As Peter and others have stated, you have a tire (or more) with
slipped belts. Usually they are visible if you jack up the car and
spin the tire. You will see side to side movement of over 1/4 inch
at the tread area. 1/2 to 3/4 inches in not uncommon. use a stick
or other straightedge as a reference as you watch a tread groove.
At 10:12 PM 3/30/2009, you wrote:
Half OT: SWMBO's Subaru, usually trouble-free, suddenly developed a
nasty shake, not just palpable but visible in the steering wheel.
This starts around 60-65 mph, and also shows up a bit when braking at
slightly lower speeds. I looked underneath for any obvious damage to
wheels, tires, and suspension components. Nothing looked out of the
ordinary.
We took the car to Friendly Local Tire/Brake/Suspension Shop, which
charged $50 to balance all four wheels, and said that would help
things, but also noted that one rear wheel was bent. I drove the car
on the highway a few days later, and the symptoms weren't improved at
all. If anything the shake is worse.
I can't see any damage whatsoever to any of the wheels from either
outside or underneath, although I haven't taken them off the car to
see them better. When I've had a bent wheel before on other cars that
was bad enough to affect handling, it's been obvious to the eye
(either a visible flat spot in the rim, or less often a sort of warp
such that the wheel wobbles visibly off the axis when the car is on a
lift and the wheel is rotated by hand, like an out-of-true bicycle
wheel).
Even if a rear wheel really was bent, could that really cause such a
bad vibration in the *front* end that you could feel it through the
steering wheel? Isn't the standard test whether handling problems are
wheel/tire related to rotate the tires front to back, precisely
*because* an out-of-balance wheel or whatever is felt less when in the
rear?
I'm planning to go back to the tire shop and ask them to either give
me back my $50 or do something to earn it. I'm thinking that they
either couldn't or didn't balance the wheels properly, or couldn't
diagnose the problem beyond that, and blamed (or just made up) the
bent wheel as a cover. Any thoughts?
Alex Chamberlain
'87 300D Turbo
'98 Subaru Outback
etc.
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Loren Faeth
_______________________________________
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