"enhanced road feel"

[Dave Stewart]

I'm getting a vibration in the steering wheel at about 74 MPH and up. To me, this seems like a simple problem of an out of balance tire, but Carlsen (Palo Alto) is maintaining that this is normal for Porsches, due to their enhanced road feel, wide tires, etc. etc.

Not buying their story, I took my 1 month old S to a local wheel shop and asked them to balance the tires. Their analysis was that the left front was fine, and the right front was both slightly unbalanced (1/4 oz.) but also had a high spot in the wheel, about 1/8th of an inch or 1/4 on the tread.

When I discussed this result with Carlsen, they said that they'd discussed this with their factory rep, who also said this was common and a result of the suspension system. They have agreed to actually check the wheel, though.

So, I'm asking my fellow owners, do you experience a shimmy in the steering at high speeds, particularly on smooth roads? Is this in fact common?

Has anyone had problems with bad factory wheels? How did you deal with them? Anyone up for a temporary wheel swap (17in with Michelins) just to see if my "enhanced feel" moves to your car?

Dave

[Tom M (Sunol, CA)]

Sounds to me like Carlsen and the rep are shining you on :D

[Magic Mtn Dan]

Carlsen's service dept. doesn't have the best reputation - in fact other dealerships know all about them because they meet many former Carlsen service dept. customers. Time to visit another...

[Richard in Marin]

[x99shark]

[SfSF]

The high spot probably was caused by the suspension. I had a similar problem with one of my previous cars. The struts were leaking and it caused the tread to split. (this probably began as a minor bump and progressively got worse) The first place I went kept assuring me that the wheels were balanced fine. I took it somewhere else, and they spotted the busted struts. Replaced the struts and the tires and all was good.

[Dave Stewart]

I wanted to make sure I finished this story, as Carlsen finally came through, and even apologized.

Rob McCann (Service Manager) agreed to do some more research on the problem, and this time balanced the wheels. Problem solved. They weren't able to find a spec for maximum vertical travel, and the wheel looked good to them, so we agreed to ignore the previous out-of-round finding until I develop a flat spot on the tire.

At the end of the story, I think they finally did okay by me, but I still think it shouldn't have been such a struggle for them to do a simple secondary diagnostic like checking tire balance. Instead they relied on their shop foreman's feel to determine whether or not there was a problem, and ignored the customer's (my) input. Since my only other convenient option is Anderson Behel, and they appear to have a 4 week wait, I'll probably keep going there, but will definitely be very assertive and direct about what I want done.

Dave
White S on 280 and 85