Here's what happened. Long story short, driving along a back road, I got my front two tires stuck in some wet sand. After trying unsuccessfully to rock the car back and forth to get it out, a co-worker hooked the front end of my car up to the tow hook on his truck. He connected it underneath the front of my car, near the front left tire. As my car was being pulled out, the front tires and steering wheel kept turning hard to the left while I had to turn it to the right to get onto the road. After getting out, all was fine while I was driving 45mph home. Later that day, while I was doing 65-70mph the whole car started shaking/vibrating very noticeably. I slowed to under 65mph and nothing, sped up and it started again. Can this be something serious? I'm thinking/hoping it just screwed up the wheel alignment, which a tire alignment should fix. I intend on taking it to the shop in the next fews days. Any advice?

 

get an alignment done and next time use the tow hook.

 

"____, why didn't I use the f'n tow hook!" was exactly what I said to myself 5 minutes after I got home. I'm an idiot. I'm not too familiar with it either though. The cap on the front bumper just "pops" off and the hook slides out? Afterwards, does the cap just "pop" back on?

 

The cap does pop off, though the hook doesn't slide out. It is in your hatch next to your spare and you screw it on.

 

yeah just get an alignment...just threw it off when u did that...no biggy

 

well u learn something new everyday. :D

 

You might also want to check to make sure all of the balancing weights are still on your rims. A sign of an improper balance is shimmying of the wheel.

 

::Update::

Driving yesterday, I got up to about 60-65 and there wasn't any shaking/rattling going on. So today, I took it up to 80-85 and there wasn't any shaking going on. Could it have realigned by itself? I'll probably still take it in to get realigned just incase in the next week or so, but do you guys think it needs it still? Thanks.

 

still get one, just to make sure...it might have been the road you were on, but just in case

 

So wheres the update? did you get it aligned? And thanks for the info on the tow hook, i always wondered what that hole in the bumper cover was for!!

 

You may have had some dirt/mud/sand caked on somewhere (maybe inside the wheel?) and it came off eventually...It sounds to me like you could have knocked a weight or two off a wheel, as Expresscion stated, but as far as it being fine now? I would vote for dirt or mud caked inside the wheel.

 

:: Update ::

I haven't had time to get the alignment done yet. But, I'm still not having any issues with it anymore. I hit 90 today on the road(NJ Turnpike) that I initially was traveling when I was feeling the shaking and nothing, no shaking/vibrations. What does one of these "balancing weights" look like, and where are they exactly? I'll take a look to see if they're all still there. Oh, and I plan on getting the alignment done soon.

 

^^^You don't know what a wheel weight looks like? Ummmthey are all different sizes and shapes...just depends of how much weight that particular wheel needs. There is no way to tell how much weight was lost, if any.

 

 

you would have noticed if a wheel weight was missing between 0 and 90...im pretty confident of that

 

you could have had like dirt or sand caked on the inside of your wheel causing a weird weight distribution which came off over night or something... id still get it checked out.