Ok so, I swapped my stock wheels out the other day for some 17's, and had them balanced and mounted. The wheels had slight bends in them. Anyway, I drove the car around and noticed that from 0-45mph, it drives fine, but from 50mph and up, the entire car shakes uncontrollably, especially the steering wheel. What can this be? Can this be that the wheel is no longer good? Or is it just a bad balancing job? Any help will go MUCH appreciated. Thanks!

 

First off you should never have put on wheels that are bent of any matter, could be dangerous...The wheel is shaking b/c you either need a 4 wheel alignment or the wheels are not probably balanced correctly. My feeling is the bends caused the wheels not to be balanced properly from the beginning, best bet, get rid of them , more problems down the road...Good luck

 

I put on some new rims a month ago. I had the same problem. Brought my Max to my mechanic... Told me the rims weren't balanced. Cost me $25 to balance them and now they're perfect!

 

balance your wheels. If that doesn't fix it, try getting a wheel alignment. I bet your wheels are not balanced though.

Don't drive around with bent wheels

 

dude...you said "the wheels had slight bends in them". Balancing out the wheel will not get rid of the bends in the rim. Duh. Get some rims that aren't bent, then you won't have vibration...

 

if its not the bent wheels that's the problem, its definately the balancing. also make sure the tire pressure is even in the fronts

 

here's the thing, the "bends" on the wheel are not that bad. very slight imperfections. could it be that even though they arent that big that they are the culprits? does anyone else have "bends" on their wheels? if you drive around, your wheels are bound to get bent a bit out of shape, right? ack, help.

 

The bends are on all four rims or just one? I have a minor bruise on my front-right rim, and I've hit 100 without a single shake.

It's probably a p!ss-poor alignment/balance job.

 

all four are slightly imperfect. i'm going to costco to get these balanced. hopefully it will solve this. anyone in the NYC area know of any good, trustworthy places for wheel balancing?

 

All 4 are bent? It's time for you to go get some new rims.

 

To ensure that it is indeed the wheels, go to a tire shop that has a Hunter 9700 Road Force Analyzer. This machine has a roller that presses on the wheel/tire assembly as it rotates and actually measures the amount of 'kickback' the tire/wheel assembly places on the roller due to out-of-round conditions.

In the hands of a good tech, it will actually show the tech how to rotate the tire on the rim so that the low point of the tire matches the high point of the rim to get the maximum possible overall concentricity & smoothest ride.

A Road Force Analysis is not cheap, figure 20-25 bucks per tire.

http://209.176.154.132/

 

Couple of chip ins:

1. Going from 16s to 17s and sportier tires can make existing suspension problems way more obvious (especially worn out struts and shocks!)

2. If the wheels only have slight dings or bends on teh outer rim they can be balanced. If the rim itself is bent or deformed, not only is it a safety issue, it will never "feel" right, no matter how many times you get them balanced. If balancing doesnt fix the problem send the wheels to a repair company for trueing (if possible) and make sure they send you results.

 

Jork and Smoon = the same person?

*confused*

But uhh...if all of your rims have slight dents on them -- get new rims. Take it to a private shop and have them test the rims for leakage. (They'll put the tire w/ rim into a pool of water and see if water leaks through the rim, or some such). If you live in Queens, there's a place on 108th st, about 10 blocks past the firestation -- going towards Shea stadium. The place is located right next to a salvage yard, you can't really miss it.

 

sorry, my friend didn't sign out of his login. anyway. is there such a thing as a bad balance job? the guy that balanced my wheels used this strips of weights and placed them on the inside circumference of the wheel. ive seen clip ons that go on the lip of the wheel, but he didnt use those. are those better? what are those called?

 

my friend told me about "hub centric rings." can this possibly solve my problem???

 

any help will go much appreciated...

 

your wheels may definitely need hub centric rings....these are basically rings that create a snug fit between the wheel itself -which typically have a 72mm to 74mm opening for the hub with the hub itself which on our cars is 66.2mm.
Essentially, this ring ensures that the wheel is perfectly centered on the hub.

Without this ring, your tires may be perfectly balanced on a balancing machine -which uses cones and stuff to perfectly center the wheel on the machines' shaft- but will be out of center -hence out of balance- when u mount the wheels on the car.

If the balancing shop u took the tires & wheels to did not notice you needed (or did not have) hub centric rings, it's a schmuck shop, go elsewhere.