I recently had a minor air leak repaired on my Tesla Model Y at Costco, which seems to have caused vibration in the car(As per Tesla SC). This led to additional costs: $100 for an outside wheel alignment and a $300 for forced road alignment at the Tesla service center. Has anyone else experienced something similar? Is this a typical cost for these repairs? Also, would you recommend getting tire repairs done at specialized centers or directly at Tesla?
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2023 Model Y vibration
- Thread starter vishushri
- Start date
EVRider-FL
Active Member
Sorry about your tire issue. Many people have reported here that they use tire specialists and are happy with them. Others have used Costo too, but maybe not the same one you used.
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MY1stEV
Member
@vishushri I think you are commingling a couple of the terms they threw around at your service visit. There is a "wheel alignment" and "road force balancing," but no such thing as "forced road alignment".
First, for future reference, don't ever go to Tesla for a wheel alignment. They charge a ridiculous price, $300+. There is nothing special about doing an alignment on a Tesla. It should cost $140±$25 at an alignment shop.
You didn't say exactly what was the cause of your air leak. Was it a puncture, was it a bad seal on the bead for the tire, hit a pothole/curb and had a leak?
Regardless, if Costco took the tire off the rim and then remounted it and didn't rebalance it (or did a poor job rebalancing the tire) that would cause a vibration.
Any tire shop can balance a tire off the car, but there is a specialized machine that can do an "on car balancing" for tires. This is called "road force balancing" and the most common machine used for this is made by Hunter. You can google "road force balance" in your area and find multiple shops that have such a machine. Road force balancing is more expensive than off car balancing. Most tires can be balanced off the car without issue. Sometimes a tire may have a weird manufacturing imperfection and road force balancing is the only way to properly isolate and compensate to eliminate the vibration. (Road force balancing is also good for correcting vibration issues that occur at speeds higher than normal highway speeds.)
As far as alignments go, you could have hit a pothole and knocked your car out of alignment, or it may have come from the factory out of alignment (not uncommon). Not a bad idea to get your alignment checked whenever you get new tires, but again, dont do it at Tesla .
First, for future reference, don't ever go to Tesla for a wheel alignment. They charge a ridiculous price, $300+. There is nothing special about doing an alignment on a Tesla. It should cost $140±$25 at an alignment shop.
You didn't say exactly what was the cause of your air leak. Was it a puncture, was it a bad seal on the bead for the tire, hit a pothole/curb and had a leak?
Regardless, if Costco took the tire off the rim and then remounted it and didn't rebalance it (or did a poor job rebalancing the tire) that would cause a vibration.
Any tire shop can balance a tire off the car, but there is a specialized machine that can do an "on car balancing" for tires. This is called "road force balancing" and the most common machine used for this is made by Hunter. You can google "road force balance" in your area and find multiple shops that have such a machine. Road force balancing is more expensive than off car balancing. Most tires can be balanced off the car without issue. Sometimes a tire may have a weird manufacturing imperfection and road force balancing is the only way to properly isolate and compensate to eliminate the vibration. (Road force balancing is also good for correcting vibration issues that occur at speeds higher than normal highway speeds.)
As far as alignments go, you could have hit a pothole and knocked your car out of alignment, or it may have come from the factory out of alignment (not uncommon). Not a bad idea to get your alignment checked whenever you get new tires, but again, dont do it at Tesla .
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