Getting slight vibration when traveling at about 60 to 65 mph. Tires are almost new and had them rebalanced about 2000 miles ago. Shocks are less than a year old. Wondering if it is a wheel balance problem or possibly an alignment problem.
Vibration is not likely to be the result of poor alignment, and is usually the result of tire imbalance or worn front-end parts. However, without knowing the model year of your Merc or its odometer mileage it is not possible to know whether worn front-end parts are likely in your case.
Some tires cannot be properly balanced on the balancing equipment that is commonly found, and in these cases, Road Force Balancing with more sophisticated equipment may make a difference. Try phoning several tire stores and front end shops to see if they have equipment for Road Force Balancing. The preferred machine for this procedure is the Hunter GSP9700.
Edited to add:
This link will allow you to do a search for shops near you that have the Hunter GSP9700 machine:
http://www.gsp9700.com/search/findgsp9700.cfm
In my area, almost all of the new car dealers have added this equipment, and I am gratified to see that the county’s vocational-technical schools have even added it in their auto shops. Where the equipment seems to be lagging is at tire dealers, ironically! Some of the tire dealers in my area have this equipment, but most do not.
Excellent advice from VDC, as always.
I am wondering about the history and the miles on the car, however. Should there be any reason to suspect that it might be other than a simple tire imperfection?
This is an update from bigbass about the vibration on the Mercury at 60 to 65 mph. After much back and forth with Sears ( I purchased the Michelin Symmetry tires from Sears ) and any number of wheel balances and rotations we put on a set of 2 new tires to replace the ones that started the vibration in the first place about 2 years ago. We have only put about 2,000 miles on the tires that we replaced in 2011. Sears did not agree initially that the tires could be out of round, have a flat spot, or have a defective belt. As soon a we put the new tires on and having taken the car for a test ride I am happy to report my two year old vibration problem has been resolved. No vibration at any speed up through 75mph. Hope this information may help someone else with a similar problem.
Thank you sincerely for the update. Too often tire stores refuse to accept that the tires are imperfect even after every other possibility has been eliminated. I’ve been through this problem with a set of Contis, and the only thing that would fix it was replacement tires…and man, did I have to fight that one out!
Sincere best.
A belt overlap or a belt with a little wiggle in it can cause maddening vibration and steering problems…
@bigbass
Congratulations
Unfortunately I have had nothing but bad luck dealing with Sears customer service. Not tires, mind you, but plenty of other things. I believe the problem is the guys you deal with are simply instructed to be unacommodating and say NO to everything.