too many times in my experiences with them.

sr20det · 03-23-2009, 07:26 PM

Tom is on the right track. Road Force Balancing could have been the key... Or the guy at Sears may have mounted the weights in the wrong spot, you could have lost a weight or the machine may have been out of calibration/incorrectly set-up. When using our Snap-On spin balancer, I re-spin them after applying the weights to make sure I get a "00" reading, some people don't. We aren't lucky enough to have a Hunter Road Force machine.