Tire balance?

[Bunnylebowski]

Now that I’ve finally been able to take it a highway speeds, after getting over the shock and awe and how rapidly this car goes from 40-80mph, I notice an oscillating vibration in the steering wheel that is very suspicious for the tires not being properly balanced. I notice it all the way down to 35-40mph when slowing down, so I’m wondering if it could maybe be the drive unit? It’s not terrible but definitely not normal. They’re supposed to do a pre-delivery road test to make sure that didn’t happen, my car had 6 miles on it when delivered so I wonder if they didn’t hit highway speeds on the test?

AND before washing my car I noticed the front right aero outlet for the headlights on the hood has a defect that I thought was a stain but apparently it’s a white discoloration on the vent, very noticeable once it didn’t come off when I washed the car. It almost looks like something corrosive got onto it. Looks like I’m gonna keep my service guy busy between the vibration/vent/cantrail gap problem.

Still absolutely love this car though, but maybe they need to have a conversation with whoever is in charge at quality inspection at the factory and Goose Island to see what they can do to improve inspection.

 

[borski]

Call service; they will take care of it. I had neither of these, but definitely other minor things.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Call service; they will take care of it. I had neither of these, but definitely other minor things.

Yep, they're picking it up this evening to look at the rear window/glass canopy roof gap, the steering vibration, and the color defect in the right hood aero vent. Hopefully it's not gone too long! When the people at work saw my car yesterday all of them went absolutely nuts over the car, and some of them have Teslas. I don't want them to be like "hey where's your car?" and have to tell them it's got some issues. Honestly the only one I'm worried about is this vibration, hard to tell if it's suspension, tires, drive motor? It's worse around corners than going straight.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

So they took my car to Hollis service center yesterday at 4pm, remounted and balanced the tires, fixed the vent discoloration defect, said the 1/2” rear window/glass canopy gap was within their allowances which I’m ok with, and are bringing me the car back tomorrow after getting it professionally detailed. Quick turnaround, and they were super communicative all the way. While I hope to need their service dept as little as possible, I’m super impressed with the quality of service and am not concerned for the future if I have any more issues.

 

[PhotoEye]

So they took my car to Hollis service center yesterday at 4pm, remounted and balanced the tires, fixed the vent discoloration defect, said the 1/2” rear window/glass canopy gap was within their allowances which I’m ok with, and are bringing me the car back tomorrow after getting it professionally detailed. Quick turnaround, and they were super communicative all the way. While I hope to need their service dept as little as possible, I’m super impressed with the quality of service and am not concerned for the future if I have any more issues.

How far is the Hollis service center from you? That's a fast turnaround.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Now that I'm looking the location up I'm not positive it's an actual Lucid service center. The address the GPS on my Lucid app says 230 Eliot Street in Ashland, which is Hollis auto body, so I suspect they rebalanced the tires, fixed the hood vent and examined the cantrail there.

 

[PhotoEye]

Now that I'm looking the location up I'm not positive it's an actual Lucid service center. The address the GPS on my Lucid app says 230 Eliot Street in Ashland, which is Hollis auto body, so I suspect they rebalanced the tires, fixed the hood vent and examined the cantrail there.

Got it. Yes, Hollis is the body shop where Lucid is based until the service center is completed. Lucid CC refers to it as Ashland, based on the final address when opened.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Cool, it's about an hour from me. So if I ever wanted to pop in to have them look at something it wouldn't be too difficult. Honestly I could have saved them the trouble and just brought the car there myself, but I didn't know what the service might entail and neither did they, so I can't complain about them coming to my house, flat-bedding the car, getting me a rental BMW and then getting me the car back in 48hrs. Took the Mercedes dealer 12 minutes from my house way longer to sort out my airbag malfunction and they loaned me an older GLA which is one of the top 5 lamest cars I've driven (#1 will always be the Chrysler PT cruiser a rental co gave me in Florida cuz they were out of everything else, I'd rather walk than drive that pile of shit).

 

[PhotoEye]

Cool, it's about an hour from me. So if I ever wanted to pop in to have them look at something it wouldn't be too difficult. Honestly I could have saved them the trouble and just brought the car there myself, but I didn't know what the service might entail and neither did they, so I can't complain about them coming to my house, flat-bedding the car, getting me a rental BMW and then getting me the car back in 48hrs. Took the Mercedes dealer 12 minutes from my house way longer to sort out my airbag malfunction and they loaned me an older GLA which is one of the top 5 lamest cars I've driven (#1 will always be the Chrysler PT cruiser a rental co gave me in Florida cuz they were out of everything else, I'd rather walk than drive that pile of shit).

An hour away -- you are very fortunate. Could mean days/weeks of saved driving time for you!

 

[InATL]

So they took my car to Hollis service center yesterday at 4pm, remounted and balanced the tires, fixed the vent discoloration defect, said the 1/2” rear window/glass canopy gap was within their allowances which I’m ok with, and are bringing me the car back tomorrow after getting it professionally detailed. Quick turnaround, and they were super communicative all the way. While I hope to need their service dept as little as possible, I’m super impressed with the quality of service and am not concerned for the future if I have any more issues.

I’m very interested in your experience post tire balancing. You’re mention tire vibration in the steering wheel, which sounds similar to my experience.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

So I actually still have the vibration, though they did discover the tires to be out of balance and fixed that. I feel the vibration whether hands are on the wheel or not. It’s not bad but is noticeable over 35mph, it’s really weird, maybe I’m just feeling oscillations from the motor? It’s not dramatic or bad but is noticeable and my other cars don’t have that driving on the same roads. The service center guy Emilio is gonna take it on a highway test in addition to doing the leak test to figure out where the water came from, he was the one who rebalanced the tires and called me personally to see what was going on. Even though I hate needing service the Lucid people are great, it’s like having a small town local mechanic who knows you and your car with the added bonus that I don’t have to go anywhere.

 

[hydbob]

So I actually still have the vibration, though they did discover the tires to be out of balance and fixed that. I feel the vibration whether hands are on the wheel or not. It’s not bad but is noticeable over 35mph, it’s really weird, maybe I’m just feeling oscillations from the motor? It’s not dramatic or bad but is noticeable and my other cars don’t have that driving on the same roads. The service center guy Emilio is gonna take it on a highway test in addition to doing the leak test to figure out where the water came from, he was the one who rebalanced the tires and called me personally to see what was going on. Even though I hate needing service the Lucid people are great, it’s like having a small town local mechanic who knows you and your car with the added bonus that I don’t have to go anywhere.

There are no oscillations from the motors so that vibration should not be there !

 

[Slam08]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. Glad things were fixed timely!

I’m in the area too so good to know that you’re getting good service in Chicago when issues arise.

 

[DaveyBoyGT]

So I actually still have the vibration, though they did discover the tires to be out of balance and fixed that. I feel the vibration whether hands are on the wheel or not. It’s not bad but is noticeable over 35mph, it’s really weird, maybe I’m just feeling oscillations from the motor? It’s not dramatic or bad but is noticeable and my other cars don’t have that driving on the same roads. The service center guy Emilio is gonna take it on a highway test in addition to doing the leak test to figure out where the water came from, he was the one who rebalanced the tires and called me personally to see what was going on. Even though I hate needing service the Lucid people are great, it’s like having a small town local mechanic who knows you and your car with the added bonus that I don’t have to go anywhere.

Did you also have them check the wheel alignment? Vibrations that don't go away can be caused by both wheel alignment and wheel balance or a combination of both. On your tire balance many balancers achieve a tolerance for wheel balance that may still cause vibration. Sometimes the tire mounting on the wheel is not good: its called mount matching. Tires and wheels have high and low spots marked on them that must be taken into account for proper mounting. Sometimes the wheels and tires are so out of round and can never be properly balanced. Also look for how many balancing weights were used; More that 2 oz. is problematic. If I were you I would have them check the wheel and tires themselves and if OK, then remount the tire properly on the wheel(s) that are bad and then balance the tire. For a $140000 car you should have no vibration!!

 

[Bunnylebowski]

Did you also have them check the wheel alignment? Vibrations that don't go away can be caused by both wheel alignment and wheel balance or a combination of both. On your tire balance many balancers achieve a tolerance for wheel balance that may still cause vibration. Sometimes the tire mounting on the wheel is not good: its called mount matching. Tires and wheels have high and low spots marked on them that must be taken into account for proper mounting. Sometimes the wheels and tires are so out of round and can never be properly balanced. Also look for how many balancing weights were used; More that 2 oz. is problematic. If I were you I would have them check the wheel and tires themselves and if OK, then remount the tire properly on the wheel(s) that are bad and then balance the tire. For a $140000 car you should have no vibration!!

Yeah Emilio did do all that, remounted/balanced/retorqued. The work listed didn’t mention alignment though so it could be that, but if I let go of the wheel it goes straight forever. I’ve noticed the vibration is stronger when turning left at highway speeds. Their service coordinator was on the phone with me for a good 15 minutes though getting exact details, photos, etc, so they’re being thorough.

 

[DaveyBoyGT]

Yeah Emilio did do all that, remounted/balanced/retorqued. The work listed didn’t mention alignment though so it could be that, but if I let go of the wheel it goes straight forever. I’ve noticed the vibration is stronger when turning left at highway speeds. Their service coordinator was on the phone with me for a good 15 minutes though getting exact details, photos, etc, so they’re being thorough.

If the toe in is not within spec you can still drive straight but you might have steering problems, and your tires will be useless after a couple of thousand miles. You may also have a steering linkage problem, such as bad bushings, improperly torqued bolts, etc.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

If the toe in is not within spec you can still drive straight but you might have steering problems, and your tires will be useless after a couple of thousand miles. You may also have a steering linkage problem, such as bad bushings, improperly torqued bolts, etc.

Thanks maybe the linkage is an issue. Can control arm issues cause vibration? I know Teslas have had a ton of control arm issues because of being too heavy.

 

[DaveyBoyGT]

Thanks maybe the linkage is an issue. Can control arm issues cause vibration? I know Teslas have had a ton of control arm issues because of being too heavy.

Yeah, I would bring the steering linkage to their attention. Your vibration on the turn kind of implies a loose steering linkage, with the cause being any number of possibilities, although loose linkage on a new car would be unusual.

 

[Bunnylebowski]

I gotta love the app, it’s at the service center and I see they’re charging the car, have doors and trunk open so they must be doing something!

 

[rbbarry]

I gotta love the app, it’s at the service center and I see they’re charging the car, have doors and trunk open so they must be doing something!

too bad you can't see the cameras...