Hi everyone

I recently purchased some chrome 18" Zenetti 5's:
(245/40/18 on 18x8.5 fronts and 275/40/18 on 18x9.5 rears)

and I'm still diagnosing some vibration on the highway. I have had a road force balance on all 4 rims and tires and all spec out perfectly. Its not too bad from 70 mph and below but once I get to about 70-75 I get some back end vibration as well as steering wheel vibration. Sometimes both happen at the same time, other times just the steering wheel, other times just the seat. Its driving me crazy. I dealt with the dealer and this is their explanation and his recommendation of getting an alignment:

"As for the alignment, think of the wider wheel and a lever. If you have a lever and you try to push down in different spots. Since you have this wider wheel and tire and it is positioned differently it can absolutely change the dynamics of the suspension"

Is this feasible?

I know my car isnt out of alignment with my 17" stocks cuz it runs smooth as glass. When i get bigger tires/rims, would I need to get an alignment then? Anyone else experience this?

Any recommendations would definitely be helpful. Thanks!

 

You say that the tires all balance out, but have you looked on the inside of the rim to see how many weights were used (if any)? I have had, a couple of times, a tire installed that was simply out of round or something. Both times, excessive wheel weights were used to try to compensate... ...with no success. Take a look before you eliminate a balance issue as the culprit.

 

Well i mean i did have a hunter road force balance, as that is supposedto be the best balance you can buy. So that's why i'm feeling like its not a balance issue.

The dealer really thinks I need an alignement to compensate for the new width of my tires. I kinda doubt it tho because I went from 17" stocks which were 225 front and 235 rear and rode PERFECT and i'm moving up to 18's with 245 front and 275 rear which ride like crap...

 

use the search button... i just had the same problem this sunday.... https://g35driver.com/forums/g35-coupe-v35-2003-07/54874-help-80mph-car-shaking.html

 

i am pretty sure all you might need is hubcentric rings

 

That's a good thought, but i already have hub centric rings. I think it really might just be an alignment as I've had the tires and wheels balanced (all 4 ) with a Hunter Road Force Balance machine. Its the only option i have left! maybe moving from one set of specs for tires to another causes my alignment to be off?

I dunno i know it still drives straight, only it just vibrates.....its really frustrating.

 

bent axle?

 

nah i dont think it could be a bent axle because my other rims ran so smooth. No vibration whatsoever....

 

I had the exact same problem the first time I bought aftermarker wheels. There were two problems, one is that they didn't send the hubcentric rings, the other is that the wheels were not balanced on the car. After fixing both problems the vibration went away.

 

See that's the frustration Im having with this. I've had all my 4 tires balanced with that Hunter Road Force machine - as well as put the hubcentric rings in. I'm completely baffled as to the real issue.

Perhaps it truly is just an alignment, I can't figure this one out for the life of me. I'm just trying to narrow down.

So far I've done the following:
- Hub Centric Rings - Didn't fix
- Tires Balanced
- Rims Checked to be out of round/warped - No problem found
- Tires Checked to be out of round - No problem found
- Tightened Lugs in 1-3-5 pattern - (Could the Lock lug cause a problem?)

The only thing left is an alignment - unless there are any other suggestions?

My alignment though is fine in my opinion as I stated before because my car runs SO SMOOTH with my old stock 17's - no vibration WHATSOEVER.

 

did they balance the wheels ON the car? The place I went to have a high speed balancing on the car which pretty much eliminated any error.

 

They can do that? I havent ever seen them do a Balancing on the car??? They took off each wheel, balanced on hunter machine, then put em back on = Vibration.

Where did you go that they were able to do that?

 

From what I understand, if it comes and goes with speed, it's not alignment, but what else can it be if the balance checks out? My buddy's car had that problem, but here's where it gets interesting... He went through the same thing and got his car aligned twice... It would go away for a couple of days, then slowly return... Just for yuks we threw his wheels on my car and I got no vibration at all... Even after a couple of weeks... Never figured it out... I'm very interested in the outcome of your problem...

 

is there a way your tire dealer can put a different set of equally sized rims/tires on and see if they too cause the same vibration before getting the alignment. If what the dealer is saying is true you should exhibit the same issue. IF you don't - then its most likely due to the tires/rims you bought specifically.

 

Yeah the problem is that the dealer I have got these from is located in Texas. I'm in Ohio. So that's kinda out of the question. Maybe they are just crappy rims or something. I'm like totally out of ideas. I really dont think it has anything to do with an alignment.

The only other thing I can think of is I had 3 tires balanced up here on Hunter Road force balance myself and I had the 4th driver side rear rim/tire given a road force balance in texas from the dealer before shipping.

Maybe ups wasnt careful and caused it to go out of balance? Could that be an option? He swears up and down that it came out right and it was perfect, but still a lot of rattling could cause a tire to go out of balance rite? But then again it's a rear tire, and I shouldnt be feeling vibration in the steering wheel....rrrrrrrgh...just thinking out load.