ghunt

I saw someone mention in a post that the S197's have problems with wheel balance. Well, I believe it because I'm having no luck.

I'm currently running factory 17" Bullitts with 255/50R17 Nitto NT555's. I love em, but they haven't felt truly balanced since I first had them mounted.

Now part of that problem may be because I had them mounted at Wal-Mart, BUT...The first time I had them put on, I got them rebalanced a second time and they were tolerable. I rotated the tires in the spring and the front wheel shake at 40-50 mph was really annoying, so I took it back to them to have them rebalance just the fronts. Now, when they rebalanced them this last time, instead of using the traditional rim weights they used stick-on weights in the middle of the rim. They felt great until i took the car on the highway. Now instead of a shake at lower speeds it shakes at 70-75 mph, which is of course exactly the speed I cruise at on the highway. At 80 mph it's virtually gone. UGH!

Is it bad like this just because I have such wide tires or what? It's really annoying.

Andy13186

try to get a refund from the company that claims to have balanced then go get them road force balanced at a better shop

wcgman

+1000 on this

rls82959

I had mine match mounted & road force balanced at my local
Ford dealer that has a new Hunter Road Force Touch.
It took a couple hours but the 50-60 shimmy is gone. It was worth the wait.
Two tire shops tried spin balancing them several times and failed.

Nuke

RoadForce balancing can detect tire and/or wheel issues that typical spin balancing cannot.

Also, are you running the OE wheels or aftermarket? If aftermarket, you need to check for and remove any of the rotor clips that may have remained from the assembly line.

ghunt

I don't even know who around here does road force balancing. What's the difference, do they use a different machine for it?

Also they are OE wheels.

rls82959

Yes it's a Hunter Road Force GSP9700. Check this link out
to locate one in your area.
http://www.hunter.com/balancer/roadforce/

Rudolph Hucker

these cars are very sensitive to balancing
you need to find a store that will spend the time to get them perfect..
otherwise at 60 mph the steering wheel shakes

wcgman

I don't know if it's true, but I was told that most Ford dealerships have road force balancers. It's a different machine completely and accounts for differences that Nuke previously cited that a standard balancer simply cannot do. Here's a quick video showing how they work.

Rudolph Hucker

after market wheels must use spigots
the hub needs to take the strain and not the lugs
driving without perfectly fitted spigots is highly dangerous