The history: I bought my 2005 G35 (used) this christmas, and immediately had the summers taken off and winters put on. I just changed my winters back to summers yesterday. When I had the car checked out, the guy said I would need to get my summers replaced soon, so I'm going to order new summers this week.

The issue: After changing the wheels (I have a set of winter rims, so I just did it myself) when driving at speeds above ~40 MPH, the steering wheel is now vibrating, and the car feels less stable.

Is the problem wheel alignment? Or could it be something else? I believe the tires are very old, as the car is at ~20,000 miles and it looks like these are the first set of tires (Bridgestone Potenzas).

My second question - if in fact you think they are out of alignment (or some other problem), is the car safe to drive for a few weeks while I wait for my replacement tires to arrive?

Thank you very much for your help!

 

what kind of winter rims do you have? you might need hubcentric rings if your rims are not made for nissan/infiniti. maybe your wheels are not balanced? or the tires developed cold spots

 

Glad you're getting new tires although 20K isn't "that" much if they were quality tires. Since you do have aftermarket wheels make sure you do have
the centering rings on each wheel. It sounds like (from your description) that
you may have a ring on the wheel & hub on one corner. Have this checked
out when they install the new tires! Do you understand, a ring on each wheel
and nothing on the hub....?

 

I must not have been clear enough... there were no problems when I was getting the winter tires/rims put on my car. The problem exists now that I am putting my OEM wheels/tires back on my car for this summer.

Could the vibrations be caused by misalignment/balancing of the tires?
Is the car safe to operate for a week or two until my new tires get in?

 

Make sure all the lug nuts are tightened correctly. Something similar happened on my brother's truck -- he had lost two lug nuts.

 

Hmmm... 20,000 on the stock Potenzas? They're probably cashed - they've only got a 140 treadwear rating.

However, I still don't think that would be causing the vibrations. Maybe some of the wheel weights lost their adhesiveness and came off thus unbalancing the wheels?

 

I've heard that the hub rings can sometimes stick on the hub when you remove aftermarket rims. Make sure they aren't there and your factory rims mount flush with the hub.

 

There was some black plastic-like stuff on the wheel hub, around where the bolts are that you attach the wheels to that seemed to be coming off.... could this be the hub rim that you were talking about?

That being said, the problem seemed to be a loose nut in the end... I re-torqued all the lug nuts and the vibrations went away.

 

I had the same problem when I bought my car, the front tires were badly feathered on the inside from the camber. I had them replaced and it went away, for now.

 

I replaced my original Bridgestones (19") at 19,000 miles. They probably could have gone another 1-2,000.

I'd suggest a 4 wheel alignment every time you change from winters to summers. It will greatly lessen, if not eliminate, any serious feathering.