Hit curb 10mph brand new Corolla - mild vibration after

I fully agree with @TwinTurbo, but will add that the wheel must be removed from the vehicle and put on a balance machine, not spun on the vehicle, and a dial indicator has to be used to measure runout. Just a couple of decimils of runout can affect the ride but would be impossible to see with the naked eye.

Your diagnosis is identical to mine. My 2010 Kia Forte SX 6spd M/T, 215/45/17 tires, and “sport tuned” suspension came with a “heapin helpin” of noise/vibration/harshness. I am willing to accept this in exchange for increased performance. OP’s curb strike could certainly have slightly damaged something but occurred on her first day of owning/driving the car. Your suggestion of test driving an identical car is excellent but I would go a step further by renting an identical trim level Corolla for a day and driving the same routes. Especially the ramp where the steering wheel jerks. OP stated her Corolla tries to follow pavement imperfections (grooves). My Mazda RX-7 with 225/50/16 tires was quite good at that. It could very well be the cause of jerking on the ramp.

Did you check the Mechanics Files on this site? I’ve not had great success with Yelp reviews for mechanical needs…I would also prefer hearing about experiences from friends/family/church goers etc before Yelp

http://www.cartalk.com/mechanics-files

Curious why you feel it must be removed from the vehicle. I’ve used magnetic base dial indicators to check both wheels and rotors for runout while on the car. Admittedly, it shows total runout not just that attributed to the wheel only but if there’s no significant runout, you can at least eliminate that as a cause or dig further.

@TwinTurbo There are rubber components in the suspension that can allow for small movements. I would put it on something that has no play such as a balancing machine. Also if something in the suspension is actually damaged, then you don’t know for sure if any variation is being caused by the wheel or something else. Just removing all the variables that I can.

If the wheel does run true on the balancer, then put it back on the vehicle and do it your way, but start looking for where the variation is coming from.

Edit: I would also take the measurement from the inside rim of the wheel. The lip of the rim on the outside can be distorted from the hit that will cause a deflection of the indicator, but that does not mean the wheel itself is not straight. What I would be looking for is that the plane of the rim is parallel to the plane of the hub mating surface. If they are not perfectly parallel, the wheel will wobble.

OK, we approach the answer from opposite directions but get to the same result :slight_smile:
I don’t have easy way to rotate a wheel assembly off the car so I naturally try to do as much as I can while its still on the car. A pro would likely approach it differently.
Yes, important point that the external defect could disrupt the reading. You definitely need to find an undamaged section to measure.

At home, I’d do the same as you, but the OP is taking the vehicle to a shop and this is what he should expect them to do. He should also be willing to pay for this service.

@bravesfan314 thank you for the suggestion. I have 2 appointments with collision shops one on monday one on weds. The guy i am seeing weds was fairly aghast all they did was look wiht flashlight so that gives me some hope.
If this turns out to be a bust i’ll try the mechanics files. I took a quick look, i live in north jersey, its kinda hard to filter it by region of state. Lots of NJ mechanics coming up but they are south jersey like a 1+ hour drive.

FYI, today i noticed when the car is parked, the wheels are not in same direction.
As you can see the “good” side (front left) is pretty much straight maybe slightly turned in. The “bad” side is much more significantly turned out. LOL i’m not a mechanic but this can’t be normal? I guess now we know why jerking on slight turns…

Can’t tell from the photos, but as you describe it, that is a major alignment error.

OK here’s two more
The Left unaffected side looks pretty straight with car, maybe very slightly turned in.
The Right side is turned out
I dont know if thats normal but it seems odd to me

Sorry to sound negative, but you can’t be sure that the angle of the fender around the wheel is parallel to the body of the car. It may well be slightly slanted inwards.

edit: if the toe-in were off that much, perhaps 10º, the car would be barely driveable, and the tires would show lots of wear after a few miles.

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So a bud of mine had his caliper fall off, and grind a little out of the aluminum wheel, Donny the mechanic is like you have to get a new wheel, there is no telling what happened and it is unsafe to drive on. Sorry I do not recall all the posts, have you tried moving the front right to another location? The loose lugnuts did not solve the problem too bad, at this point I would consider getting 2 junkyard wheels, one for the loose lugnut guy and 1 for the banged rim guy. and get the tire checked out at min, or replaced. You have tried everything else, so it is going to cost experimental money to get it fixed.

Thx
not trying to be negative or dramatic but i have never noticed wheels to look like this, could just be an illusion.

There are methods to check toe in/out, check utube. I’m not an expert, but there are others here who could advise you.

If you like to become a car-scientist for an hour, with the car parked on a relatively level surface, and the wheels pointed straight ahead as best you can, figure out a way to set up two parallel strings at mid-wheel height, so they almost touch the front wheels, but not quite. The strings should run the entire length of the car, one on each side, and will be parallel if they measure the same distance apart at the front of the car and the rear of the car. The relationship of the front wheels to their respective string should be almost parallel, and the same on both sides; if not the wheels are not pointing in the same direction. That’s part of what a wheel alignment machine does, but it something a person can do in their driveway if they want to.

What will happen to this thread when it hits 150 posts?

It appears to me that the car is turned slightly to the right (both wheels). Try unlocking the steering and turn just a little bit left and have a look. Keep adjusting until the wheels are even on both sides.

Once you’re conscious of a problem or possible problem then you become overly observant.
“Do these shorts make my butt look big?” :wink:
CSA

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If the steering is dead ahead then you are not seeing an illusion at all. That RF wheel is toed out. A problem with camber and/or caster could also cause this; not just toe adjustment. Once the camber or caster gets off a bit it throws the toe off.

What you might do is take the car to a smooth, flat parking lot. Allow the car to move slowly ahead on its own without your hands on the wheel. Slowly stop the car and shut off the engine without touching the steering wheel.
The steering wheel should be centered straight. Place the car in PARK.

Get out of the car and eyeball those 2 front wheels again. If the RF still appears to be cocked out in the front as in the pic then I’d say the people who have been inspecting your car are legally blind. As for the alignment rack, those can be like a computer. Garbage in, garbage out. Who knows when the rack was last calibrated???

From those last 2 pics I’d say your car has a problem and a pretty obvious one.

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This makes me think of some guys I know

They’re so focused on the wheel balancer showing “zero”

Yet the spinning wheel is CLEARLY wobbling side-to-side or tramping up and down like a yo

They see what they want to see

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Many years ago this dealer I worked for had an alignment rack that was goofy. We complained about it constantly with the service manager continually telling us there was nothing wrong with it.
He even claimed to have had it calibrated but that was more BS.

One could put a car on the rack where it was obvious as could be with the naked eye that the RF wheel had 1 to 2 degrees of positive camber. The rack would ALWAYS show the RF wheels as having 1 degree of negative camber. Always. No matter the make, model or year; everything always showed 1 degree negative.

It finally got to the point every mechanic in the shop refused to put a car on the rack for an alignment.

The same went for the brand new Snap-On wheel balancer. No matter how much care was used the wheels always ended up far more out of balance than before they were even put on the balancer. The SO rep kept claiming there was nothing wrong with it even after changing out the motherboard inside.
One mechanic blew up one day while the SO rep and SM were present in the middle of a big argument over the balancer.
He pulled a brand new spare out of a new car and spun it up 3 times. Each time showed it was out of balance. The readings were 8 ounces, 11 ounces, and the final spin showed 17.5 ounces out of balance. Of course there is no way those readings were anywhere accurate. I derisively told the SO rep and SM that maybe someone was stashing bricks inside the wheels at the factory…
After that day every mechanic in the shop flat refused to do any tire balancing with that POS.

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