joshd

iTrader: (1)

Just picked up a WW IX MR last week. Absolutely love the car to death ... however one annoying thing ... it came with one of the rear wheels out of balance pretty badly. It's really noticable when cold then moves to mildly unpleasant when warmed up and at speed.

I have an appt. at the dealer to have them try to fix it on Wednesday. Does anyone think they have a chance at getting it balanced or should I just take it to someone with a good balancing machine to have it done right for the $20 it might cost me?

Also, do you think it came this way off the boat or has the dealer been messing with the wheels? Both of my left side wheels have snap on weights that are like 3-4" long . I know they all come with the ugly (but more secure?) clip-on weights, but these are ridiculous!

- Josh

usefulidiot37

iTrader: (3)

it depends on your dealer. I personally took mine in to my dealer because the front toe was out and had to fight with them to fix it. They lied and said th front toe was normal and after fighting with them they fixed it and gave me their alignment report which showed it was off. Moral of the story is it'll depend on your dealer but personally I would recommend taking it to someone you trust.

TPetsch

iTrader: (1)

Can you post pics of these wheels weights you speak of? Three to four inch factory balance weights sounds fishie to me, I'd like to see them. But, snap on weights are factory and the correct way to balance the whole wheel. Glue on weights -glued only on the inside of the wheel for that "clean" look- only balance 2/3 of the wheel at best.

joshd

iTrader: (1)

Yeah, well, it's a dealer so by definition I pretty much don't trust them However, I've never dealt with their service dept. so I thought I would at least give them this chance (It's Stohlman Mitsu in McLean, VA FYI).

OK, I went out and took a pic of the rear driver's side wheel. Sorry for the dirt, I was just out driving around in the rain and mud here yesterday




and here's the front driver's side:

TPetsch

iTrader: (1)

Those appear to be factory weights but I never saw larger than 25's from the factory, 40's are quite large, about 1.5 ounces where 25's are just shy of an ounce. If it were me and I needed balancing I would also have the tires shifted 180 deg and re-balanced on the wheels with really heavy weights on them. By doing this you may luck out and wind up using significantly less weight ...Just my 2cents. There's also dot matching where as you would match up the yellow dot -heaviest part of the tire- on the tire with the valve hole -lightest part of the wheel- on the wheel. Thing is though not all tire/wheel manufactures use these criterion any more, some do and some do not. I'm not sure about Yoko & BBS But next time I mount Advans on my MR BBS's I'll try it out and see how the weights work out.

feldguy

iTrader: (4)

That is completely unacceptable for a brand new wheel and tire combo, especially ones as elite and well made as the BBS and Yokohama packaged. I do tires and wheels for a living, and that should be no more than 1.50 ounces TOTAL on each wheel, if you live in NJ I can help you out, for the best price in the world. Nothing.

joshd

iTrader: (1)

Man, I wish I did I'm in Northern VA. So what should I tell the dealer? What would you be able to do if I was in NJ?

Having them rotate the wheel on the tire 180 degrees and rebalancing sounds like a good idea, but at the same time I'd be worried about them scratching the wheels at that point ...

- Josh

feldguy

iTrader: (4)

The 180 is the biggest thing IF there is a problem with the tire and wheel combo.....however, thats a very very small percentage of the time.

The biggest issue is operator error and machine miscalibration.

GootBoost

iTrader: (7)

Josh I also live in N VA check out Sheehy Nissan-Mitsubishi in Manassas(703) 361-5161, Gary's the SM there good people. They rebalanced my tires after complaining about my wheels vibrating.

EnjukuTeddy

Agreed. My bet is it was incorrect measurement and/or calibration by the user.

Either way, I'm surprised you would be able to feel that wheel out of balance in the rear even with 1.5 ounces of weight on, unless there is another one that size on the inside as well.

Get them rebalanced with sticky weights so it doesn't look so goofy. With a nice machine and an educated user, they can balance a wheel with sticky wieghts just as well as clip-ons.

joshd

iTrader: (1)

Yeah it's very noticeable. At low speeds and when cold it's really bad, and then at speed and warm, it still vibrates the car ... I can even look over and see the passenger seat vibrating like crazy.

However ... I just noticed (powers of observation failing me in my old age) that the passenger side rear wheel has no external weight at all. So maybe that one threw the weight and that's the simple root cause here.

Anyway, I'm giving Stohlman a chance tomorrow and I'll let you know how they do. And thanks everyone for the responses, it's very much appreciated.

- Josh

Jim_Patterson

iTrader: (13)

Rotate the tires, and see if that helps. You may have lost a weight on the wheel, they will be balanced on both sides of the wheel.

Yorgis_MR

Gentlemen, I have the EXACT same problem, although it is not my stock BBS/Yoko's but my Work Emotions/Dunlop M3's that are off-balance. I had the dealer balance my wheels three times...yes, three times and there is still an issue.
I am at the point where I will just bite the bullet and try a tire/wheel shop (one that has been around for about half a century the guy still owns it - he's about 70!!! God bless him! ). It won't be free but at least the problem will be dealt with.

Now here's a question...someone told me that the best wa to balance the wheel is when it is mounted??? Apparantly there are these "machines" that wrap around the wheel and spin it while on the car, giving (reportedly) better, more accurate results. Anyone ever hear that before?
FELDGUY...is your offer to balance the wheels for "nothing" still on the table?
Being an expert, can you shed any light on this issue?

joshd

iTrader: (1)

OK, well ... I gave Stohlman a chance, and let's just say I'll likely never return there for service.

I asked them to check the balance on the rear wheels and also go ahead and do an oil change (I believe in changing it early to clean out the results of the engine break-in). I asked about the price on an oil change, and they said it was normally $80 on the Evo. I'm like hmmm, ok ... what if I bring you the oil? They said the filter was $10, the oil was around $50!!!!!, and the labor/disposal is the rest. So right off the bat, that seems like some serious gouging on the oil and filter, but whatever ... I guess they have to try to make money somehow

Anyway, they told me the first oil change would be free, so that was a good start!

So, I wait for the car ... and they bring it out in < 30 minutes and say it's all done. I'm like great, what about the wheels?

They said: 'it's fine, the tech says it's normal for that car.'

Me: 'so you put it on the balance machine and it came out ok?'

Them: 'No. The tech drove it and said it was fine.'

(OK, I'm starting to think this is going downhill ...)

Me: 'He probably didn't get enough of a chance to feel it driving around the lot, could you just do me a favor and put the right rear wheel on the balancer (I thought that was the one with the problem), because it definitely doesn't seem right to me. I've driven my friends brand new MR and it didn't feel like this.'

Them: 'We can't do that. If it comes out balanced, Mitsubishi won't pay us for the work. So ... we can put it on the balancer, but if it checks out, you'll have to pay us $40!'

Me: (attempts to regain composure after hearing that) 'Are you kidding me? First of all, even the most expensive of shops with the best equipment charge $25/wheel to MOUNT AND BALANCE. You want to charge me $40 to check the balance on your (clearly old and inferior) equipment? I guess I'll just take it somewhere that is capable of handling a car like this ...'

Meanwhile, I'm thinking to myself what idiots these people are with no concept of customer service. Here I am with a brand new (less than 1 week old) MR giving them a chance to win over my business, and they are worried about charging me $40 to check balance on one tire. They could have just offered to do it as a favor and potentially gained my business for the long term (which they would have made up on the first oil change lol), but no - clearly they do not have that type of business sense there. Oh well

It gets better though ... I went up to the sales dept. to use their phone (cell dead) and John the Sales Manager asks me what's up. I tell him, and he gets a bit pissed and goes down there and tells them to bill HIM for the balancing time ... So now I take the car back down to service (thinking why bother though really) and they begrudgingly take the car back ... meanwhile I hear one service guy in the back talking to the other one saying 'stay calm, man ... stay calm.'

And, of course, they came back and said it checked out fine. I'm like fair enough ... bye.

So, I took the car over to Curry's and told them of my woes. Being slightly better businessmen ... they offered to check all four wheels for free on their road force machine. They came back and said the front two were awesome (like only 5-6 lbs of force), but that both the rears were a little off (17 and 19 lbs of force). However, they said that they generally only redo the balance if a wheel it throwing off 25lbs of force or more, so they aren't THAT bad.

Anyway, they won over my business by performing that simply gesture of humoring me and checking the balance. I'll likely take the car back there to have them redo the rear two wheels (although I might just get winter tires on there so it could be a moot point) and also check the alignment and even do a baseline pull on their Mustang dyno.

Bottom line ... I gave Stohlman a fair chance and they failed. I wont be back (although at least the sales manager made an effort on my behalf which I appreciated).

There is still something going on though and I'm not sure that the 17 and 19 pounds of force on the rears answers the question. There is some rotating assembly in that car somewhere that is out of balance ... badly when cold and midly when warm ... so this issue has not been put to bed yet