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Help with a vibration | wobble

BlueCT

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I have less than 200 miles on a new LE. On the drive home from the dealership when I got on the highway I noticed it had a vibration \ wobble between 60-70 mph. It can’t remember exactly what an out of balance wheel behaves like. Also it seems to get a little worse or better depending if there is a slight uphill / downhill or curves but I can’t really pin down the exact behavior yet as I have only drive about 75 miles. I brought it back to the dealer and they said the tech didn’t “feel” anything on the test drive. I called my salesman who spoke to service. They had someone else test drive it and he felt it. He rebalanced the rear wheels which were apparently out of balance. They thought that fixed it but apparently they didn’t test drive it. I immediately started hearing an odd noise when i picked it up. I thought the wheel just picked up a rock or something. I got on the highway and still felt the vibration. When I got home I started looking for the cause of the noise. It took a minute but I figured out the noise was caused by the balancing tape rubbing on the housing of the brakes. I could see there was scrapes worn into the tape. One of the weights was lose and fell off when I touched it (clearly there didn’t clean the rim before they put it on). I’m not sure if maybe another weight already fell off and maybe the balance was still off. Or maybe they just don’t know how to balance wheels at the dealer since they clearly didn’t even put the weights on correctly. I’m frustrated enough where I think I am going to go to a local tire place where a friend of mine knows the owner and just pay for a 4 wheel balance. The dealer clearly doesn’t want to deal with this and when they did they just made it worse.

My question is does anyone have a similar experience or a guess on what else it could be if it is not the wheel balance.
Thanks
Chris
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BlueCT

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Here’s a couple pictures of the balancing tape and the issue with them rubbing.

Jeep Gladiator Help with a vibration | wobble 634E5E70-4B35-47FD-ADB0-DDB4550308CB


Jeep Gladiator Help with a vibration | wobble F168C25F-16F4-4861-8D09-CB69C95241AD


Jeep Gladiator Help with a vibration | wobble 2415D621-0B79-4389-AFA9-42FED285F8C8


Jeep Gladiator Help with a vibration | wobble B7D3BE62-B6AA-4E73-87BD-8CE7AD12BC2F
 

turd fergusen

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I would not let that dealer touch anything ever again.
 

Renegade

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I would check the lug nuts for proper torque as well. I would think the centrifugal force would keep the weights away from the caliper while the wheel is rotating. Something isn’t right.
 

The Acme Company

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It looks like the weights were installed wrong. I just looked at the ones on my LE and they seem to be mounted closer to the wheel spokes. The weights should never come in contact with the caliper like in your picture. Take it to the tire shop and bring the bill over to the GM at the dealership and ask him to reimburse you.
 

ShadowsPapa

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I would check the lug nuts for proper torque as well. I would think the centrifugal force would keep the weights away from the caliper while the wheel is rotating. Something isn’t right.
The wheels won't "grow" with rotational force so if the weights rub at any time, they will rub all the time. There's no give.
Those look like thick weights. There are thinner weights available.
They should always check caliper clearance - that's a DUH.
They may have to split the weight placement to get the right effect for balance.

Do check torque of the lug nuts, for fronts they should check for toe being way off.

Have them check for wheel run-out. I have had two wheels off in that way in the past. One was actually damaged from hitting a big hole - the wheel was not totally round, had a slight egg shape to it. A wheel shop fixed the wheel.
I know they are "new" in this case but new isn't always perfect.
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