Norm Peterson

Gotcha





N

timothyrw

just took my wife's car in to get her tires balanced due to a very slight wobble in the steering wheel from 50-65 mph.

thing is, we had just had the wheels balanced 5-7k miles previously. this time a different shop called me back to the bay and showed me that the front right wheel was just ever so slightly bent.

had them move it to the rear while i research wheel repair. can't even really notice it on the back.

ideally the shop would notice that and inform you. but one shop (that has done good work in the past) didn't.

Cobrakev

Pull the wheels off and see if they left the little spring clips that hold the rotors on the hubs. If they are left on, it will not allow after market wheels sit flush against the rotor. This over time will cause the little imbalance in the wheel.

Old Mustanger

Since the vibration comes & goes and goes away at higher speed, there are a few problems that can cause this.
Have you changed wheels recently? Have you changed the lug nuts recently? Since this was a recent purchase, you may not know the answers to these.

It kinda sounds like you have the wrong lug nuts for the rims you are using. For example: If your OEM rims were piloted on the hub, the lug nuts will have a flat face to them.
If you changed to a rim that is not piloted on the hub, they will be piloted by the lug studs & nuts. So these use a special conical or radiused lug nut.

Then the rims will be basically centered, but hit a bump and the wheel will shift slightly and create the vibration. When you get up to speed the wheel will self-center due to the higher forces & speed.
So your vibration would come & go seemingly randomly.

Look up your rims on the net and see what lug nuts are required, then pull a couple of yours and see if they are the correct ones for your car.

I have trouble shot vehicles with this problem before, it can be a headache to figure out.

xkape

Well, I did get the issue fixed finally. I did get new lug nuts though actually. Not by choice though. When I got the 1st balancing done, they stuck their own locking lug on one of my wheels and I didn't notice it until I went to put new LCA's on a few weeks later. So, I just ordered a complete new set from Roush Performance.

The issue, it turns out, was just that my wheels are a pain the the **** to balance. I found a place here the does Road Force balancing. Takes longer (about 2 hours) and costs more ($105) but, in the end... perfect balance and vibration gone completely.