do i need to go for an alignment? this is on my 03 SE, my steering wheel vibrates back and forth quite a bit when i drive with the new rims, never was like that with the stock 17's, sometimes is worse than others, usually worse at high speeds, any input would be appreciated.

 

The obvious: Wheels and tires are not balanced...

 

wtf??? they were professionally installed and balanced buddy, ask before you "state the obvious"

 

anyone have any useful input?

 

Then someone F*ed up...

You come in here saying that you just had new rims and tires installed and now you have a vibration...Does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out!

I have also had tires professionally installed and they vibrated at high speeds thanks to a dumb **** tech. I had to take it to another shop to have it done correctly, dont just assume they did it correctly...

 

It shakes because you are riding on 20's. Eventhough they were balanced, you're always going to feel some kind of shake because of the larger diameter of the wheel. That is the law of physics. Having these large diameter of the wheels, it will also throw off your speedometer.

 

it does sound like the wheels are not balanced though...

What kind off offset do those wheels have? Does the vibration get worse on poor pavement? Does it happen at some specific speed range? Any squeaks coming from the suspension?

 

but would an alignment have anything to do with it? or not at all, did you get an alignment after puttin em on?

 

offset is at +42 , a little better on better condition roads, the worst speed range id have to say is between 50 and 65 ish, its pretty good under that. and no squeaks from the suspension

 

If the tech knows what he is doing and if he has good equipment they should not shake...


I had 20's on my car while I repainted my stockers and i had zero vibration.

 

ya the speedo thing i get thats fine, but how is it physics that a larger wheel will make your car shake i mean they are all perfect circles going in the same direction man 15" or 22", the only thing that will generate a shake is if they are out of true, i highly doubt that. i could undersatnd why the ride would be more bumpy sure, but not shaky

 

You should not need an alignment unless you change suspension components or nail a curb to throw it off.

In other words, rims alone should not necessitate an alignment.

 

maybe ill get em rebalanced then, ah what a PITA, but ya no alignment then?

 

ok then thanks for the input USM

 

True dat...I had a tech once who mounted my tires with the good, fancy label design of the tire mounted on the "inside" of the wheel, and had the ugly letter design of the tire on the outside! Stupid tech's! Yeah, ratha, I would just take it to another place and get them re-balanced and go from there and see if your problem goes away. Good luck!

 

thats exactly what imma do thanks guyz!

 

ya dude, try to get them rebalanced. Your offset is normal and your suspension seems to be fine... Alignment should not affect it either.

 

If the offset is off from the OEM wheels (+42 vs. +45) try hub rings...they are like $10 for 4 and may be the fix for the problem. Hub rings will allow the fitment of the inner wheel area to be SNUG with the hub and may eliminate the vibration completely.

 

i'd say try and get the tires rebalanced first.

 

As soon as I put 20's on my wife's Tahoe, it needed an alignment and a rebalancing. Before the balacing and alignment, it wandered all over the road and shimmied. After B & A, problem solved!

 

Ill tell you what i think it is you need... other than just the obvious "alignment and balance". There is a difference between getting a normal wheel/tire and a large diameter, thin tire balanced. For large wheels you need to get it roadforce balanced. Most tire shops do not have roadforce balancing machines. Once you find one that does you will be set. Call places that do high performance stuff, not just your local Big 10.

For instance a friend of mine had 20s on a mazda with like 30 series tires. His car shook like crazy when he first put them on, it was ridiculous. They came as a package supposedly balanced and ready for mounting. He had to do something so he took it to Butler Tire(excellent in Atlanta area for high performance apps) for a roadforce balancing on his tires. Nice and smooth after that... Well other than his speedo being off and the rough ride due to the rubberband tires. Anyways, hope this helps.

 

Did you get hub centric rings with the wheels? All the balancing in the world wont' stop them vibrating without the correct size hub centric rings. The Maxima inside diameter is 66.1mm. Most after market wheels make only couple of different hub sizes usually around an outside diameter of 70 to 73mm as it's just too costly to make specific hub sizes to factory specs on each vehicle and much cheaper to make hub rings to compensate the difference.

PS any pics? I'd love to see your car with 20's, what drop do you have?

 

MAXRB8 is most likely correct. Almost all aftermarket rims come with (or should come with) hub-centric rings. If yours didn't, you need to get some.

 

Road force them. Cause road forcing them uncovers a lot more. Are the wheels brand new. If they where used one could be bent and only roadforcing will tell you that. If there brand new did you hit a big pothole reccently. I couldn't find out why my 19's wouldn't balance till I got them road forced to find out I bent one.

 

yo wheels were brand new, came with the rings, and they are on, ill have to find a place with this road force? machine you guyz are sayin, and my car does not wander at all its just the damn shaking thats goona make me go phsycho


heres a pic ( I know, getin dropped this summer)

ps i know irish dont like em already, hehe

 

wow.. too much chrome...... try rebalancing them again

 

too much for you maybe, i dont think you have enough

 

are the tires brand new too? the tires themselves might have cupping? try to rub your hand against the tires and see if you can feel any bumps



other than that try rebalancing them
if you stand next to the machine while the tech is doing it and your rim is bent your gonna be able to see the rim wobble or look funny when its spinning.




with 20s on the road, its easy to bend them because the tires does not give out too much cussion



i werk at a tire shop and man do i see a lot of people coming in with bent rims because they are sporting low profile tires




if its nothing from the above..... i say you have some ghost in your car?

 

+1 on the roadforce balancing. Before I dished out the cash to pay for another alignment I would call the shop who did them the first time and make them do it again for free. If that doesn't fix your problem get a refund then have them roadforce balanced. my .02

Edit: this may be a long shot, but it's "possible" that a wheel bearing or tie-rod was going bad and putting on the 20's made it more noticeable. Take the front tires off of the ground and try to see if they move back and forth. If you can feel play in your tire left/right only you have a bad inner/outer tie-rod. If you have play up/down and left/right then you more than likely need new wheel bearings.

 

Hello, well my theory is, the Maxima/I35 is a FWD based car, which was factory installed with 17" wheels and tires, so anything other than that would probably differ the performance and overall ride quality of the car, if it was meant to have 20" size tires on it, Nissan/Infiniti would of had them already on the car, so you will have some reaction with bigger tires than you would with stock, it also could affect the warranty on the car. Depending on the dealer, I don't know how it is with Nissan dealerships in your areas, but the Infiniti dealer tried saying some nonsense about changing the wheels of the car voids certain warranty, I talked him out of that ideology quite swiftly, but that's my experience, I use the 20's in the summer, in the winter i have some black 17" rims I put on, and even in winter, the ride quality is far more less jolting, but none the less, I think 20's look very classy on imported cars, what is the point of owning a car if you don't customize it to your own taste, well good luck to all this summer, have fun and drive safe. Now go show the road what Nissan/Infiniti is all about.

 

you know what I say..."whatever floats your boat" Compared to Jimmy here's wheels, yours are outstanding!



Now, as to you.......

that is a good theory...VERY GOOD INDEED!!!

actually, 5th gen GXE and GLE models have also come with factory 16's stock..

um...yeah...

uh, except most normal people don't WANT 20's, and 99% of Maxima/I30 owners are more interested in a comfortable ride and affordable replacement tires (neither of which apply to 20's)...

what does that mean?

see: "Magnussen-Moss Act"

final question:

"Exactly HOW does your commentary have anything whatsoever to do with his wheel vibration problem?"

 

darn wouldn't have guessed they are 20s.. those actually look normal.

 

I've had tires professionally installed and balanced that were not balanced correctly more then once. In fact one time this place took 3 times to get it right!!

This is the first thing I look for now whenever I get new tires or get my current wheels balanced after a rotation. I always get on the highway and get going over 60 mph to make sure there is no vibration. If there is I turn around and bring it right back.

 

Does it do more at other speeds? How about a high speed balance?

 

My 19's ride better than my stockers. Rebalance them for sure.

 

Lol. My apologizes on the 16" 17" rim differential, I was thinking about my Infiniti stock size, not your 2000 Maxima, maybe if you spent a little more money to aquire a premium brand car you would be on my level, I also own a Mercedes and BMW, i'm sorry you have to eat cereal for dinner in your section 8 housing project. That's not my problem though, a Maxima is no car to brag about, let alone one that's turning 7 years old in half a year, maybe one day i'll let you wash my cars for me, have fun putting money into your FWD maxima which you hold up so high, only an idiot would try to make a FWD sedan faster, anyone who is here to add perfomance parts to there maxima should join my website, it's called Moronima.org/FWDRACER.com

 

What Mercedes/BMW? You are such a baller!!






You are nothing but a little e-baller punk, in five years when you are changing oil at Jiffy lube give me a call... I might let you clean one of my cars.

 

ditto, when i had my 20's on i had no vibrations either, so its possible to have zero vibration w/ 20's, but i would go w/ the consensus and say, possible get em rebalanced etc.

 

WHOA! i can't believe ive missed so much on this thread i forgot all about it, still have not had them rebalanced, hopfully this weekend, for now i curse my ****in ride all day,

whats the deal with all this talkiin and hating goin on im just tryin ta get the problem solved.

PS no one gives a **** about what kinda things one might have and that others dont, yo kid Jimmy, take that benz and the beamer an hit tha bricks man, no one in here is tryin to hear that garbage, you'll get faded pretty quickly around here with that ****

 

ratha77 - try the rebalancing, or try hub rings

and someone plz this jimmy clown FTW