Before I paid anybody to do anything I'd talk to a brake shop and see if they'd 'mike' out your rotors for you. They can use a micrometer (caliper) and sping your rotors on the car and tell you if your rotors are true.

I wouldn't be surprised if you damaged your rotor - maybe nothing to the naked eye, but you never know. Anything is possible. If nothing else - if none of the other solutions pan out - it's something to think of.

If your new wheels and tires are balanced and are installed/torqued properly, then I would think the weight of each corner would be of no consequence when it came to ride quality. It would affect your performance (overcoming inertia and all that rot) but I would think the ride would be fine.

My Phantom wiggle would come and go, mostly at the same speed but not always, and would happen whether I was at steady-state cruise or coasting. There wasn't really any one set of conditions that I could identify - it was maddening.

 

Is it just me or is there more then one lose nut when you will drive your 35k car at 80mph with it "shook/rattled like almost vioently"

 

I'm running front 245/40/18 Sumotomo HTRZ III's and rears 275/40/18 Sumotomo HTRZ III's.

Maybe I can have them check out the rotor... MIght not be a bad idea. i'm thinking with the additional weight of a new wheel it could loosen the rotor or something? I dunno. I dont see how that could cause it but again like you said anything is possible...

Hot Rod - are you saying there might be a lug nut lose? I didnt go back and check after they balanced them though so I am not sure. I'm at work right now but when I get off I'll check them with a lug wrench.

This just feels like a nightmare because i can't seem to put my finger on what could be the issue. It has to be somethin with the tires/wheels tho. I talked to my friend he's a mechanic and he mentioned it might take 2-3 times to really get them balanced. Maybe if i take them back up there and have them rebalance. I will have to look into getting that HUNTER Wheel Balancing - thats not a cheap process....

 

like others posts, check for the hubcentric rings, and get them re-balanced. whenever the wheels vibrates/shakes like that, this is the most common problem. good luck. if it's the shoes, call up the BBB and take those bastard's to court!

 

This is just an update from the conversation I had with Street Dreams over the weekend.

The guy who sold me these tires told me he had the same issue (sometimes it would vibrate, other times not so much). I drove it a lot over the weekend and it did seem to get a little better sometimes but not all the time..The wierd thing is that I would even put it on cruise control on the freeway, and it would be fine, no vibrating, and then a few seconds later it would vibrate really badly for a while, and then go away again. Its not the road either as it did this pattern a few times on the same ground. He said for me to drive it a while as there might be a flat spot or something on the tire that as it warms up it goes away?? Is this legit? They are under warranty he said but I'm not sure how to go about explaining to Sumotomo that i need new tires cuz they vibrate my steering wheel ALOT. I did a google search and even found a few other individuals that had very similar issues with these tires. So i'm not so sure what's up...I'll just drive it for a nother week or two, put a couple hundred miles on them and see what happens I guess...Unless there are other suggestions one might have...

 

I have heard of the problem existing due to out of round tires...
Even some major brands have this problem....one of the tires could not be "true" round. If so, it would tend to increase in vibration as you accelerated.....

The centering rings are a must, and I could not see the rim/wheel combination working without them in place..

If you had no problems with your stock setup, I doubt if any rotor/wheel bearing problems exist.....

Have them rebalance the tires on a high speed balancer like Neffster mentioned. See if that helps to eliminate the excessive vibration...just a suggestion

 

another potential cause is rain, depending on the wheel design. the DTM Kruez wheels i had on my audi, and some other high-end wheels often have an inner lip of sorts so that the barrell of the wheel creates an area that can gather water. if its raining hard enough, water can gather in there while you are driving and act like an additional weight throwing your wheels off balance. took me a while to figure that one out. you can kind of see what i'm talking about in the pic. you can see towards the far inside the wheel raises up again, creating a valley of sorts in the middle that collects the water.

 

Check the wheels, make sure they are wheels that met oem specfications......90% of aftermarkets don't!
Simple mount the wheels alone [without tires] on a balancer ........make sure the wheels don't require more than 5 [10 if you are tolerant] grams per lip [inner and outer] to balance to 0/0 on the fine [+-1 gram] resolution setting!

If they pass this they are probably suitable for use on the car!

 

I suspect that the tires or rims are not completely concentric. If the rims were not machined perfectly with the centerline they will appear out of round. The tires could also be out of round. If you ended up with a lot of weight when the wheels were balanced that could be a clue. Try balancing the rims alone. Then add the tires and rebalance. Out of round can be balanced on a machine but will show up on the road and at higher speeds. Let us know what worked.

 

Sounds like a nightmare I was going thru with my maxima. Make sure you got the right hubcentric rings and that they feel like they fit and are tight. Rotors could be warped and the thing that help me the most was put the wheels on myself with a torque rench using 1-3-5 technique to make sure the wheels are sitting straight. It almost eliminated vibration, for a while at least. Good luck.

 

Where did this thread come from?

Anyway, I had this same problem when I put on new tires and wheels. Turns out that the first shop had a crappy static balance machine causing my balance to be way off. I took it down to STS and for 52$ got it high speed balanced by their top of the line Hunter machine. Balancing is 100% perfect now with no steering wheel vibration. Before this, vibration would be noticeable at anything over 50+ and over 75 it would be simply dangerous.

 

too lazy to read the entire post, but if you haven't already, have it re-balanced on a hunter roadforce. If it still vibrates, you got a defective wheel or tire. probably a defective tire.

goodluck

 

sounds like you may not have the right spacers