Wheel Guru's,

I am having a real issue with the vibration coming from the steering wheel after putting on my new after market rims. Here's the scenario (kinda long but I wanted to include as much info as I could):

I have upgraded from stock 17" rims on my 2004 G35 Coupe. After consulting a lot of people including this forum, I've upgraded to the following package:
18x8.5 Chrome Fronts with 245/40/18 Sumotomo HTRZ III's with +20mm offset
18x9.5 Chrome Rears with 275/40/18 Sumotomo HTRZ III's with +20mm offset

I just got back from having the shop balance them. They arrived from Texas from StreetDreams alittle off balance on all 4's. Which is fine, because the store promised to reimburse the rebalance.

I was on the freeway testing out the ride quality and up until about 58mph my ride was pretty smooth. Nothing very noticeable, but as soon as I keep accellerating up to 60+ i get a really really noticeable vibration/shaking in my wheel. It seemed to worsen when I accelerate but seem to relax a bit if I let off the gas. It was bad enough that my watch was bouncing all over my wrist. The car wasnt pulling left of right tho. Before I upgraded, this car floated and didnt ever shake like that. I even took a witness and he agreed that something is definitely wrong. I can't understand why.

OK now is when it gets wierd. On the way home (same freeway), I was going the same rate of speed and there was very little or NO Shaking or vibration. It seemed to come and go. Like there wasnt' a set speed that it vibrated at. I said before it seems to shake at 58mph but again on the way home it didnt shake at all. Its not the road either - its just been repaved and very smooth.

Why would it be vibrating/shaking some time, but other times it does not? Below is my brainstorm...Please Help!!!

Could it be the Rims? - ie.
1. The offsets are wrong? <---This is what I'm leaning toward..if so can they be fixed with an adapter?
2. 18" rims arent the right size?

Could it be the tires? - ie.
1. The rubber needs to warm up or needs to get broken in? Do i need to drive it a set number of miles to get it to be broken in?
2. Tires could be warped?
3. I checked my tire pressure and I'm at 42 psi all around. The max the tire calls for is 51psi....is this pressure to low?

Could it be the car? - ie.
1. I need to reset my ecu?
2. Wheels are too heavy for the car (I'm at about 67 lbs a wheel)
3. Alignment is perfect so I'm not sure what else it could be on the car...


I am pretty irritated with the ride quality...any thoughts??? Thanks for listening to me vent a little bit...

 

First off I think that 42 psi is way to high I would try 35psi I doubt that its the car. If you have a wheel out of balance or a bent rim,hey should have picked that up when they balanced them. They may have not torqued the wheels properly when they installed them.

 

Geez.....it could be pretty much any or a combination of all the above...(except re-setting the ECU).

Set the pressure to 35 psi.

Did you cheep out and by crappy wheels....What make?

Are they Hub-centric....or did you get the adaptor rings to make them that way? This sounds like the culprit to me. Just a micro shift in the lug holes can cause what you are describing.

You also could have a bad tire.
Good luck.

 

Not saying this is the problem you but I had these EXACT symptoms on the 98 Maxima I traded in on my G. I even had the phantom 'wiggle' you describe - some days it would be there and other days it would ride nice and smooth. Some days it would shake my hand so violently that I thought the front end was going to come apart, other days it was nice and smooth. VERY ODD.

Because it wouldn't behave consistently I was all over the map with solutions. It ended up being a balancing / brake problem. I had the wheels rebalanced once and the problem decreased a bit, but didn't go away completely. I went back and grabbed my service guy (he's a brainiac about wheels & tires) and took him for a ride to let him feel firsthand what I was talking about. When we got back he rebalanced the wheels himself and the problem was about 80 percent gone. It was time for brakes anyway so when I replaced my pads I replaced my rotors as well - only 49K but they were 7 years old. After that she rode as smooth as the day I bought the car.

I will say that I had to balance a lot more with my aftermarket rims and tires than I did with the factory wheels. Don't know if it was because of the weight, the added mass, the material of the wheels, or what. They didn't like to stay in balance and the wiggle would come back if I didn't visit the shop and get them trued. I was going in about once a quarter to get it done - it was free so I didn't really mind.

Good luck - I know this one pisses you off because I lived it.

 

Thanks for the responses....Well when I get home I'll let some of the air out of the tire to get to 35 psi.

OLDVFRGUY - The make i got is Zenetti Five. They're not top of the line, but I wouldnt think they would be that bad on day 1. The hub centric part could be the issue, as they came with 4 little black plastic adapters to go in the rim portion that goes around the lugs to fit better. I did put those on, maybe if i took them out?????? Do you think I need better ones?

GEEWILLIKERS - Yep you described it perfectly in my opinion -- that Phantom vibration. Like I said it was fine one way and terrible the way back. The guy at the shop swore up and down they are balanced...so unless they had NO idea what they were doing, then balancing is not the issue. My car has only 22,000 miles on it so I'm hoping i dont have to replace rotors/brakes etc to get a smooth ride...If i need to get them balanced every quarter I'm sending them back, because they dont give me free balancing. I'm in cleveland, the shop is in texas.

So you dont think the offsets has anything to do with it? I'm just really frustrated, I've been going back n forth in my mind and I'm like consumed with this cuz its just so irritating..thanks for the quick responses.

 

No, it's not the offsets, that wouldn't affect anything like that. I also happen to have +20mm and +25mm on my car too, and I don't have any issues. Did you put the adapter in your rim, or on your hub? If you put it on your rim, maybe when you installed the rim, it got knocked loose or something?

 

yeah see I have +20 mm offset for Front and Rear though that's why I thought maybe it could be that.

I did put the adapter on my rim portion, not the hub itself. however I took it up to the shop last night to get them rebalanced and I have no idea if they knocked them loose when putting them back on...its possible tho.

Do i really need those hub adapters? I'm wondering if I just take them out if that would make any difference as long as my lugs are tight??

 

Without the hub centric ring (wheel adaptor as you call it), imagine your arm twirling around a hoola-hoop. The hoola-hoop would be your tire and your arm would be your hub.

KEEP THE HUB CENTRIC RING! You definitely need it! I'd suggest 2 things (try #1 first)...

1. Take the wheels off and see if the ring is there. If not, that's your problem.

2. Go in for a dynamic balance or more commonly refered to as a road force balance. Ask the shop if they have a hunter road force balancing machine. If they don't, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE.

 

My Maxima although it's newer has the same phantom vibration problem, it would do it sometimes but only at low speeds. To top it off it's pulling to the right even after an alignment and balancing the tires twice... Annoying to death! It's well known for the crappy OEM rotors though and my brakes are due a major overhaul.

tha_kid, hope you find a solution soon. Listen to Neffster, he knows best

 

[QUOTE=tha_kid]GEEWILLIKERS - Yep you described it perfectly in my opinion -- that Phantom vibration. Like I said it was fine one way and terrible the way back. The guy at the shop swore up and down they are balanced...so unless they had NO idea what they were doing, then balancing is not the issue. My car has only 22,000 miles on it so I'm hoping i dont have to replace rotors/brakes etc to get a smooth ride...If i need to get them balanced every quarter I'm sending them back, because they dont give me free balancing. I'm in cleveland, the shop is in texas.[QUOTE]

I had to go back twice to get them done right, and the orginal technician swore he did everything the second guy did, but he obviously didn't. I guess it's possible that one of the sticky weights came off, but not likely.

The issue with my brakes was warped rotors. I replaced all my components because of age rather than wear. I thought the warped rotors were the culprits before I had the wheels balanced twice. It was just time. You only have 22,000 so it isn't likely that you have a rotor issue, but it is possible. Maybe you can take them in and have them evaluated and then just get them turned (if all else fails).

Good luck man - I'm with ya.

For those that don't know Discount Tire offers a tire/wheel warranty package (even if you don't buy your tires and wheels there). I bought it for my truck (2500 4X4 Dodge Diesel - BAT) and my RV, and added the G as soon as I brought her home. For $50 bucks I can get them balanced nationwide for the rest of the car's life. Something to consider.

 

You know what, GEEWILLIKERS, Could it be a warped rotor? Listen to this....

A couple months back I did get a flat tire - it was pouring rain and just jacked it up quickly not paying much attention to whether the jack was flat on the ground anyway...as soon as I got the tire off the car fell down on the rear driverside rotor...I looked in horror at what happend but I had it inspected and they said it was fine...and again i just put the 17's back on and it rode normal. no vibration or anything...rode same as before... but now with heavier rims/tires could that actually be an issue? I didnt even think of that being an issue because its not like it landed on the hub or anything that holds the rim....should i get it turned to see? would that help?!

 

Did you torque the lugnuts correctly? In a 1-3-5 pattern? If you didn't that may have caused damage to your rotor, someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

I had this exact same problem with an older car - fine up to a certain speed then it would vibrate but only when givign the car gas - i noticed you mentioned it lets up when you let off the gas which is why I decided to post this. - usually if its balancing the vibration will be there at X speed regardless of if you are giving the car gas or not.

This is probably a longshot and I'm not a mechanic and the G might not even be set up this way but .. the problem with my other car wound up being CV joints - specifically the inner cv joint where the axle meets the differential. Tis was a front wheel drive car with individual left and right front axles. I'm not sure if this translates to the rwd system of the G at all. (mechanics dont laugh at me). giving the car gas at high speed would cause the entire car to vibrate.

You mentioned you dropped your G off a jack in the rear - possibly you busted the axle and its causing a similar problem for you?

Just a thought.

- pink

 

Finiti35 - I dont recall the pattern i put the lugnuts on. I didnt think that could cause damage to my rotors tho? Anything is possible at this point...

Mr. Pink - Yeah i dont think i busted the axle tho because It drove absolutely fine for the past 6 months. This just started when I put the new ones on. Your explanation of the the differential could be a possiblity, but I'm no mechanic so really that kinda stuff is almost greek to me....

See what i dont get though is again, I was on the highway last nite on the way to the first exit it shook/rattled like almost violently, and then on the way back going the same amount of speed (80mph) it didnt vibrate hardly at all. So the mystery is why it would only do it sometimes while other times not. Maybe the added weight throws my rotor off and makes a bit loose? I have no idea.

Everyone, Thanks for your concern...its like a family in here.. i really appreciate all the feedback I've gotten thus far.

 

What kind of tires are you running? Maybe they are flatspotting? Maybe they are out of round?