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?

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.............. :wink: 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.

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...

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Originally Posted by Ron-E-Babe

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

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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)

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...

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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.

Anyone ever think it could also be that our lower control arms are kinda wierd? I get a strange popping noise when I turn tight at low speeds, but can't find anything ever rubbing.


Just a thought.

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Originally Posted by whiteraven

Anyone ever think it could also be that our lower control arms are kinda wierd? I get a strange popping noise when I turn tight at low speeds, but can't find anything ever rubbing.


Just a thought.

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That sounds more like CV joints or wheel bearings to me

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Originally Posted by Brian5475E

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.

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ME thinks Brian gets the prize...try installing a hub centric kit... $30 bucks BAsed on what you said about the guys not getting the wheels on right every time.

hmm.. that sounds like a good possibility...

I'll see about that next time I'm in..

Thanks!

J

just an update....

for the time being I'm just waiting to see what they want to 'do to make it right' kinda thing. I got a call the other day saying there are a few cars with this same problem, with similar rim and tire combinations. He said the waves seem to be the worst, but pursuits seem to have the same problem...

Something ain't right though, since I know there are many of you guys on here with 17" rims........

get hubcentric rings....

they stop the wheel from sitting on just the bolts and help keep the wheel in place...

wellllllllllll....

I got them to get those plastic rings, hubcentric rings I believe the same thing. They put them on, told me it was all fixed, and they have never been happier.. (this after now a total of at LEAST 6-7 visits to the dealer). Long story short, I took it out, hit 80kph, coast, and the wheel shook like crazy. Went back, took the shop foreman out, and he saw it, and admitted that he didn't have the right information. Now I took it back again.. they spent another day on it, road forced the wheels, and said 2 that had some minor curb marks on it were out of balance (even though that happened before they did the past 3 balances on them). then they tried some 'other mag wheels', not sure on those details, I never saw them, but said then it was still there. they called GM head office about it, waiting on a call back, but GM told them there are a series of complaints about this, and to test a new wave off the lot, and they did, and they say it was worse than my car. unfortunately I didn't have a chance to take it out myself, but as it sits at this moment, they are just waiting for the engineering dept. to call the dealership to confirm, but right now they are saying 'this is normal behaviour for this car'.. certainly not satisfactory, as cruising down the street over 70kph now, the steering wheel visibly shakes 1/2" to an inch.. This also makes no sense since the problem goes away when I put on the factory wheels. So I intend to put them on as soon as they tell me this is 'normal', and I'll be taking the car in with the regular ones, and proving to them that it is connected to those wheels...

Apparently according to GM suddenly there are a whole bunch of these complaints. However, that isn't what they said a few months ago when the dealer called head office.. so I don't know what is going on here. I'll have to test this other one myself to confirm the story, but if the one they have on the lot IS worse than this, they absolutely should not be selling it. plus, as per the other posts on here, no one else seems to have this problem.

Update again shortly.. also, does anyone have a link or access to gm tech. service bullitens that might cover this topic? I used to have an online link, but I can't find it right now.

thx