Persistent wheel imbalance
 

The day I picked up my car back on June 4th I noticed a bit of a vibration at highway speeds. Figured the tires may have a flat spot from potentially sitting for a while, but I emailed the dealer that night anyways. Gave it a couple weeks, didn't get better. Took it in, they did a short road test (on back roads), didn't see anything and told me to give it a little more time. This was around 300 miles.

I brought it in again last week at 1200 miles as it was still shaking a bit, and they rotated the wheels and said they re-balanced all 4

Now the vibration is seen in the steering wheel (assuming they rotated FR to RR) as before it was mainly felt through my seat.

Bringing the car in again next week, but I'm getting quite annoyed as it should not be too hard to balance the wheels and on a brand new $35k car it really should drive perfectly.

Anyone else have on going wheel balancing issues on their Mustang? I have the track package

I have a fantastic tire shop right nearby but I refuse to pay when this simple issue should be solved quickly and easily - identify the issue wheel, either re-balance or get me a new tire. I realize sometimes tires are borderline "within spec" and can be impossible to fully balance, but if my 3rd time into the shop next week doesn't resolve it, is there any chance of balancing the tires at an alternate shop and getting reimbursed by Ford? Doubtful, but worth asking?

I will say my dealership has been extremely helpful so far and willing to keep seeing the car - but I don't want to keep going there again and again...

Did they road force balance the wheels?

Could be a bad rim....bad tire....bad tire man....

I would ask that they remove all weights from the front wheels and then balance them properly. I would also mark the weights so you can tell if it is done or not. Also, while spinning the tire, check for any run out or tread variations or wheel wobble.

I've been starting to feel a vibration at about 60-70 mph and went in and had all four wheels rebalanced. Still felt it on the way home after. When I got home and checked the wheels, 3 out of 4 still had their original weights on. Makes me wonder what was really done.

To me, rebalancing would be taking all the weights off and starting from scratch, not just putting the wheel on the balancer and if it reads close enough, call it done. After 15K miles, you would think it would change at least a little?

There were finger prints on the inside of the wheels, so at a minimum they rotated them... I agree on taking all wheel weights off and starting from scratch, that is the only right way to do it.

I'll make a few more requests when I go in next week...

Had my Track Package car on a lift last weekend. Noticed the left rear wheel on inside edge was counter balanced from the factory. Meaning there was weights in more than one place on the inside edge. Was taught at Tech school that this was a major no no... But luckily no vibration for me... Fingers Crossed...

Bad tire, broken cord. Rebalancing might not show the problem.

All weights should be removed and start from scratch. Also if it is working out that there is an excessive amount of weights required to balance the tire, they should rotate the tire 180 on the rim and balance again because the heavy side of the tire and heavy side of rim are aligned.

+1 on this. Had a set of Pirellis installed and balanced at the dealer and just couldn't get the vibration out. After 2 tries I took it to a shop with a Road Force balancing machine. That solved the problem and was worth the cost to get it done myself. Ultimately, it is a tire problem (those tires only lasted about 26K miles), but with the right machine you can get a better ride.

Just my opinion but don't think they should have rotated the tires after the rebalance because now they've added another variable into the problem. You'll have to drive for some time for the rotated tires to set/wear to they're new positions.

I agree another variable was added but it was good to see the vibration shifted from the rear wheel to the front based on steering wheel feedback.

Tires shouldn't need to set to new positions. I used to rotate my tires all the time and never had any drivability issues after rotating

If so desired.....rotate one side again to see which wheel it is for sure.

Yep good point might do that tonight

I'd suspect a seperated belt within the tire if it's been rebalanced (weights removed and rebalanced).

Pretty sure weights were not removed if it was rebalanced. No sins if any dust missing in the areas where weights are. I think they simply rotated the wheels.

Going in Monday, again, and I will see what I can do to watch them work

I had a similar problem once and asked discount tire if the could balance the tire with the old weights on there just to see if the last guy did it correctly. they said they had to remove all weights before they tried to rebalance ... sure. as stated above break the tire from the rim and rotate the tire on the rim then rebalance. If that doesn't fix the problem ask for new tires. it is possible you got a bad one from the get go

Yeah, I am wondering if a tire might be bad. I had that happen just last year - got a set of new tires, had a nasty vibration and they ended up replacing 2 of the 4 tires again.

We'll see - I'll get it resolved, its just very frustrating on a brand new car that something so simple as balancing the wheels is requiring multiple visits to the dealership

I finally has a chance to do some highway driving and get up to 70+ mph. Still getting the vibration. The problem with going to the dealer for this is that there is no highway close by to get up to those speeds to let the mechanic feel for themselves! :doh:

Another thing i've noticed is that driving that speed has gotten louder over the past few months. That makes me think it could be something other that the wheels.

I know you have factory wheels, but you know those little clips on one wheel stud used to hold the brake rotors on during assembly, well perhaps one of them got accidentally doubled up, thus being thick enough to prevent the wheels from sitting flush.

Secondly, you should be able to see the out of round condition by lifting the front wheels just enough to clear the ground, then free spin them by hand and get eye level with the tire surface and watch for the up/down out of round movement, and then also watch the tread blocks and sidewalls for any wavy or odd motions.

Once you find out which ones are doing it, you can mark them with a dot a spray paint on the inside of the wheel and take to Ford.

I had my driveshaft changed under warranty due to a vibration. I took run-out measurements at each welded piece of the shaft and found the front yoke run-out exceeded .010" if I remember correctly. That was done in 06.