Ongoing Problem with Alignment and Balancing
 

I recently had PZeros put on to replace my old tires and I still have the same balance problem but now I also have a alignment problem.

I had a problem with balancing on my old tires too. They feel fine but at 50-60 mph my wheel and car shakes. It has done this since I have put new wheels on my car. But now with brand new tires, I dont understand it.

The alignment is an ongoing problem. The car is aligned fine but they never get my steering wheel straight. I hate when I hold my wheel straight and the car pulls hard one way or the other.

Any ideas on what to do. Im tired of it being in the shop all the time.

My first question .. though I'm not expert .. but where do you have the work done? Always at the same place?

The first three alignments were done at the same place, the one I got today was at a different place. The first place has a good name in town and in the area.

But two different places not being able to center the wheel.

The first alignment I had done the day I got my tires was perfect. But one day driving to work I hit a pothole and it threw my left front tire out a full degree on camber.

if after balancing, your car still shakes at high speed, your rims might be bent.
althought the person that's balancing the rims should have told u its bent before they try to balance it.

The first time they were balanced with my old tires the guy said the two rear tires were out of round. It is only shaking at 50 - 60. at 40 its fine and at 80-90 it feels great.

When they do an alignment can they straighten the steering wheel?

If they do it right the steering wheel should be stright.

As for the shakeing does sound like a bent rim

If its a bent rim that means I had to buy them like that because this has been a problem since I got them. I bought them brand new but I guess that could be whats doing that. Maybe its time for new rims

could be but maybe they came ballanced wrong and when you got new tires they scewed up ballancing them as well. Still sucks but one more shot at ballancing before new ones maybe your just unlucky lol

Take it to a REAL shop that specializes in alignment and balance. Believe it or not, some major companies don't know how to correctly balance a tire. If the shop knows what's going on, they will be able to tell a bent rim. That's the only problem I can see unless you have loose suspension components.

I had them balanced today and it made the problem worse, before it wasnt too noticable but now my wheel shakes bad at 60. I just dont understand how a bent rim would only be felt at 60. What kind of a shop would specialize in something like this?

I took mine the sams club, they supposedly said they balanced it, but still vibration was happening. Took it to beaumont alignment shop they said sams didn't do anything and they're way off balance. They fixed it for more money, no more vibration.

I was going to suggest hubcentric rings to solve your vibration problem.

^^^^ Good possibility!

As for the crooked steering wheels, sometimes getting a perfectly straight steering wheel can be the hardest part of doing a aligment. It wont effect tire wear, or handling. Its more of just a pain in the @$$. the crooked wheel can have MANY factors that can cause it from technician error, to the maching hes using isn't properly calibrated. When i set an alignment up and after the test drive you picture the steering wheel like a clock. And if its from anywhere from say 11:30 - 12:30 ( using the hour hand ) im happy with the results. so if your wheel is with in those parameters, dont feel thats its the shops fault per say. Now if its WAAAAAY crooked then yes take it back and demand that they try to fix it

I have never had a crooked steering wheel after an alignment, until I took my car to Firestone. Alignment was fine, but they told me that they could not get the steering wheel straight without problems. What a crock.

They also argued with my that my car (non-7thgencivic) needed a four wheel alignment, when the front wheels are the only ones that can be aligned. He argued and argued, called other places, figured out that I was right, and apologized. I told him that he should have listened to me since I have owned the car since late 1991, and know about the alignments. Idiots.

"could not get the steering wheel straight without problems" is code for "i dont know what im doing."

anyways, i have the same problems with my wheels shaking between 50-60mph. They can't be bent, or atleast all 4 of them can't be bent, so I'm going to try having them rebalanced once more, then after that, i'll try hub centric rings.

What GB said..... :tup:

Will do! Thanks for your help, Ill get on the phone tuesday and get it done right.

It seems many people who buy these tire wheel packs online have problems with the wheel balancing.

How bad is taking your car autocrossing on alignment?

It dont hurt the alignment, it EATS your tires :)

Ok, well I made my appointment for friday, I told them I want the wheel straight, if it takes 7 hours I dont care. I also told them to check the rims and look to see if they are bent but balance them anyway, and look into the hub rings.

If it cant be balanced ill just have to live with the 60 shaking, speed up or slow down.

It seems like it gets worse when I rotate tires from front to back. I just dont get how the rim would be bent. Its had the shaking problem at 60 since I got the new rims. I still only have 12000 miles on the car and dont exactly hit potholes often.

Has anyone mentioned "out of round" tires yet?

Low odds of that since your old ones had vibration problems, but something to look at.

my steering wheel hasn't been straight since the day it got lowered. it tracks straight, but the steering wheels just not centered.

Yeah, I was told my old tires were out of round, so I bought new PZERO NEROS, so that shouldnt be the problem

Heheh. Mine was like that one time I removed and replaced my springs. I drove around like that for awhile until I redid my springs again. However this time I fixed the steering wheel by preloading the suspension with a floor jack before tightening the 5 main bolts(the three on top and the two on the steering knuckle) that hold up the strut.

So basically place a jack under the LCA right under the steering knuckle(not the flat part or you might bend the LCA) and jack it up so the suspension compresses about an inch or two. It should be enough that it pushes everything up tight, then lock all five bolts down. Repeat on other side.

For the originator of this post, are you sure your bushings are fine? If the problem got worse when you rotated them front to back then it could be that particular tire thats now up front. I had a problem like this once. My truck would shake and pull hard to the right at about 45mph. It ended up that one of my tires had a bubble on TOP of the tire tread. It was about 2 inches wide at its largest point and roughly 6 inches long. Even though it was balanced, it wasnt detected as out of balance since it balancer machine only spins the tire in mid air. Thoroughly check your tires for any bubbles on the sidewall and top of the tread. Also if you got any cool friends, maybe see if they'll swap wheels around for a day for testing...