daveslights

soooo....I went to a local Subaru dealer on Friday. At first I got the whole "oh you didn't buy it here?" dance. They did the alignment, and a Road Force Balance. They said one tire was off 1/2 ounce. There was still a vibration and a slight pull to the right. So I called the dealer I bought the car from and scheduled an appointment for yesterday, they are 2 hours away. They test drove, and said the alignment is fine, it follows the crown in the road. Which may be, but I've not had a car that did it that quick. I also asked them to straighten the steering wheel - they said it was 'within spec'. As far as the vibration, they said it is normal road feel. And that they put crappy tires on new cars. Oh yeah, when I got there, they had me down for an oil change. There's only 800 miles on the car!! I said no and he asked me if i was sure?! So I guess I'll just deal with it until I need new tires and hopefully that'll fix it. I just dealt with a similar thing with my 2011 outback, I traded that in for this 2012 Forester. I'm just tired of having my car in the shop. This will definitely be the last Subaru I buy.

Thanks Recian, I've got an appointment tomorrow. They're going to drive it and figure it out. Maybe it is flat spots. As far as the alignment, over the phone, he thought it might be the crown in the road. but I don't really think that's what it is, as my last car didn't do it. Either way, they need to adjust the HID head lights, they are aimed dangerously low

thanks guys. Porcupine, you are referring to an issue with the Gen 4 outbacks. This is not the same thing. I just traded a 2011 outback because of the shaker problem. the shaker problem is due to the chassis. the Forester is a different design, that's why we bought it

just bought a brand new 2012 Forester 2.5x touring. there is a vibration that could be an out of balance tire? is this common? also should I look at getting an alignment? the last new subaru I bought had a bad alignment and needed new tires at 27,000 miles. would you go to the dealer for this or just pay at an independent shop? it helped a little bit to adjust tire pressure DOWN to the manufacturer specs. Dealer had the front at +3psi and rear at +5psi

now they say it is the tires, the tread is wearing strangely. even though I"ve been rotating tires. if you run your hand from front to back on the tire the tread feels ok, but if you go back to front it's choppy. They're looking into replacing the tires for me. but I havent heard back yet. hopefully the gold plus warranty covers it.

It was under warranty. I'll wait until this is over to talk about which dealership it is.

Hey all, I have an interesting situation. 2011 Outback 2.5i Premium 30,000 miles (16 months old) I was having a vibration, which felt like a tire out of balance. I went to the dealer, they did a Road Force Balance and a four wheel alignment (which took almost 3 hours). It was good for a week until I got an inspection (somewhere else) and a tire rotation which was due. the next day the vibration was back. I called the dealer, they said I should not have rotated the tires because they do that during the RFB (something I feel like they should have told me, because I try to keep on schedule with that). So they did another RFB. This didn't help the vibration at all. I called them back and told them there was no change, they scheduled me a few days later and said a service manager would test drive with me. He did, and he said it sounded like a Wheel Bearing. They gave me a loaner and kept my car for 3 days (it is interesting to note that, I left the car with them on a friday evening. On saturday morning I had to go to the lot to get something out of my car - i noticed it was parked kind of carelessly but didn't think much of it. On sunday afternoon, I had to get something for work out of my car so I went back to the lot and noticed again how my car was parked exactly as it was on saturday. Monday they called to say the car was ready, the replaced both front wheel bearings under warranty. I returned the loaner and found my car in the lot EXACTLY as it had been parked since saturday morning. It definitely had not been moved since saturday morning at 11am. The in and out mileage was the same on the invoice, so they did not test drive after the fix.) I left the dealer and immediately noticed that the vibration was still there, absolutely no difference. I called the dealer and was put on hold. I called back later and had to leave a message for my service writer....over two hours later no reply, I called and spoke with my service writer, he told me he would have to talk to his manager and call me back. that was 24 hours ago. does any of this seem strange to anyone else? Yesterday afternoon I checked my tire pressure it was: driver front: 28psi driver rear: 31psi passenger front: 33psi passenger rear: 33psi I adjusted them all to 31 psi and still no change. I am surprised the the dealer would not check my tire pressure before giving the car to me, or if they adjusted pressure to the above numbers that they would at least tell me why.