Steering wheel vibration at about 68 MPH

Was one tire out of round, or just not balanced well? If out of round, and fairly new, the dealer may replace it under warranty. First they would maybe demount and remount it, but if it still is out of round it should, depending on degree, be considered defective.

Thanks for keeping us informed. Good luck.

Shanonia,

It sounds like Joshi’s tire was reoriented on the wheel and the RoadForce came down to an acceptable level.

One tire was way out of round. It had been balanced when it was first put on, but the road force thing detected the out-of-roundness in a better way.
The vendor did replace the tire, no issues. I just showed them the report from the tire shop.
Having said that, I was quite surprised at the huge difference it made to the driving experience, and realized why, in a new car, the driving experience is so much nicer. For one, the tires are perfectly balanced and aligned, and do not cause any vibrations.
Something to remember.

Not necessarily–especially if that new vehicle is shod with Continental tires–based on my experience and the experience of a lot of other owners of 2010-11 Outbacks!
From day one with those tires on my new vehicle, I had a bad high-speed vibration in the steering wheel. The dealership tried several times to balance them properly, but their efforts were not effective until they got a Hunter Road Force balancing machine.

There were so many customer complaints about high-speed vibrations from those tires that Subaru of America eventually directed their dealerships to buy those Hunter GSP 9700 machines. The next year, Subaru dropped Continental like a bad habit.

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Yeah I was going to say either a bad tire as in egg shape, or a bent wheel. Really I was.

I did check the locations for the Hunter road force balancers to see where they were. Seems like a lot of the GM dealers have them and otherwise a couple tire dealers in the metro area. But there are two different types with the more advanced type it seems only in a couple of locations. Does that make a big difference?

Egg shaped, hard boiled, with the yolk off-center. :slight_smile:

Some 1950s cartoon films had animations of how a car wobbled down the road, going up and down as well as forward.
Not as bad as this, though: https://youtu.be/CIN8Q_4iaxU?t=43