Ok guys I need some advise here.
My coupe is running really bad. When I go over 75 mph I start hear
alot of road noise and when I hit 90 I can definatly feel the car
vibrating. I cant seem to tell if its coming from the rear or the front.
Currently I have my coupe on 20 inch wheels and I have her on Tein H techs and hotchings sways. I'm not sure if it is that since it just started doing this 2 day to 3 days ago and I've had the springs and sways for about 5 months now with no problems... I took it this morning to get her aligment done hoping that this would help but it really didnt do much.. The place that did the aligment told me that I may need a camber kit now and that the wheels where balanced correctly when it came into the shop (please take a look at the results and let me know what you think).
Any suggestions from you guys?

 

bump........

 

So after your wheels were balanced correctly do you still have that vibration?
(im assuming no)

Your before alignment shows toe-out and thrust angle of -0.26??!! your car must've
drove like crap.

Your current alignment looks good. The only out of spec I see is your front camber
especially your front right. It should be around -1 to -1.3 if I can remember correctly. I wouldn't worry about it. it's not too bad.


edit: btw, your thrust angle still shows 0.04... not sure why they couldn't get that to zero or at least 0.01

 

If you still have vibration, get your wheels rebalanced and make sure you are
using hubcentric rings. Hubcentric rings aren't a must, but they do help center
your wheel to eliminate vibration while taking off the load off the lugs.

 

Kenchan,
Thanks for your input.
I went back to the shop with an buddy of mine that used to run a firestone shop and he asked them if my wheels were balanced at 0.00, and the tech said that they were at .25 or so and that it wont make a big difference.
He also said that he didnt check the hubcentric rings, and I'm thinking that I may not have them anymore since I got my lips chrome recently and I dont remember seeing them on the new wheels ( I'll double check)
So you would recommend not going with a front camber kit?
Will the current front settings wear out my tires much much faster?
I'll get another aligment elsewhere and check for the rings and I'll let you know how it goes.
thanks

 

No prob. Yah, it's probably your hubcentric rings that are missing, then.

You can get the front alignment kit if you're **** about getting within spec...but
since your toe-in is rather mild (total 0.08) your tire wear will not be that fast on
the inside treads. If you do a lot of highway miles you will notice the inside
tread wearing a litttle more...but toe will eat up tires more than camber. You
don't want to go any less toe-in than wat you have because you will begin to
feel bumpsteer again.

My car's fronts are at camber -1.8 with a total toe-in of 0.09 which
is quite a bit more toe-in than yours. The reason for this is because I need to
compensate bumpsteer due to the lower ride height. My tires are wearing pretty
much flat though.

EDITED: ORIGINAL post stated 0.13 of front toe-in. That was from my first
alignment. My second alignment (current) is 0.09 total toe as edited.

 

if u got in a accident where you hit a wheel u may have bent something... which causes vibration @ high speeds...

 

I took her to another shop and I did confirm that I was
missing the hubcentric rings.
I'll put them on tomorrow and let you know if that was the problem.

I did bend the rim slightly, but I got it repaired..

 

I got the hubcentric rings put on and now she runs great again..
thanks

 

Cool. It should drive even better than before....especially over bumps with your current alignment. Should feel no more wandering.

 

Hahaha!!! Good 'ol Hub Rings to the rescue. They make a big difference when you are driving at high speeds. Another thing that you guys might want to have done to your tires and wheels is match mounting. A good thing to do if you love going 100+ mph all the time. It eliminates the posibility of vibrations at high speeds. Balancing your tires and wheels is not enough. Tires and wheels can still register as BALANCE on a balancing machine even if their shape were squares or triangles. All that needs to happen is to balance the left and right side of the tire/wheel set. Match mounting is when you match the high points and low points of the tires and wheels to come up with a circle that is close to round/perfect circle as possible and balance using less weights. Next time you go have yout tires and wheels mounted, have your shop balance and match mount them. More money, but definitely worth it.

 

thanks for the tip.. never heard of match balancing..
And Yes I do love going 100+

 

just a minor correction: <b>Match Mounting</b> not Match Balancing. Places like Discount Tires would not understand the term Match Balancing. Laters.

 

Match mounting is basically where the wheel's heaviest point and the tire's
heaviest point are located at the opposite ends to minimize the use of
wheel weights to balance.

Manufacturers of wheels are required to label their 'low point' and
tire manufacturers are required to label their 'high point' (or was it the
other way around..) so that when the installer aligns the two together,
it is the optimum balance without weights, then takes it on the balance
machine to fine tune the balance using weights.

 

How much do you think is a fair price for doing this type of service/mounting? What would be the price for regular mount and balance?