Well, my car is at the dealership as we speak to get rid of this steering wheel vibration once and for all.

Symptoms are as follows: I drive smooth up till about 60 - It drives smooth for about 2-3 minutes and then the steering wheel vibrates no matter what i increase it to (65-70-75, etc) then for no apparent reason the steering wheel slowly stops vibrating for about 2-3 minutes...then it slowly starts vibrating again for 2-3 minutes (all mainly at the same rate of speed - i even put it on cruise control to make sure). This cycle continues until I exit the freeway.

They said there's nothing wrong that they can find and it's probably due to my setup with snow tires. (225/50/R17, 225/55/R17)

I'm having trouble believing them because this started when I was running my 18" Chromes with 245/40/18 and 275/40/18. I chalked it up to bad tires, maybe rims. Now I'm still having trouble with my OEM rims and 17" snows!

I've had the wheelbearings, suspension, basically everything front end checked by them (I believe - that's what they tell me they've done...) I've had my new snow tires balanced 2x already and my other summer tires balanced i cant even count how many times.

I told them to take it for one more test run to maybe get a diagnosis better. Does anyone else have any ideas i can have them check on while its there in the shop today???

 

fwiw... i have the same winter tire set-up as u and have no vibration problems with my car. running pirelli 210's.

 

OMG. This is the most frustrating thing in the world. They're telling me its a wheel balance problem. I've had these wheels balanced 2x already. And i kno what they'll say after they balance em and it still shakes -- Oh well its the tires and we didnt sell you the tires so there's nothin we can do. How frustrating.

This impefection is ruining my love for this car i swear it. I'm so tired of dealing with this....

I wanna sell this piece of junk...i'm so fed up

 

I have the same set up on our Z and have had no problems with it.

 

... in the motorcycle world, tires are extremely critical to one's continued happiness, so the scrutiny is intense. It is not unusual for a tire to be manufactured "out of round"; in fact, there are acceptable ranges of "out of roundness" as norms/standards in the industry (not that any maunufacturers are eager to discuss it). The point is that car and truck tires are held to even less stringent "roundness" standards; and it is (usually) virtually undetectable to the typical driver. You can balance for this and mitigate the effects for a time, but eventually you'll feel it again. Another issue is the visually undetectable delamination of the plies in the tire's carcass - that typically becomes apparent at speed and can cause a wobble that seemingly disappears as speed drops. But that's temporary at best, because that tire is destined for failure - inevitably. Remember "Murphy's Law"... it'll happen when you least want it to...

Assuming alignment is within specs; and, the intergrity of all other unsprung reciprocating mass (brakes, etc) is intact (everything tight per tq specs)...

Check the balance of the naked wheels; then again with mounted tires.

A dial indicator will detect "out of round".

Examine the tires closely; look for "bumps/bubbles" and/or creases in the tread/sidewalls. Anything you find should have an explanation. If it is in any way a structural defect/damage, replace the tire.

Be patient, and thorough.

 

Iron mike thanks for the thourough write up. I appreciate your input. I was told by Infiniti that sometimes tire shops do a "round off" of weights. Infiniti does it 3x to make sure its precise and balance left to right as well. It sounds like they would do a good job, so i might just bite it and have them do it instead of this tire shop (for the 3rd time). Thing is tho i guess i might just have to deal, and when the summer comes, I'll have them do my summer tires. Those ones vibrated worse than these. So i guess it is likely that its the tire/rim combination...Anyone who has had this kinda thing happen has to understand how frustrating it is, after taking it to different places having multiple balances, even expensive match balances, I mean how can you kno who's good/who's not??

I didnt install myself, and they're on the OEM rims, so no hubcentric center piece was needed.

 

the thing i find weird is that u experience the vibration in cycles and not in a constant state. somehow this doesn't make me think that it has to do with your wheel balance at all. whenever the balance starts to be thrown off my cars i usually experience steering vibration starting at higher speeds. but it's always a constant vibration. sorry to hear your problems and the frustration your going through. i could have sworn that there was someone else complaining about something very similar but i wasn't able to find the thread through a search. anyone remember the thread or who it was? can't remember if they ever fixed it or not.

 

try to find a tire shop that has a road force balancer,its the same one used by the tire rack,it is computer controlled to find the dynamic unbalance in wheel and tire assembly,it then shows the tech the high and low spots of the assembly,after he marks the spots and dismounts the tire and wheel and joins the 2 spots after that you should be vibration free.but the cost can be $40 bucks a wheel,maybe higher with low profile tires.

 

Yeah i had that done on my summer wheels and it didnt help at all. Still vibrated - which made me think it wasnt the balance...I'm not sure what the deal is...I'm so out of options. I guess I'll just have live with it till its sold...