weird motor behaviour after swapping tyres

[muckyboo]

Hi! I have had a 2nd hand 2014 PHEV for almost a year and had my first routine check-up done a few days ago. Since I bought the car, the steering wheel always pulled slightly to the right while driving... but as it came with snow tyres, and although having it checked out at the local tyre place - no problem was found - I was reliying that a future check-up would unravel the problem, but it didn't. The tyres which came with the car were snow tyres so, not suitable for my weather condition area (no snow...), and the front ones needed to be changed now. After changing the front tyres and balacing the sterring wheel and direction, I noticed the car was kind of noisy coming from the wheels and besides that when reaching 80-90km/h and releasing the accelorator the car starts to shake and the power indicator seemes stuck in a specific position whitin the green and then suddenly the blue area of the power table. Besides that - I use a lot the later tabs to regenerate energy - the tabs seem to not be working well going from a smooth to really fast and rough stop and reduction of speed... I am going to the mechanics were the job was done, but can the problem be the swapping from back to forth the tyres?Having 2 different sets types/brands of tyres? Any extra calibration needed??
thank you.
M

 

[jaapv]

Hard to see how the two could be related.

 

[muckyboo]

Ok... so maybe the mechanics did an overall checkup and by coincidence this situation came up regarding the brake/regeneration system? I was running on an empty battery at the time and I read on another topic here, similar experiences/complaints from other owners...but this never happened to me before with full or empty battery... that’s what’s weird... only after checkup done at Mitsubishi itself... :?

 

[greendwarf]

Yep definitely sounds like a problem with steering alignment plus possibly worn or damaged components in suspension. Perhaps an accident rebuild?

 

[Bmtouring]

Well, changing 2 instead of 4 tyres does not help. Many topics on that. Due to difference in size between front an rear. If you really want to get the max out of your tyres you should swap front/rear often to make sure they all wear equally. big hassle as it's not clear at how much difference problems can start to occur.

When you write your steering wheel was balanced and direction adjusted. This may be a language thing but as far as I know you cannot balance a steering wheel, you balance a wheel. The direction can be adjusted but cannot be done properly by only adjusting the front wheels a bit (very easy to do, quick fix for a customer). This must be done with a full alignment (of all wheels) as you can put your steering wheel straight and still have a front axle that pulls the car one direction while the rear is aligned in the other direction. Or various wheels going various directions. In a straight line this can still feel fine on a public road (which is never perfectly even and horizontal) but in turns or over bumps all wheels start to have different effects on the car as a whole. That's what full alignment is for: get all wheel acting in such a way as designed to do.

You can drive with a perfectly balanced, aligned car and still have the steering wheel off-center. simple error by the mechanic adjusting all wheels. Most often however, one wheel is out of its specs after a hit from a curb, stuck while steering or such strong influences. Also, wear on the various parts can change the specs. Usually a slow degradation that you get used to while wearing down the tyres. And then suddenly with the new tyres and alignment, the car feels different.

So I'm inclined to point at the way the car was checkend and adjusted plus the difference in tyres front/rear that causes your car to misunderstand the inputs from the wheels (so it can't adjust its drive correctly) plus a misalingment overall. I'd advise to get a proper alignment done and get four equal tyres.

Aligning is not easy and simple. Only if a workshop is equipped with one of those laserbeam machines it's easy for most cars as the computer simply tells which bolt to turn which way. For the Outlander this should be fine (as long as they choose the right type/version). Even then one can make the mistake of forgetting to secure some adjusting rod or make an error in the sequence of steps. So some experience is preferred.

Doing this without such a machine requires lots of skill, experience and test driving. Only then can you get it tuned to your liking, which is generally reserved for sports cars or out-of-standard spec (lowered, DIY suspension changes) cars.

 

[greendwarf]

I think the 4 tyre change is overstated. I have regularly had to change 2 due to repeated punctures in the last 5 years but never had any problems due to wear differential front to rear. There is, however, a consensus that there should always been even wear on the same "axle". especially on 4WD cars.

 

[littlescrote]

I think the 4 tyre change is overstated. I have regularly had to change 2 due to repeated punctures in the last 5 years but never had any problems due to wear differential front to rear. There is, however, a consensus that there should always been even wear on the same "axle". especially on 4WD cars.

I also find this hard to believe as you can run with chains on the front but not the rear which is a massive difference.

 

[ThudnBlundr]

As there's no centre differential, there's obviously no possibility of mechanical damage from different-sized tyres. But there have been several cases reported of the car flagging up an issue with. The S-AWC constantly monitors the rotational speed of each tyre to control slip, and will flag up an error if it detects excessive difference in rotational speeds of the tyres. Putting on matching tyres usually clears the error.

See Richi Jennings's FAQ for the UK FB group: https://www.richi.uk/p/mitsubishi-outlander-phev-faq.html#phevfaqL

 

[muckyboo]

Thanks to all for your inputs, explanations and suggestions... I appologize for the wrong terms used, but mechanics is not an area I know much technically. I 'm just curious on how my cars work, and specially on how I can benefit the max of the electric motor and the capabilities of the PHEV. I used to drive daily my grand cherokee jeep which consumes 14l/100km (which gave me a fair share of mechanical repaires headaches)...so the PHEV was a lovely 3/l/100km breath of fresh-air and Quietness/Silence while driving. Anyway, just to clarify the points you all kindly stressed out... the car had a full aligment done with a laser beam test in July (4 tyres were fine) and now in March (2 tyres were a bit worn out). In none of the tests any problems were found to justify the car pulling slightly to the right-side. As the car was imported from Holand by the car-stand I bought it from, I don't think it is worth the trouble to try and get info if the car did have an accident with the previous owner that could justify this anomally, and an after rebuild. But it does make sense... Nevertheless, I can live with the car pulling slightly to one-side... Anyway, of what you said, the misfunction of the regenerating flaps is not related to the new 2 tires. So something must have meed badly assembled at the time of the check-up. It is at the moment at the mechanics...

 

[jaapv]

Thanks to all for your inputs, explanations and suggestions... I appologize for the wrong terms used, but mechanics is not an area I know much technically. I 'm just curious on how my cars work, and specially on how I can benefit the max of the electric motor and the capabilities of the PHEV. I used to drive daily my grand cherokee jeep which consumes 14l/100km (which gave me a fair share of mechanical repaires headaches)...so the PHEV was a lovely 3/l/100km breath of fresh-air and Quietness/Silence while driving. Anyway, just to clarify the points you all kindly stressed out... the car had a full aligment done with a laser beam test in July (4 tyres were fine) and now in March (2 tyres were a bit worn out). In none of the tests any problems were found to justify the car pulling slightly to the right-side. As the car was imported from Holand by the car-stand I bought it from, I don't think it is worth the trouble to try and get info if the car did have an accident with the previous owner that could justify this anomally, and an after rebuild. But it does make sense... Nevertheless, I can live with the car pulling slightly to one-side... Anyway, of what you said, the misfunction of the regenerating flaps is not related to the new 2 tires. So something must have meed badly assembled at the time of the check-up. It is at the moment at the mechanics...

If you know the original Dutch registration, you can check accident damage and mileage here:

https://www.kentekencheckonline.nl/autoverleden/

As the car was cross-cambered for driving on the righthand side it is not surprising that it should pull to one side of the road when driven on the left side. Have them check camber as well, even if Mitsubishi says it should not be adjusted.

 

[muckyboo]

Thanks for the suggestion. I looked up the numberplate and nothing came up regarding accidents/damages... Nevertheless all the previous checkups were done at the dutch Mitsubushi itself but throught the portuguese Mitsubishi it's not possible to cross information, so a dead-end.

Besides the regenerating problem, the noise coming from a rear wheel seems to be from a seized bearing from the rear left wheel. Although when I dropped off the car at Mitsubishi for the initial check-up, it had no noise at all!! :x the mechanics justified that when removing all wheels to check the brake pads, the bearing might have already been in bad condition due to intense towing (previous owner?) and when assmebling everithing together again it might have seized as it was already half broken (??). Not pleased with this justification. Waiting for feedback from the regenarating system problem... Hope they didn't mess up with that.
One last point, the car continues to be driven on the right hand side so I don't think cross-cambering is applyable in this case to justify the puling to the right when driving...

 

[littlescrote]

a damaged rear wheel bearing is more likely to have originated with a sticking brake caliper putting too much heat into the bearing and causing the lubrication to fail.

 

[muckyboo]

Problem seems to be solved after 3 long and "slow-development" months, due to the pandemia. After in and out of the Mitsubishi headquarters, having swapped the spark plugs, done multiple tests driving around to show the problem with the Mitsubishi mechanics, relplacement of the actual charging batteries (a default was assessed after a mitsubishi test done to the bateries, so new ones were put in) - thanks Mitsubishi - but above all, with the remaining 2 snow tyres replaced (so all four are of the same type of tyre), my car finally has stopped lighting the EV System maintenance required light, stopped the jerkiness when low on battery at 60-80km/h, and stopped the dangerous mind-of-its-own behavious, while driving at 120km/h. This last point was my biggest fear as the car simply would not stop when I would remove my foot from the accelarator... only when applying the brakes. Like a cruise control without the "off"... Glad my car is back to normal and as reliable as it was before, just sorry it took so long for mitsubishi to have tested the car with 4 tyres all of the same family. 2xsnow+2xall terrain gets the car completly unbalaced. Never imagined the tyres could do so much "damage" and have so much influence in the bahaviour of the car. Very sensitive car... But glad it's over!

thanks for your feedback!