To all those with 20's....do you have any shimmy/vibrations only because you switched to the bigger wheels??

I bought a new ('06) Max last month and I have the Steering wheel shimmy . However, I didn't get the shimmy until after I put 20 inch wheels on (at about 500 miles). I have had them balanced, re-balanced, re-mounted, computer balanced, road force balanced (twice)......I still got the shimmy between 45-65mph. Three different tire shops told me the same thing.....that the wheels are fine and the problem is with the tires (General Exclaim UHP's 255/35/20). Tire Rack sent me 2 new replacement tires and the shimmy is worse (now my seat shakes too).

I don't remember ever feeling a shimmy with my stock 17's even though they were only on for a week or two. In fact I remember how increadibly smooth and tight the ride felt with the stock wheels/tires. Tire Rack now says they will replace my tires all together with 4 new tires of the brand of my choice.

I am now wondering if I may have developed the shimmy and if I put my stock wheels back on that the shimmy might still be there. If that is the case then I might drive it straight off a cliff with me in it. I don't know what tires to try next or if my tires are even the problem at all.

All I know is that I have a brand new car ,with brand new wheels, and brand new tires, and the brand new steering wheel is shaking all over the fakkin place. Help me.

My new Maxima.........

 

I have 20's and only have a very small shimmy at 82-85 mph. I would say so small that even I would have it with stock wheels.

Make sure you are running hub rings.

 

Well..atleast the car looks good!

 

this sometimes happens when you get new wheels, I usually wait it out some untill the tires wear alittle, the shake usually goes away.

I won't say that it will go away since I'm not 100% sure its this exact problem, but I've experienced this before.

 

I was going to say the same thing. My buddy has a 95 max with 17 inch chrome on his car and he got the shimmy shakes also. After going back and forward with the place he purchased them from they realized he needed hub rings. The ones he has are blue and look like a bigger and thicker rubberband. The problem stopped after that. If you have these then I guess it could be the tires. If tire rack is offering better tires than what you have get those and try the hub rings also. Hope this helps. I had 22's on my expedition and I had the toyo proxes and they felt great to me especiallt since they are made for larger diameter wheels. I haven't put my wheels on my max yet but I will be ordering them in a few weeks and I am going to pay the extra for the toyos.

 

Are you running hub rings with your foose? Ive got a shimmy with these... Check PM

 

I have the hub rings. Tire Rack recommended and are sending me 4 new Kumho's

 

I have Foose 20's and I have the shimmy ONLY when the 20's are on. I put the stock 18's on and it's fine. I had 20's balanced too many times to name. I have hub rings and it's still there. I was told that it must be the tires since everything else is perfect. I'm getting new tires next month and hopefully everything will work fine. BUT the shimmy goes away sometimes and sometimes it's horrible. Don't know how the tires can "right" themselves sometimes and then make themselves worst at other times.

 

WOW!! Everything you said is EXACTLY what I am going through/experiencing. Although I haven't put my stock 17's (SL) back on since I put the 20's on. Maybe I should do that. If my stocker's shimmy then I know there is a problem with the CAR and not my new wheels and tires. Car was smooth as $hit with the stockers, although the were only on less than 1,000 miles. I have had my new wheels/tires balanced 4 times already and have had 2 tires replaced and the shimmy is worse now with the 2 new replacement tires.

Tire Rack sent me 4 new tires today (Kumho's this time) I will get them mounted as soon as I can. I might take them to a different shop (this will be the 4th shop) just to give someone else a shot at balancing these suckers. DAMN this sux!! Brand new car/tires/wheels and my steering wheel shimmys....sometimes worse than others, like you said. But I can feel vibrations in my seat as well.

The last shop told me that balancing my wheels is hard because they have to use the "stick-on" weights only on the inside of the wheel because there is no where to put weights anywhere else and....blah, blah,blah..........anyway, I hope these new tires work. I'll let you know.

 

What is the size of the inner diameter for the hubrings (Maxima hub size)? and what size for the outer diameter (inner side hub of wheel). Places won't sell you the hubrings without the inner and outer diameter size.

 

Im not even running 20's, I bought factory sized wheels just a different style, 18x7.5, only thing different was it came with a 255 tire instead of 245, and I got a shimmy now also between 50-60. Never had it before, thats why im contemplating putting the stockies back on, i miss my smooth ridin max

But it just looks so good.

 

Although the inner diameter might match at 66.10mm, the outer diameter of the hubcentric rings vary. Different aftermarket rims have different centerbore diameters. you should measure and match the outer diameter of the hub-ring as close as possible to get rid of the shimmy completely. see the list of hubcentric rings here:

http://www.tradeunion.com/ToplinePro...ubcentric.html

 

I have no shimmy problems, I'm running 20's with hub rings and Toyo Proxes T1-R's. Hoipefully it was the tires, but like 04BlackMaxx said at least your car looks good! It would be a shame to see it go off a cliff...

 

I noticed an occasional shimy when I switched to 20's last week, but I thought it was because I didn't get hub rings. Since everyone here who got big wheels has hub rings I'm not sure what to try next.

I had alot of wobble in the beginning, but that has settled down. I got Dunlop SP MAXX 245/35 tires and watched the guy mount them. They seemed to get pretty out of shape to get on the rim, but they seemed to have smoothed out.

I guess I'll have to get the alignment checked when I get the hub rings.

PS..The Dunlop tires have FANTASTIC grip. I got them from Tire Rack...you should check them out.

 

Are you all getting the wheels hand tightened and torqued? My wife's Mustang had shimmys after new tires were put on. Balanced and everything twice and it still shakes. So I took the wheels off and retorqued them by hand and the shimmys went away. Same thing with a friend of mine's car when he got new wheels. With correct hub rings, one of his rear wheel was make clicking sounds when he stepped on the brakes. And when we rotated the tires, that particular wheel had its hub ring kind of stuck on the rim... after hand torquing, sound went away. Impact wrench tightening is bad for wheels and centering. I hope your big expensive wheels are hand torqued whithout too much weight on the wheels/tires. I lower my car just enough for the tire to grab the ground when I torque them.