My car's service was due and the car is out of warranty. I had the steering vibration issue for quite a bit and I figured it was a good idea to do a road force balance at the same time. I took the car to a reputable shop that I have been to for a long time for different kinda stuff in Pasadena (I'm not gonna name the shop) and told them to do the service and the road force balance. They even said they were the only shop around that had the equipment for that. The next day I picked up my car and was told the car was serviced, road force balance was performed and everything was good. However, I still had steering vibrations. I couldnt think of any other possible issues, so I went to Tire Central in San Gabriel for another road force balance. To my surprise, they said two rims on front and rear of passenger side were bent. I was allowed to see the rim spinning in the machine and it was very OBVIOUS. They fixed the front rim for me and asked me to take the rear to another shop because it was severely bent and they couldnt do it. After that, the vibration was dramatically reduced even though the rear was still bent. Today I took the rim to another shop who fixed the rim for $100 and the vibration was reduced to minimum.
After the whole thing, I was really pissed at the first shop who probably didnt even do the road force balance and charged $120 for it despite the fact that I have been to the shop for all these years for different bimmers and recommended it to my friend.
Maybe they forgot to do it, but they shouldve just told me.
The moral of the story is that always to get a second opinion on things. End of rant...
One more question,for the minimum steering vibration that I'm still getting, should I do an alignment or one more road force balance? the tech at shop said I dont need any more road force balance because he already did when he fixing the rim.
thanks for reading this and hope you guys have better luck than me
