Recently my car has started shaking all of a.

ANONYMOUS

MEMBER
1997 FORD FIESTA

Recently my car has started shaking all of a sudden and sometimes pulling to the left even shaking at low speeds, through the steering wheel and the whole car itself. I took it to the garage and told them whats been happening and they said its the tracking and wheel balance (without checking or testing the car), they did these jobs and I paid, happily thinking the problem had been sorted. But its not. In fact it seems worse! Please help, I have passengers in my car all the time and its starting to worry me! Thank You.

1 Reply

CARADIODOC

MECHANIC
33,741 POSTS

We can't diagnose cars over the computer and we surely wouldn't lead you to believe we're that good. The same is true of live mechanics who don't test-drive your car first. A tire balance problem won't show up at low speeds and it won't cause a pull. A broken tire belt will. Any repair involving this type of complaint always ends with a test-drive to verify the car is repaired. What happened there? Did they hand you the keys and take your money knowing they didn't solve the problem or did they just assume it was fixed and didn't test-drive it?

This is a case where you didn't get what you paid for and you should go back. Otherwise, they can keep doing that to everyone. Guess, sell a service, and take your money for that service but leave you with the same problem.

An observant mechanic will look for a broken tire belt on the wheel balancer, but to be fair, they have to pull a protective hood down over it so they won't see the problem unless they make the extra effort.

While the combination of symptoms points to a tire belt issue, Fords have way more problems with steering and suspension parts separating leading to loss of control and crashes than almost all other manufacturers combined. Suspension and alignment mechanics have been well-aware of this since the mid '70s and they pay special attention during inspections. Creaking, clunking, intermittent pulling, and rattles must never be ignored. If the original shop doesn't solve the problem on the next visit, have the car inspected at a tire and alignment shop.