Please Help!! I have a 2008 Sonata Se v6 18000 miles. I have brought my Sonata to the dealer 5 times with this issue. It all started when I brought the car in for a routine tire rotation, when I received the car back it had a nasty vibration in it. I brought the car back they re-balanced the wheels, they have balanced the wheels five times and the vibration is still present. The tires are nitrogen filled. The dealer claims the front-end is not out of alignment and the wheels are straight. I have inspected the tires the only thing with the tires is a little dry rot the car sits a lot. I've been told their are no flat spots in the tires. Now here is the weird part of this hole problem, when the weather is cooler the vibration is at it's worst. Oh they have reprogrammed my transmission 4 times for shifting problems. The service writer at hyundai is starting to think I'm nuts, I just want the car to ride smooth. If anyone knows what could be going on it would be greatly appreciated! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/liebe011.gif)

Sounds like you need a road force balance performed. Has your dealer mentioned this to you at all as an option? Most tires places will perform these at a cost of about $100. If you would like to read about this more look here: http://www.gsp9700.com/index.cfm

This is exactly why I never rotate my tires.
Can you tell a little bit more about the vibration? At what speeds? Is it worse when braking or accelerating? Can you feel it in the steering wheel, or pedals/floor, or both? Can you drive out of it (I mean - if it starts at 60mph and goes away at 80mph)?

FYI: my personal opinion is that RoadForce balance is overrated and doesn't always work. At least for me it never worked and I did have my share of vibration problems. So if I were you, I wouldn't rush with that.
Tires are rubber and being rubber they change their charasteristics depending on speed, temperature and load. I found that even perfectly roadForce balanced tires can start vibrating after 15 minutes on the highway. This is just my personal observation and I'm not going to try to prove it, but again, I wouldn't rush.

The road force balance was done the third time I took it back and every time they balanced the tires they told me the weights were in the wrong place!! I can start to feel the Vibration around 60 gets worse the faster you go. I drove the car to work yesterday it was in the 80's when I left my home, drove the car on the parkway at highway speeds car felt fine. I left work at 1am and got on the parkway it was in the 60's when I left work, as soon as I hit 60 it started, you can feel it in the hole car. Thats the best I can explain it.

This is exactly what I mean regarding the road force balance. My experience with it is the same. Don't waste your time on it. You balance the tires, go for a 5 minutes drive and the tires are off again.

Regarding the vibration: If the car was vibration free before the tire rotation my guess is - it wasn't because of the tires. What probably happened was:

1. They rotated your tires and torqued the wheels with impact wrench. So basically they overtightened the lug nuts and that in turn probably warped your brake rotors. Possibly damaged the wheel bearings.
2. Then you came back and they tried to balance your tires several times, so at this point the balance is probably off, unless someone actually did a good job which is unlikely.

Ask me how do I know (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

At the end you are in a pretty bad position. Your brakes are probably warped, and your tire balance is probably off. Also, you might have a bad wheel bearing or two. So it won't be easy to fix, because most mechanics don't know or don't care what they're doing and it's not a single item to fix.


So I'm sorry, but looks like it'll cost you.

What you should probably do is to start from the beginning. Replace or resurface the rotors. Then take the car to a good tire shop, and try to rebalance the tires. It might take several attempts to find a place that has a good aligned machine and people who have enough patience. Just do a regular high speed balance. If they have several machines - ask them to check it on additional balancer as well. Make sure your tires are at 32psi and warm right before you balance. Make sure they hand-torque the wheels, otherwise it'll screw the new brakes as well.

If all this doesn't help you might want to look into wheel bearings and stuff, but that'll become more complicated, because now you are not sure about the tire balance.


No guarantee, but unfortunately I went through the same thing with my previous car, and very close with the current car. This is why I don't let anybody touch the wheels or tires on it, unless I absolutely have to. And I don't rotate tires because of the same reason.

In regard to your comments about the road force balance you have consider the following:
1) Have someone who knows what they are doing perform the work.
2) Have a balancer that is properly calibrated
3) Have the Road Force actually PERFORMED!! The reason I say this is I recently had this issue and asked for a road force. I watched hte tech and he did not perform the road force. Needless to say I did not pay a dime that day.

Also, error666 I find it slightly extreme that you advocate not rotating tires. You of course have the right to not rotate your tires but it sure will be more costly in the long run having to replace tires more often, especially on the Sonata which in my case eats the front tires.

This post has been edited by PaulW: Nov 5 2009, 01:38 PM

I just found it cheaper and easier to replace the front tires twice during the life of the rear tires but not to have to deal with warped rotors, broken pins, damaged wheel bearings and finally paying for the rotation itself.
Actually, I don't even see a point in tire rotation. Say, your rear tires will last 60k, and the front ones 30k. Just replace the front tires every 30k and the rears every 60k. What's the big deal?

I am very aware of what can happen with the Sonata in minutes. I had a Hyundai Dealer wreck my Rotors at the 400 mile mark. I was complaining about Rust,

and got my Car back with Brakes that vibrated horribly. I didn't know what to do, as they were closing, and I no longer could drive the Car. I was thinking of

calling the Police. However they just slapped new Rotors on, and it was back to new. While this isn't the same problem, the Sonata can be very touchy.

No big deal at all if you don't want to get the maximum life out of your tires.

Well they really should cause ANY of the damages you describe from a wheel rotation. But then again, I do the rotations myself and I'm aware of the many morons out there who work at dealerships.

One thing about rotating the tires is that you have different camber angles for the front and rear. Generally front camber is 0 and rear camber is such that the tire is slightly leaning inward (can't remember if that's positive or negative). So the rear tires will have a slanted wear where as the front are even. So if you drive 30K AND THEN remember to rotate the tires, then the former rear tires would have to wear off the slight (but definitely pulpable) slant before everything is well and good. So I would say either rotate the tires more frequently, like every 10K, or basically do what the poster says and don't do it.