wheel vibration

sorry I don't have the tire and wheel specs exactely, but just wondered if anyone else has ever had this problem.

Since I drove my car off the lot, with 17" wheels, and low profile tires, there has been a vibration in to the steering. Felt like balancing problem. After 4 rebalances, and one rim replaced due to it being defective aparently, it is still around. The dealer ruled out the car, so now they agree there is a problem with the wheels or combination of those wheels with this car. They are 'deciding what to do' now to make the problem right.

guess it could be a defective tire? or just a bad batch of rims? or is it possible something that just doesn't gel with the car? Could offset have something to do with it? Vibration is much worse on deaccelleration, coasting.. and before they were just balanced this spring the steering wheel would vibrate back and forth about 3/4 of an inch. right now it isn't bad.. for the moment, but i think the vibrations that start slight shake the stick on weights off calibration.

hopefully they will be able to send the rims back to the manufacturer, and get a new set of something else.. the winter (stock) rims were perfectly smooth on the car.

any ideas?

[B1rdbrain]

Sounded like a break problem but you said it does it when costing. i had worn out springs on my old Geo Storm and it did the same thing only it would stop if i costed. do you have a nail in a tire? or a bent rim? does it do it on any road or are you using the same roads (i get the same thing on the 10 freeway where there is alot of truck traffic). Does the tires have an agressive tred? like most 4x4's? my roommates Nissan Maxima does the same thing when breaking cuz the breaks are messed up.

Maybe there is a Nut lose on the steering wheel.............. JK about that.

I think you need more info about the tire and wheel combo first or get the suspention looked at outside the dealer. either way i would get a second opinion first, one that is not the dealer then tell the dealer what is wrong.

[Ron-E-Babe]

What manufacture wheels and tires? Sometimes you'll have a tire that just won't balance out properly, broken belt or something.

Have you washed your car while the rotors were hot? Possibly warped a rotor? Guessing here...

[khan4rtist]

Have you washed your car while the rotors were hot? Possibly warped a rotor? Guessing here...

oh **** taht can happen?? whoops, lol ive done that like dozens of times.

When they balanced the wheels did they roadforce them. This is a machine that simulates as if the wheel/tire was on the road and makes adjustments accordingly. Sometime you have to dismount the tire and rotate to help balance it out further. I had a tech "balance" mine the first time, it zero'd out after adding appropriate weights, but still shock like crazy. Had a different tech do it with the roadforce and all the weights were off, some by a big margin. Now she rides sweet and smooth. Just a thought.

thanks for the replies.

They have been road forced balanced a few times, this past time (after being stored all winter) they said that some weights had shifted a little bit. Maybe shook loose by the vibration?

They tried my summer wheels on another wave, and the wobble followed them over. Ruling out any possiblilty that it was something else with my car speciffically.

I thought maybe one bad belt in a tire.. but even after rotation it still comes through the steeringwheel a lot, no real vibration felt really in the car.

The rims are RTX ones, not sure on the exact model though becuase they were on the car already and have no real markings on them to look it up.
They look like this link, but the bolt pattern is a little bit different.
http://www.rtxwheels.com/eng/store//red ... C&catid=11


The one rim they replaced in the fall they said it was out of round a little bit, so they replaced it. As with every time when I drive away from the dealer it is basically gone, wouldn't be noticible if I wasn't looking for it, but it seemed worse again this morning. Might just be if the front wheels are both in sync with an out of round, or the weights could be shaking and shifting.

The tires are Wanli's, 205/40Z/R17 ( http://www.custom-wheels-car-rims.com/S ... Large=True)

[AVE0SAM]

could be too much air in the tires....when i got my 17's i put them on a did a test drive and was like wtf is wrong because of the vibrations especially when deccelerating....but when i got back i checked the tire pressure and it was like 10psi over the rating on the tire, so i deflated them and most of the problem went away because being over inflated was causing the tire to bulge at the bottom so i was only riding on a tiny bit of the tire and it would wiggle on and off that bit of tire...

[Ron-E-Babe]

have they tried to 'mic' the other rims to be caertain they are not out of round as well?

I've never heard of weights shifting once they've been applied? maybe I just haven't yet.

[B1rdbrain]

have they tried to 'mic' the other rims to be caertain they are not out of round as well?

I've never heard of weights shifting once they've been applied? maybe I just haven't yet.

they shift if they are not put on right or if they guy doesn't squeez hard enough. personaly i like my weights on the inside so you can't see them. any tire guy ever tells you that you can not do that is lazy i get it done all the time. for every car i have owned.

chech and make sure the center bore is correct. if they just put some wheels on it without the same size center bore it will vibrate. you may need hub centric rings if this is the problem.