So, I picked up a Certified used 2008 G8 on June 1. 2 days later, I'm at the dealership for the steering wheel vibration issue. The rebalanced the wheels and told me they didn't correct all the vibration. Said I should drive it "a coupl hundred miles and see if it evens out after the balancing job they did. They said if it was out if balance long enough, the tires didn't wear evenly and needed to be worn back in.

Now, I'm an engineer by trade. By my reckoning, if they tried balancing a wheel with an out-of-round tire and didn't get it fully balanced, how is it going to wear itself back into a round condition? It'll likely just have run-out in another direction. Perhaps the thinking is that instead of getting one pulse per revolution, getting two pulses would bring the maximum amplitude of the vibration down to a more acceptable level? Even if we assume the tire wore itself back into perfectly round shape, would that cause the wheel to go unbalanced again (it was balanced when it out-of-round, remember)?

Doesn't seem right to me. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and drove it 200-300 miles over the next week. Vibration persists. Took it back and they said give it a few more miles. Been 700-800 miles now, and as I expected, no improvement.

Last week an old guy backed into my car, so I had it at the dealer body shop for repair. Picked it up on Thursday. Last night, driving home from the in-laws, I get a CEL. Car is bone stock except for and amp and subwoofer in the trunk. No place is open to get an error code pulled. Hit the On Star button and have them run a diagnostic. They said it was an Engine or Transmission Control Module error. Said it was safe to continue driving, but to take it in at my earliest convenience.

So, I'm back to the dealer AGAIN, for the 4th time in the three weeks I've owned the car. So much for "GM Certified Used" meaning a whole hell of a lot. I'm getting ready to tell them to keep the car and give me Mazda 3 back. It's still sitting on their lot.

Seems like the dealer people helping you out are a bunch of idiots. Who sells a certified car with un-even tires??

I would speak to someone at the dealer higher up for sure and express your mind..

The G8 is a good car but could end up being hated do to bad experiences at your local bad dealer.. Good luck with your issues and I hope you get to enjoy your car soon. I too got my car hit 3 days after purchase...

Sorry to hear you are having so many issues! How many miles are on it?

I had the same issue corrected a few weeks ago. The dealer replaced two tires after repeated road force balancing. Refer your dealer to TSB 10-03-09-001, which gives an exhaustive procedure for the dealer to diagnose and correct the problem. My original dealer was of no use, so I tried another (Coleman in Lawrenceville, NJ) that was more convenient to where I work. They took the time to work through the problem and get it right. The car is much more enjoyable now. Good luck.

The car has 37k miles. Haven't noticed any performance problems other than the CEL. Sounds and feels like it's running normally.

I mentioned that TSB the first time I took the car in. Today, I printed out a copy and gave it to the service manager along with the keys. I didn't have an appt when I dropped it off this morning. They wheeled it into the garage right away, though. They've had the car four hours and I haven't heard anything yet. Not sure if they've had a chance to get on it since I didn't have an appt.

If they still can't get it, I'm gonna try another dealer before I give the car back. I don't want to end up with a car that has constant wheel bearing failures resulting from unresolved wheel vibrations.

Update: Service manager called and said the best they can do is to have me drive it some more to see if evens out on it's own or they'd sell me a new set if tires with free mounting and balancing.

So they sold me a certified used car with bad tires and they want me to either live with it or buy a new set of tires at mostly my expense. Ya suppose they have some overstock tires they need to move? What good is the wheel & tire warranty they sold me? No good at all, apparently...

Will try a different dealer.

Update 2: Picked up the car. They reflashed the PCM. They're sticking by their story that the tires have "some feathering on them" and that they "should straighten out over time." If I want the bad tires replaced, they want me to pay for the tires and they'd cover the mounting and balancing. They quoted between $707-835 for the tires. The service and parts dept. were closed when I got there and the estimate doesn't specify if that price is for 2 or 4 tires. That's pretty ridiculous pricing if that's only for 2 tires. The used car manager said he'd cover the cost on one tire plus the mounting and balancing if I wanted to replace two of them. I asked the finance manager that sold the tire/rim warranty what was specifically covered by the warranty. She indicated only road hazard damage was covered, so if I "accidentally" run over a box of roofing nails...

Still going to another dealer for a second opinion. I see no reason why this shouldn't be a warranty item on a car that's supposed to be GM Certified. The wife won't even drive the car because she's afraid it's going to put her in a ditch somehow.

Sorry to hear you're having such a tough time with your new purchase. :(

There have been quite a few reports of "steering wheel shake" and unbalanced wheels. My stock GT rims were rebalanced several times when new, and the dealer still couldn't fix or duplicate the problem. So I bought a set of used "V6" rims (see my sig pic) and they're spot on, no vibration. Thus, my GT stock rims are now my winter rims and I kinda don't care anymore.

See if your dealership or a nearby one has a "Road Force Balancer" system. Thats the only way to solve this problem, or at least see if one or more of the TIRES/RIMS are beyond spec and in need of replacement.

Another possibility is that certain cars have problematic "driveshaft balances", depending on the build date of your car. There's a rather involved TSB regarding this, and it's quite involved to troubleshoot and diagnose (search "driveline TSB boom noise" on this board to learn more) and some dealerships may be too lazy to follow the proper (extensive) procedure to diagnose and fix and apply this TSB, so if you get nowhere with the "road force balance" stuff, it may pay to print out some documentation regarding the TSB for the driveshaft and bring it with you to your next visit to the dealership. See if it applies in your situation -- it could be 'that' and not a rim/tire out of balance or out of round. Then and again, it could be a rim/tire out of balance or out of round too. Time to eliminate variables.

Here's an excellent post about "Road Force Balancing" that I made (http://www.g8board.com/forums/showpost.php?p=205593&postcount=11) after extensive research on the topic (related to my GT rim issuues), right around the time I first bought my 2009 GT car, over a year ago. If they do not know what a 'road force balance' machine is, assume they have the oldskool traditional (and quite inferior) spin balancer, and move on and find another shop to ask the same question to. Hopefully you can find someone locally who has one of these machines and rebalance all four tires with it.

If you get nowhere with the local dealership, I recommend you call the national GM Customer Service number (located in your manual) and get a case opened. You're right to correctly assume that a "certified used" car should not have such a major unresolved problem. Work your way up the food chain, document who you speak to with GM CS, and keep your cool the entire time. Do not settle for less than what you feel you deserve. If you feel that a "before and after" ride along with the local service manager (as long as their road force balance machine is onsite and they are able to rectify the problem AT NO COST TO YOU) then push for that. If you want new tires, push for that. Work with GM CS and your local dealership to let them know that by YOU paying EXTRA for the "Certified used" car that sits in your driveway, you expect it to be smooth on the highway, no questions asked. As I said, do not settle until you're satisfied. Also, bring up the TSB for the driveshaft boom noise and start questioning GM/CS about the drivetrain on this car. The more calm, yet direct, that you are with GM/CS, the more they escalate your claims and work with your dealership to regain your trust and make you a happy customer. Trust me.

Good luck, hope you're able to get some closure on this and start to enjoy your newly purchased car.

Be sure to post your results so we can follow along and hopefully congratulate you on a successful campaign!:):)

--zep

Thanks, zep.
This was my 3rd trip to the dealership in the three weeks I've owned to car (4th if you count my day and a half in the body shop), trying to get this resolved.

When I took the car for a test drive before I bought it, I didn't take it out on the freeway because it's a bit of a drive to get to the freeway from this particular dealership. I got her up around 50-60 or so on some backroads near the dealer and didn't notice the problem at the time. I didn't find it until Day 2 of ownership when I was commuting to work the next morning. Didn't have time that day to bring it in, but I brought it in on Day 3. I mentioned the TSB in question at that time when I dropped it off. Took them about an hour and a half and they roadtested, verified the problem, did a rebalance, and verified the vibration was reduced, but still there. They said the vibration wasn't caused by an out-of-round / run-out condition, but instead that the tire hadn't worn evenly for some reason (insufficient tire rotation frequency by the previous owner perhaps). They said driving it "a couple hundred miles should even it out".

One week and 200-300 miles later, zero improvement. Back to the dealer. The same service manager was working and said I needed to give a few hundred miles more.

Day 19, I get the CEL and still no improvement in the vibration. Got around 700-800 miles on it since they did the wheel balancing. Dropped off the car on Day 20 with a printed copy of the full text of the TSB I got from another G8 forum. They reflashed the ECU with updated software and did a road test to verify that the vibration was still there and still not improved. They suggested waiting a bit more to see if any improvement came about from driving on the improperly worn tires. That was when they said if I couldn't wait, they'd offer me their "deal" on installing a set of new rubber.

Horse pucky, I say.

Obviously, I wasn't getting anywhere with the service manager, so I went into the sales office last night and talked to the sales rep and the finance manager I worked with to buy the car. They made it sound like they were on my side and escalated to the Used Car Sales Manager. He was only willing to cave on the cost of one tire plus the mounting and balancing. I've purchased 3 cars from these people in the last 4 years, two Subarus for my wife and now the G8 for myself, and I'm a more regular customer than I'd like to be in their body shop. So, I'm in a habit of giving these guys my money and still they aren't being very cooperative here.

Going to give the national service number a call as you suggested. I hate to stir the pot here because I like most of the people I've dealt with at that dealership and the assistant manager in the body shop is a good friend of mine that does good work. He was part of the reason I started doing business with that dealership in the first place. I'd hate to take business away from my buddy because of the service department's ineptitude and the sales manager's refusal to resolve the situation properly.

Edit: Maybe I should get my bud in the body shop involved here. Tell him to go bitch at the managers to get it fixed or he's not getting anymore regular business from me. I'll drive across town to the other Subaru dealers for parts and service from now on. There's lots of other GM dealers around for the same. And several local body shops, too. lol

They made it sound like they were on my side and escalated to the Used Car Sales Manager. He was only willing to cave on the cost of one tire plus the mounting and balancing.


Here's what you do.

you prepose to them that yes, you'd like the "one tire that is causing the vibration" replaced, on their dime. They can choose which tire that is. But after this complementary service is complete, you will be taking a highway ride with the service manager himself to verify/prove that they chose the right tire to replace and all highway vibrations are now gone.

If you pose it this way to them, they either will:


realize their gaff, and suspect that perhaps more than just one tire has this vibration issue perhaps, so now they may be doing more work than what they "bargained with you for"
realize they failed, and will be told by you then if after the test drive it still vibrates that you are going above them to GM CS to resolve it administratively. When this happens, they don't get a very good 'report card' from GM meaning lost incentives in the future, so they better hope that what they do will wind up winning back you as a favorite customer by fixing the issue.

Good luck. Let us know how it works out.

Going to give the national service number a call as you suggested. I hate to stir the pot here because I like most of the people I've dealt with at that dealership and the assistant manager in the body shop is a good friend of mine that does good work. He was part of the reason I started doing business with that dealership in the first place. I'd hate to take business away from my buddy because of the service department's ineptitude and the sales manager's refusal to resolve the situation properly.

Edit: Maybe I should get my bud in the body shop involved here. Tell him to go bitch at the managers to get it fixed or he's not getting anymore regular business from me. I'll drive across town to the other Subaru dealers for parts and service from now on. There's lots of other GM dealers around for the same. And several local body shops, too. lol

In my experience with going higher on the food chain; it doesn't burn bridges.
As long as you are genuine with people and explain your intent, they will be on your side throughout.
There are times when you roll with the punches and then there are times when you take a stand.
If you are in the 'right' (as in this case), there is no reason not to.

Of course if you're the abrasive type, they can't wait to get rid of you. :pir_flag:
You don't strike me that way though.

My car's vibration issue has not been resolved after 4 visits to the dealer in 10 months since I bought the car (they replaced all 4 tires with new ones, then 2 more, performed numerous Road Force Balances, and they also ruled out the driveshaft being the culprit since it was not vibrating bad enough). I also involved GM customer service. They sent a field rep to take a look at my issue and while initially they said they experienced the problem when driving themselves, the final answer answer was that it "works as designed", case closed.

I am currently evaluating my next step, which may be trading-in the car.

Vipre77, I hope they will resolve your issue. My car is still under factory warranty and yet they did not resolve mine.

My steering wheel has vibrated, shimmered, shaked, whatever from day one. No car you'll ever get will be perfect. As long as she keeps trucking with no major mechanical issues. I can learn to live with a little vibration. It's definitely from the tires and I'm in no hurry to have it resolved at this point. Honestly, that is the least of my concerns with this car. Things have been great thus far. Knock on wood. LOL

Here's what you do.

you prepose to them that yes, you'd like the "one tire that is causing the vibration" replaced, on their dime. They can choose which tire that is. But after this complementary service is complete, you will be taking a highway ride with the service manager himself to verify/prove that they chose the right tire to replace and all highway vibrations are now gone.

If you pose it this way to them, they either will:


realize their gaff, and suspect that perhaps more than just one tire has this vibration issue perhaps, so now they may be doing more work than what they "bargained with you for"
realize they failed, and will be told by you then if after the test drive it still vibrates that you are going above them to GM CS to resolve it administratively. When this happens, they don't get a very good 'report card' from GM meaning lost incentives in the future, so they better hope that what they do will wind up winning back you as a favorite customer by fixing the issue.

Good luck. Let us know how it works out.


Great post...try this ^ recommendation & see what happens

By the way...feathering of the tires will not go away. If they sold you the car with 4 tires that were feathered, they owe you 4 new tires & a wheel alignment. Both should have been caught on the certified inspection & repaired prior to purchase.

My car has vibrated from day one & i now have 36,000 Mi. Its part of the g8 make-up. I just learned to deal with it.

My car like a lot of G8's has steering wheel vibration, but not all the time. They even changed the motor mounts on the later cars as they suspect mechanical harmonic forces are at work (read slight design error) causing the issue. Or it might be the tires in your case as all of them do not do it, just some.
You can get used to lots of things , but the steering wheel shaking should not have to be one of them.

do a search, somebody has suggested putting a rubber piece around the steering wheel to fix it.

do a search, somebody has suggested putting a rubber piece around the steering wheel to fix it.
Never heard of this "fix". Is it a joke?