Far Out - Can It Really Be That Hard?

[sl33py]

I went to a certain recently-merged major tyre chain situated on the Northside for a free tyre rotation the other week (shouldn't have even gone, only had 4K on the tyres) and when I got it back, the wheel liked to centre left of centre, and when I went over 80kph I had geriatric steering wheel shakes (not related to breaking at all).

Since it was a free service, I thought OK, benefit of the doubt, I'll just take it back and let them sort it, since they're familiar with the car. After no less than 4 more attempts, the wheel still strays to the left (slightly less now), but the shakes are still there. Terrible. Before all this, the car used to be able to travel at speeds near the top of the speedo (*cough*) and she was solid as a rock, no shakes, no meandering steering, no nothing. So I'm unwilling to let it stay as it is (cos a trip to the coast or Sydney would be 5h1te as it currently is!).

The tyre place reckon it's currently "solid as a rock". No way - I had the left-meandering happening in 1 minute flat and the bad shakes/jitters the very first time I did more than 80kph. I'm sure if it was a 10 year old Barina or a clapped out Volvo or something, then maybe it would go unnoticed for a few weeks, unless the owner then travelled on ANY highway, but this is a sports car - any problem like this is pretty much immediately noticeable as it's a much more finely tuned machine! I don't think they even take it out to test. The part I don't understand and that completely amazes me is - how the h3ll can they have 5 tries and STILL not get it right?? Isn't there very little human input into the process and it's all laser alignment etc?

Needless to say, this pack of jokers has had more than their share of my time and patience and I'm never going back there again, even though I bought the wheels/tyres there. I'm taking it to Revell in Fyshwick this Friday, since I read on here that they and Capital Steering were good. At this point I'm not even sure what the problem is any more... balancing or wheel/steering alignment, or what. I'm just gonna tell Revell to check over the whole thing - check for lane wandering and test it at 80-100kph for shakes just to be sure, I don't care if they use half a tank testing, that's how fed up I am with it.

I wonder if there's something seriously wrong with the alignment machine at the other place, otherwise they are all nincompoops!

I know this kinda post has been done before, but I had to get that off my chest - it's surprising how annoying it can be when your pride and joy isn't behaving. BTW, I hope my subtle reference to the previous tyre place was obvious enough who it is. I realise it can depend on the mechanic on the day and who helps you what kinda quality service/skills you get, but this was ridiculous!

[leech_]

chris at inline will fix it for you he will charge you a fair bit to do it but at least you will be assured it will be done right.

[sl33py]

chris at inline will fix it for you he will charge you a fair bit to do it but at least you will be assured it will be done right.

Yeah I read about him too, thought I'd try the closest of the apparent best three before going further afield.

[MIVEC]

Dude, if someone tries aligning your car 5 times there has to be something wrong with it.

Go to Chris, I'm currently trying to so I'm hoping to get a hold of him soon.

[SkyGTRline]

shakes are wheel ballance

[nsanity]

shakes are wheel ballance

i'd agree, but Marc2 will tell you for sure - the guy does them for a living, with a very advanced machine too i might add, also is in contact with SydneyKid from here quite a bit (thanks to my car mostly ).

Chris at Inline does Porsches and race cars, but that being said, Marc and co at Belconnen Discount Tyres know their stuff regarding wheel alignment/balance etc as well.

[datto260Z]

Yeh Chris is a busy man and hard to get a hold of, so its best to go out there and talk to him yourself.

[mjones]

it also could be ur rims,pending on what speed they done the balancing at,i have the same prob with cheap!!18's

[leech_]

Dont get me nsanity i personally have taken my car to Chris once and Marc twice now and i would take it to Mark as they are about the same distance from my place and Mark is a fair bit cheaper and does just as good a job. So yea add marc to a list of people to get in touch with too

[sl33py]

Thanks, I'll put them on the list if Revell can't sort it out this Friday. The car was driving perfectly until I gave it to this first place for the rotation. It all went to 5h1t right after that, so I'm 99% sure there's nothing majorly wrong with the car that's causing these issues, just poor work on the wheels (unless they've gone and bunged up something complicated while just trying to do a simple job).

The rims are Roh Mantiis (not the ones in my avatar), not cheapies.

I think probably any decent place will get it right, it's just these t0ss3rs reckon it's fine when obviously to me that it's not, so they're incapable of fixing a problem when they don't think there is one.

Will let you know how it goes.

[race_snooze]

agreed wheel balance. Not alignment. What a pain in the....

the veering to one side is alignment.

Edited February 20, 2007 by race_snooze

[low200]

i know you said it was fine before but my old car used to point straight with the wheel 1/3 of a turn to the left, no wobbles or anything. Bushes in the front suspension were all worn out.

[sl33py]

i know you said it was fine before but my old car used to point straight with the wheel 1/3 of a turn to the left, no wobbles or anything. Bushes in the front suspension were all worn out.

Nah... It used to roll perfectly straight with the wheel straight, and it didn't wander around like now (it's like watching a ghost playing with the wheel if you can your hands off!). Amazing that they munted these two things at once just by swapping the front and back wheels.

The bushes are newish, less than 2 years old, had them replaced when I bought it. I drove from Civic to Belco at lunch today and I'm still just amazed they could tell me straight to my face that it's perfect. I think they were sick of seeing me after 5 goes and left it bad on purpose so I'd go somewhere else. Mission achieved!

[Terminal]

Chris has replaced almost every suspension component in my car. I think I'm responsible for putting new tyres on his Z every 3 months... hehehe. My wallet hurts everytime I go there, but I always get the best value and service you can buy. My stagea hangs on rails like it's a go-kart, which isn't easy for a 1700kg+ car.

[sl33py]

Chris has replaced almost every suspension component in my car.

Wow, you musta had some problems to need to replace everything!

[Terminal]

no, I wanted it to make it handle better, so I got some coil overs and sway bars installed. Then I had a problem with camber, so I had adjustable camber arms installed. It's just to make it handle better, not any problems.

[Mr Italy!]

Wow, you musta had some problems to need to replace everything!

Things dont need to be broken in order to upgrade...

[Mr Italy!]

*double post*

Edited February 20, 2007 by Mr Italy!

[nsanity]

no, I wanted it to make it handle better, so I got some coil overs and sway bars installed. Then I had a problem with camber, so I had adjustable camber arms installed. It's just to make it handle better, not any problems.

I'm about to do the same thing.

Only skipping on the Coilovers and going straight for the SydneyKid kit - all of it. ~2300 + install.

[sl33py]

So, Revell showed me what was wrong. They jacked up the front left and span the wheel with their hands. As you watch the leading edge of the tyre, you can see the thickness of it go in, out, in, out as it spins... IE the tyre is OVAL SHAPED. WTF, the last place sold me what Revell called 'out of round' tyres! I'm gonna have the old place swap it, and so help them if they argue. And the wandering is partly because of that and they said cos the tyres are directional they will cause it a bit too, but I've had directionals that didn't do it as bad as it does now. They said i never noticed this before because the last place must have got lucky putting them on, but changing them around showed it up! By the way, the tyres are Maxxis MAZ1. I thought I'd try them cos they got 3rd overall in a Wheels test a few years ago in the 17" size. I'll go with one of the bigger/better known brands this time. I'll probably try to get them swapped tomorrow.. err later today.

Edit: tyres are being priced up early next week. I'm learning towards Toyo T1R or Michelin Pilot Sport (SP2). Both of these are available there and have good reviews amongst the 'better' tyres. I'm leaning towards the Michelin cos Revell said directional tyres are more susceptible to tramlining, which had in the past and hated with a passion. Whichever I get, I think it'll be about 400/corner, which means forking out another 800 since I only paid 215/corner for the Maxxis. I expect either tyre will be a marked improvement over them!

Edited February 24, 2007 by sl33py