Rep Power: 0

A couple days ago, I was parked in a parking lot and there was a big pile of snow behind my car blocking me from getting out. I put the car in reverse and tried to push my way out. I kept going forward when my front tires started burning out and kept going into reverse to try to push myself out.

After that, I was driving on the interstate and whenever my car went 60mph or above, the steering wheel vibrated like crazy. I thought I had messed up the wheel alignment so I went to Pep Boys to get one. I described what happened and the guy told me I probably need a wheel balancing too. It ended up costing me about $50 for the wheel balancing and $70 for the wheel alignment. After I left the shop, I tested out my car and the vibrating went away.

Do you think I got ripped off on the wheel balancing? I read that an alignment problem would cause this vibration online before going to them but they recommended a wheel balancing too so I went ahead and got one without knowing if that's the cause of the problem.

 
Rep Power: 475

no, unbalanced wheels causes vibration at high speeds too...i think $50 is a bit much though for just slapping some weights on your wheels

 
Rep Power: 256

50 bones to balance? did they include lube when they raped your *******?

 
Rep Power: 331

where i work 1 year alignments are $99 and wheel balancing is $50 for the high performance class of wheels, normally it's like $20.. so it sounds to me like you paid about average assuming you have 17's or larger.

 
Rep Power: 256

dude, balancing is balancing at our shop. for 35 bones ill balance a dually and have it out in 30 minutes or less.

 
Rep Power: 475

yea balancing isnt that much at my shop either

 
Rep Power: 812

lol yea you got ripped off. after it snowed my car was vibrating to the point where i almost couldnt drive above 55mph. then i pulled to a gas station and scraped all the snow and ice from inside the rim. drove it out and its smooth like always. pepboys prolly cleaned the snow off, had a good laugh, and said youre done.

 
Rep Power: 256

yeah your first mistake was to go to pepboys. if i had to go to a shop other than mine, i wouldnt go to a franchise period. i hate franchise shops with loser drop outs in the bays.

 
Rep Power: 0

I think thats like average for the performance tire or wheells...

 
Rep Power: 239

Alignment At My Shop $129.95 Balancing Is 35.95 .
I Feel The 50.00 To Balance Might Be A Alittle Steep For
Pepboys. The Alignment Is Average. I Feel There Was Ice And Snow In Your Wheels And A Simple Car Wash Would Have Cured Your Problem. So All And All You Got Had . You Came Right In And Asked Them To Peform Things To Your Car And They Brought You In Hook Line And Sinker. But If Your Knowledge Of Cars And Vibrations Is Poor ,you Had No Choice To Follow The Rec. Of The Shop.
Next Time Wash The Car And Go From There . .

 
Rep Power: 812

i went to sams club and paid $15 for balance, and they could not do it at all. car still shook and to top it off they lost my locking lug. then i went to a real alignment shop and paid $50, they balanced it perfectly and said whoever tried before didnt even do anything and balance was completely off. i took their note back to sams and demanded a refund. they ended up having to buy me $80 set of new locking lugs from honda and refund the $15 for the "work" they didnt perform.

 
Rep Power: 303

I dunno about you, but when I got new tires from discount tires, they offered free rotations and balancing for as long as I had my tires. So balancing could have been free if you bought new tires to replace your stock ones. 70.00 for an alignment is a bit high as well, usually an alignment should be no more than 50.00.

 
Rep Power: 256

the $15 shouldve thrown up a red flag to begin with. reputable work will cost you, but the only repuatable thing youll get from pepboys is an ******* stretching. my wife is an accountant for walmart and ill go eat lunch with her and the tire center was so shorthanded one day they had cashiers back there changing tires. weve had a few cars come in my shop that went to wal mart for stuff and they had problems. the most recent one wal mart forgot to put on the oil filter. wal mart paid for a complete disassembly of the motor, inspection, reassembly, and oil change.

 
Rep Power: 475

i had a car from jiffy lube come in and they broke the dip stick

 
Rep Power: 331

^i had the exact same thing just last week...i was like WTF...how?

 
Rep Power: 334

hey dont feel bad- bmw charges $115-135 per hour labor,
with alignments being 1 hr worth of work and balance 1/2 hour (so balance is around $60).

the best is tire rotation. it also costs 30 minutes but is only a 6 minute job.

i hate the 20s, 21s, 24" rims coming stock on bmws makes my back ache at the end of the day

 
Rep Power: 256

dealers are such rip offs. my labor is only 60/hr.

 
Rep Power: 281

Agree, Gearbox's scenario was the 1st thing that struck me as well, snow was a cause for a vibration. I had that happening before.
No way pushing the snow whould cause misallignment.

..........So yes, you were ripped off, only because you allowed them to.

 
Rep Power: 475

$95 an hour where i work

 
Rep Power: 245

I've gotten the "free" alignment from a tire chain after buying a set of tires and they never got it right even after going back 3 times. After asking around, I found a local shop that did it for $65 and it was spot on. Balancing in my area runas about $7 a tire.

But most importantly - NEVER GO TO PEP BOYS! I could go on...

 
Rep Power: 247

Yeah my snow tires are vibrating something crazy at 60+ mph and I know there is snow in there, its just been below freezing for weeks so washing it would compound the problem...good thing its in the body shop getting a kit put on. No more weeble wooble for atleast a week.

 
Rep Power: 312

eh i paid around 50 for my wheel rotation/balancing at discount tires. Then again mine was for LIFETIME though

 
Rep Power: 812

just drive the car to heat up the rims and then pull off and use something to poke the ice and snow out. i guess this would be difficlut with hubbies on