orientblue3

Hi all,

I did take my car in to the dealer yesterday and they did ease my concerns on my brakes though they did admit the pad felt slightly glazed and could probably be re-bedded if driven hard enough to help with some additional bite.

However, as I briefly mentioned in the other thread I also had a very bad shimmy and vibration above 70mph. Last week they did a road force balance on all 4 tires and that reduced the shimmy from very bad to just bad.

Yesterday my service advisor and the pre-owned sales manager drove the car and did say that the shimmy and vibration was an issue and was NOT normal. After about 2 hours of passing me from the service department back to the pre-owned department (where I bought my CPO'd car from less than 1 month ago) my service advisor, sales man and pre-owned sales manager all came out and looked at the car. The service advisor who drove the car said if he had not already checked when they did the balance last week it felt like a loose control rod. However, that was checked and ruled out last week apparently.

What seems like BS to me is the reason they gave that this is "normal." The car has 3 month old Pilot Sports that were put on prior to me purchasing the car by the previous owner. The car has been driven very little since then and they look BRAND NEW. They claim the serriations in the edge of the tire and the gap between the tread make the tire grip the road more and thus pull the car either direction at highway speed (and up). They suggested that I change to a Bridgestone tire or another tire with less serrations and a narrower tread gap and the problem would completely go away. They also claim the camber of the car could have an effect, though my wheels have very little to no camber as is. I myself don't buy this. I spoke with several other very knowledgable car people who do not either. I wanted to get your feedback. The best they could do for me is swap the front tires (FL to FR, FR to FL) and see if that would resolve the issue. I'm picking up the car this afternoon and fully expect to still have the same problem. The dealership basically said they are done with my and if I was not satisfied with what they've done so far to fix the problem that I could give the GM a call because they were washing their hands of me.

Divot

Did they check alignment, beyond a visual of camber? I had a shimmy problem at speed that was solved by new alignment (mine were way off from spec).

orientblue3

They claim they did an alignment on the car before I bought it and it has had the issue since I drove it home from the dealership the day I bought it. My problem was that I didn't get the car above 60mph during the test drive so I never even knew about it. The shimmy/vibration starts at 70. They also said it doesn't need an alignment since it's not pulling to the left or right. I wasn't 100% sure if that's all an alignment was good for or not?

Barn996

If they did an alignment, ask them for a copy so you can see the 'before' and 'after'.

orientblue3

I just sent a request for it from my service advisor. I will post once received.

redridge

you may have bad tires........ it happens every now and then.

theporscheguy

This is not a good way to start a new car experience. Ask for a copy of all the work that was performed prior to your purchase. I asked for a copy each time and did not get any resistance. Since you have a CPO they should have record of this work. I've purchased two Porsche's in Dallas (although it could be from a different dealer) and had to negotiate the resolution of a few things on the last car.
It is always good to get these issues resolved before you sign on the bottom line.

roadsession

frankly many things here - could be a bent wheel, bad tires, worn links in suspension, missing aerodynamic pieces under the car that disrupt airflow at 70mph. To check if a wheel is bent you'd have to look at it from the inside view as well.

nick49

If they are a P dealer they could quickly and easily do a swap for front wheels and tires from another car and see if the problem goes away. This would tell you where the problem lies.

orientblue3

What do you mean "bad?" What could be bad about them if they are 3 months old and full tread?


I do have a copy of all the work. Though most of it is from 08 and 09. What should I look for?

redridge

they can be out of round, mounted badly or some manufacturer defect or out of spec detail that has squeezed by QC..... there are many threads on the web of out of round tires that balancing does not help it from shimmies.

Like mentioned, I would talk to your dealer to try mounting other tires.... better yet, drive a car that is known not to shimmy and remove its tires to mount it on your car.... I would not let this issue die, they do not seem to care.

orientblue3

They truly don't. I'm sure it's because of my age. I'm 25 and I think they assume that I cannot afford to come in and buy a new $100k Porsche from them so who cares if they blow me off.

If there is something physically wrong with the tires in the details you describe, do I have a leg to stand on to have them replaced by the dealer? They were put on about a month or two before the car was traded in to the dealer according to my salesman. He was told that by the previous owner. This same previous owner owned the car for 3 months to bide time until he could find a turbo. Once the dealer had a turbo, he traded it back in.

redridge

Is this car CPO'd?.... if it is, I would start raising my voice in front of the customers desk..... the issue is, you need to know if it is the tires, or something else mechanical.

P7

same thing happend to me - brought back to the dealer - had to visit the dealer 4 times untill the issue was finally resolved - they refinished the wheels and they were slightly bent (3 of them), did another balance, improved but there was still vibration, did an alignment, and after all that they realized the 2 front tires were bad (4 tires were brand new before I bought the car) - they contacted Pirelli to return the defective front tires and installed new ones for me and the problem finally went away - thank God for CPO

hope that helps

Ubermensch

All the suggestions posted make sense, but to me the big question is why you're having to deal with this. I'd make it simple for them. You bought a CPO car that has issues. Their job is to resolve the issue and let you know when it's done.

-Shawn