klam

Ok, I recently got new rims for my car and ever since then there has been an annoying vibration that gets worse the faster I go. I can see my steering wheel shake and feel the tires bouncing.

I got 16" rims with Kumho Ecsta Supra 712, 205/55/16.

Originally I thought it was a poor balance job. So I took it back to the wheel shop and explained my problem. They took a look and checked balance. Then they told me to test it out on the highway. I did so and although it was improved, the problem was still present at high speeds.

At "normal" speeds, it's not noticeable. Only when I hit freeway speeds it becomes an issue.

What should I do now?

My friend who has seen this shop suggested that it might be their outdated wheel balancer machine? But I argue that even a mediocre balancer should do a half decent job?

I checked tire pressures and I'm going to use a torque wrench to re-torque my lugs to 80 ft-lbs now.

Any suggestions would be appreciated!

fraga

iTrader: (3)

Alignment maybe? I dunno.

Eman

iTrader: (2)

Have the wheel high speed balanced.

oldskool

same thing happened to my car, Ive put a 17" rim with 205/40/17 on.....it vibrates as soon as i go more than 60, and it pullls really hard to the right

FlexEX

do you have hub rings for the rims? sometimes when you put rims on without hub rings, the rim isnt perfectly centered on the hub and it causes vibration. if you dont have hub rings, i would recomend putting the rims on yourself and try to tighten the lugs real evenly. make sure the wheel isnt more to one side of the hub.

pogi2k1ex

alignment

BAK

Klam - take it back to the shop and make sure they installed a wheel/hub adapter on each wheel. My wheels also started to get a shake at about 55 mph and the steering wheel vibrated back and forth from the very frst day I got them. I took the car back to another Discount tire after having my springs put on to get checked out. The guy came back and told me, that there is an adapter that goes inside the rim to mate up with the hub on the car for a perfect alignment. Many cars have a different hub size, so the wheels have a larger diameter hole and they are supposed to use adapters to match the wheel to each cars hub. Otherwise you are relying on the lug nuts to align the wheel to the hub and there is some play in the lugnut holes. Ever notice how tight the center of the steel wheels mates to the hub. Aftermarket wheels are made to fit a variety of different vehicles, so you need the right adapter that will mate with Honda's hub. After they installed the adapters the wheels rode as smooth as possible and no steering wheel vibration. [IMG]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/IMG]

FlexEX beat me to it !!!

P.S. if the hub rings are not installed, make sure they get them for you !! Trying to get a perfect alignment with the lugs is nearly impossible. I only felt the vibrations with the speed up over 50-55 mph. Then it $ucked! Now it's FIXED !!!

klam

Thanks guys, I'm going to bring it into the shop to check for the hub rings.

Is there any way to tell if they are installed or not externally? Like looking in from the reverse side? Or do I need to remove the wheel to check?

klam

Ok, I did some more reading on the topic, and most sources state that aftermarket wheels are lug-centric. So that would mean I would need that shim or whatever it is called adaptor to mate the wheel bore hole to the Honda hub. Where can I get this adaptor piece, only Honda dealer?

BAK

Check with the place that you bought your wheels from, they should have them in stock.
Where did you order your wheels from?

klam

Local shop here in Toronto.

Yeah, I'm going to have to go back to them for the third time now... sigh...

BAK

To check if the ring is installed you have to pull the wheel off and look. You can't miss it if it's installed. It's basically a thick black plastic ring that fits into the center of your wheel.

BAK

I was throughly pised off myself !! Unfortunately, I drove it like that for 3,500 miles. I have never even heard that "hub-centric" rings where needed. Here's an article from the Discount Tire site:

Q. What are hub-centric rings; do I need them?

A. Most aftermarket wheels are manufactured with a center hole that will fit a wide range of vehicles. The hub-centric ring is used to fill any gap that may exist between this hole and the vehicle's hub, thus centering the wheel on the axle. If you have vibrations after installing new wheels, chances are hub-centric rings were not used.

02whitey

sup peeps....yeah have fun putting the stock steelies on afterwards...its a bitch i tell you.

I recently installed 17" koning tantrums and the thing shaked really bad so i decided to put on the stock steelies. after i put the stocks back on the two front rims bent and wobbled really bad.

Found out that when you installed the steelies they have to match with the plastic ring which was like impossible to do (tried matching it up like 20 times).

So i just ripped those rings off and now it rides smooth like normal. If you noticed the back rims dont have teh center thing. just rip those things off!!!

lates

VtechChronicle

sounds pretty hardcore whitey...

klam

It turns out my vibration problem was a bad balance job by the wheel installer. After taking it back to them and not seeing a huge difference, I gave up on them. Apparently they seemed to be getting annoyed by my multiple visits during the week too!

I took it to another tire shop this morning and the staff were professional, knowledgeable, and friendly. Best of all, they managed to eliminate the vibration.

BAK

Cool... I'm glad someone got it fixed for you. If I wouldn't have gone to another shop, mine would have never gotten fixed either.
Oh yeah, your wheels look good klam ! Good choice !

HondaLuver

iTrader: (17)

alright, i have those hub centrec rings and nothing happened, i got my tires at tire discount. should i go some where else or what, everbody i saying something diffrent....ahhhh... i hate the vibration... i though it was because i have 18's but it is happeneding to every body, would strut bars help?