Tomas

If all is well, the steering should be neutral (no pull left or right) and there should be no shake or shimmy. If this is not true with your xB, there is something wrong.

Mine is as neutral as any other decently balanced vehicle - unless the front tires get too low, then it wanders all over Hell.

As to shimmy/shake at speed, I have none of that at speeds up to about 95 (fastest Vanilla has been).

Tires and wheels are aftermarket (see profile for pics): Wheels are 15x6.5, 35 offset, hubcentric rings, tires are 185/65TR15 BFG Traction T/A (oversize by 0.4 inch).

(Happy and stable in the recent heavy snows, too.)

Tom

xxINKxx

Mine vibrated really bad at high speeds too...got them re-balanced and the shake went away

MrMcNuggett

My right front on the polar white was vibrating so i took it to get it rebalanced and they put it on the machine and the whole machine started shaking....the wheel was bent so I had to use a wheel from my lava so i did not have to buy a new wheel...these where the stock steelies. Don't know how it got bent but it was.

GreenEnvy06

Ok, so I literally spent the ENTIRE day at the dealer today as they worked on the car.

Turned out the pressure in the front passenger tire was low for whatever reason and that was causing the vibration at high speed.

However, it was still pulling to the left so I took it back after going a couple miles. They figured that the pull was also related to the tire pressure and I guess didn't bother to check it once they filled the tire.

So they put it on the machine that checks to see if it needs aligned and they told me all the results came back "within range" and that it didn't need realigned. The tech who worked on the car rode it around the block with me and basically said that "some tire/wheel combos will give you different results."

In other words he's saying that the car is just going to slightly pull left and that I have to deal with it. According to him the alignment is perfectly fine and there's nothing wrong with anything else mechanically and that the issue is simply that i'm using aftermarket wheels with the factory tires and for whatever reason it's causing the tires to slightly pull left.

So at least the noticable vibration is gone, and it seemed to just be an issue with pressure, but the steering still pulls slightly left, most noticeable on the highway.

Does this make any sense? I'm having a hard time buying the whole "that's just how it is sometimes" explanation.

Tomas

Hmmmmmmm... Does it actually 'pull left' or is the steering wheel just not perfectly centered? In other words, if you are on a flat parking lot and get the car going absolutely straight ahead, if you take your hands off the wheel, does the car veer left?

(I placed you in a parking lot because most roads/streets are "crowned" for drainage, and many vehicle/wheel/tire combinations can react strongly to that. Even in a flat, level parking lot, it would be good to do the test run twice in opposite directions just to eliminate the slight slope the lot has, and any possible wind.)

Is the offset of your aftermarket wheels appreciably different from stock? How 'bout the wheel width? That can affect things, too.

Glad you found the vibration - gotta keep those tire pressures up!

Tom

GreenEnvy06

I'll have to do the flat surface test thing...but I'm guessing it could be the crown of the road and such. But yea...what happens when it's most noticable is to drive straight, I have to slightly hold the wheel to the right. Not much, but enough that if I let go, the car pulls left. I could actually change lanes without steering if I let it drive from right to left. So no it doesn't "pull" as in I'm having a tug of war match trying to keep it centered. It's more I have to hold the steering slightly right to go straight and if I let go it goes left. It's not constantly tugging or pulling against me...it just feels like it's not centered to begin with so I have to adjust steering...

As far as the wheels...might be .5 in wider than factory and there is a bit of a lip from the rim...here's a pic after they were installed so you can see how it sticks out some...I've been assured it's not a big deal by every shop that's looked at them...

bB2NER

Sometimes if you rotate them the pulling may go away with the wheels in a different position. It's free and might help if it pulls.

Tomas

Hey! Shockwave!

I just ran into this excellent tech piece over at TireRack.com...

Give it a read. The testing steps are EXCELLENT! :D

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=12

One page, printable, test guide:

http://tijil.org/pulling_tire_diagnosis.pdf

Hope that helps!

Tom

screamnchikn

my 05 xb did the same thing from new 70-80 bad vib tire shop put weigts on the insides ond outside of the factory aluminum rims alls good now 100mph no vib yes it will do 100