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New Wheels and Tires Vibration

Joined
4 October 2004
Messages
148
First, I want to thank Tom at RP for the excellent service and I know we will get this taken care of. I emailed him earlier and I'm sure I will get a response just like every other time. My Enkei RPM 2s with Kumho Ecsta MX 215/17 and 265/18 arrived yesterday. Screw dinner, I finally had wheels to replace the 92 stockers.

The steering wheel starts to shake around 40-45. It starts to settle down around 70 but I seem to still get some vibration thru the steering wheel. Obvious first thought is the balance, My stock wheels and tires were totally smooth. Any thoughts.

Pics of this combo are on the way tomorrow....I hope.
 
Yes, I would think that you should rebalance the tires & wheels. However, this is quite surprising considering that they are new.

I once had vibration around 50mph since my wheels were not true, but I highly doubt that this is the case for you.
 
Balancing is important. Also, do they come with hub rings (Hub Centric?) I do not have first hand experience with these. However my buddy had the same complaint, and after we got him some hub centric rings, the problem is since gone.
 
All good ideas. I will check the run out; I had to use centering rings with the wheels and I was pretty careful when I mounted them.

Another thing that I noticed was they took a fair amount of weight to balance.
:confused:
 
Those Enkei RPM2 wheels are good wheels. Light and strong. If the wheels were not balanced carefully before being shipped to you, then that is your problem. Check with Tom to see who mounted them before shipping (Tirerack approved shop or America's Tire/Discount Tire), find a local shop and have them rebalanced. It shouldn't take too many weights to get them balanced right. I'm no mechanic, but this worked for me: even though you have centering rings, make sure you center the wheels with the lugnuts as best as possible even after installing the centering rings. Even with centering rings, there is some play when you mount the wheels onto the studs. Put two lugsnuts on and carefully "twist" the wheel side to side to "expose" any play, then keep tightening until the wheel is centered in the lug nuts. Do this a few times slowly and the wheel will center on the stud. Then put the rest of the lugnuts on. Also be sure to torque each lug to proper spec. This will make a difference. My friend has the same wheels. Had vibration similar to yours. We did the lug nut centering along with the centering rings and the problem went away.
 
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You guys covered just about everything that I sent to him in the email. They were highspeed balanced by Discount Tire. There may be a defective tire as Briank said. I told him to take the two fronts to a local shop, and run them on the high speed balance, noting what came out, BEFORE trying to re-balance. Also, they can check for roundness with that machine as well, and also look for a bad belt in a tire etc. We shall wait........
 
Thanks for he responses. I will go thru and get this sorted out this weekend.

Thanks Tom for the email and the good service.
 
I got my wheels recently from tom also and I am having the same problem. From 45-60 the wheel shakes. they gave me slightly wrong sized hub rings 72.6 instead of 73 so they dont fit in the wheel so well but I dont think that small of a difference would do it. Im going to get them rebalanced in the next few days and hopefully that will help. I will let u guys know how mine turns out as well.
 
Problem is solved! Cost me $160 but I am running smooth now. I took my car to a place that does a lot of high-end wheels and tires and had them "road force balanced." The fronts were statically balanced correctly but the road force measurement was pretty high. The rears were not balance properly.


Don't know much about this type of balancing but the balance the tire and wheel seperately, then break them down and line up the wheels and tires so they take minimal weight. All I know is it worked and my car is smooth to 120+.

The tires and wheels were a great price and great service from Tom. Next time I will have the mounting an balancing done myself.
 
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