Alignment/Balancing Issues?

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Need4Speed3

Member
:
2008 Mazdaspeed3
My car was having some issues recently where the steering wheel started vibrating at about 60mph. It also was pulling slightly to the left on the highway. I thought there may be a balancing and alignment problem so I brought it to NTB to get the tires rotated, balanced and aligned. After I got back the car it was pulling to the right very badly. It feels like torque steer even when I barely hit the throttle. The steering wheel vibrations decreased somewhat but it's still noticeable. I returned it to NTB and they said it may be the tires. They checked and told me that the tires are fine and did some adjustments to the balancing and realigned them again. This made no difference whatsoever.
What else do I need to check? Should I just invest in some new tires even though the ones I have are fine? I put about 7000 miles on them since buying the car and I baby the car a lot.
 
I suggest finding someone qualified to identify and resolve the problem. If your NTB shop can't figure it out, they are no good. I'm sure they have some good techs, but there's no way in the world any of my performance vehicles are going to NTB unless I'm in a serious jam. Maybe heck your local forum and find a reputable independent shop that has skin in the game.
 
Tire Seperation comes to mind if Techs can't seem to find, find a Hunter Road Foce Balancing machine and they shold be able to find your issue.
 
Need4Speed3 said:
My car was having some issues recently where the steering wheel started vibrating at about 60mph. It also was pulling slightly to the left on the highway. I thought there may be a balancing and alignment problem so I brought it to NTB to get the tires rotated, balanced and aligned. After I got back the car it was pulling to the right very badly. It feels like torque steer even when I barely hit the throttle. The steering wheel vibrations decreased somewhat but it's still noticeable. I returned it to NTB and they said it may be the tires. They checked and told me that the tires are fine and did some adjustments to the balancing and realigned them again. This made no difference whatsoever.
What else do I need to check? Should I just invest in some new tires even though the ones I have are fine? I put about 7000 miles on them since buying the car and I baby the car a lot.
Click to expand...
a misaligned car doesn't vibrate, so, they either didnt balance, or you have a tire out of round they missed while doing a visual check for OOR
the specs from mazda are a bit loose, but even so, it should drive decent if its in spec

find a shop that will spend the time to check the car and get it right
 
OK. Sometimes you gotta stick with what you know. I was thinking of going to Dobbs (St. Louis Area) at first and gave NTB a try instead because they're closer. The fact that they scratched one of my rims in the process makes it even worse. I'll probably try Dobbs since I've always had good experiences with them.
 
from the sounds of it you could have a bad ball joint if it's pulling from one side and after adjustment it went to the other side. maybe get that checked as well....as for the tire vibes if your running Hankook V12's well theres your problem, I had very similiar experience with them and I dismounted them after 2 days of running them cuz when the dealer had the car on the lift and someone was inside getting it up to 60....wala both tires on the front was bouncing like crazy....so they were all returned to manufacture and they sent me a new set, but I still was not happy so I just got raid of them and problem solved with NEW stockers.
 
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