steering wheel vibration at 70mph

[nis350]

I have a 92 with 17 x 8 and 215/40 on the front and eibach.

I felt slight vibration on the steering wheel around 70 mph, but not at 60 & below or 80 mph. Is that normal with a lowered car with after market wheels?

 

[mrbone]

balance all the wheels/tires. check wheel runout at that time. not all balancers are created equal. also check tire roundness & indexing of tires (most performance tires are supposed to be indexed.....high spot on tire mated to low spot on rim.) This info is alot of times hard to obtain.

 

[BESTOUCH]

I am having the same issue. Im waiting for hubsentric rings, I have had them balanced twice.

 

[Ray Rodriguez]

I had similar problem on my other vehicle, vibration over 60mph, had it balance & it went away.

 

[nsxtasy]

Yes, it's usually due to the balance of the wheels/tires.

If you still have the original wheels/tires, or if you have a friend with an NSX, you can swap the wheels/tires and verify whether the vibration still occurs with the other set. If it goes away, it's definitely the wheels/tires.

 

[nis350]

Yes, it's usually due to the balance of the wheels/tires.

If you still have the original wheels/tires, or if you have a friend with an NSX, you can swap the wheels/tires and verify whether the vibration still occurs with the other set. If it goes away, it's definitely the wheels/tires.

why does it only occur at certain speed? I want to verify if it is a balancing issue because the tires are still fairly new and the vibration is very slight.

Wouldn't the vibration get worse as the speed increase?

 

[Doc308]

Not necessarily-- when a wheel is out of balance it's common to have a vibration at a certain speed range, but none below or above that range. Get the wheels balanced and I 'd bet it goes away. Also, the last 3 times i had wheels balanced , with a Ferrari and a Fiero, I had to have them redone because they weren't done properly. So, tell the person who balances your wheels that these cars have very sensitive steering and to be sure that he does a pecise job . By the way, if you only feel the vibration at the steering wheel it's likely just a front wheel. If you feel it in the seat of your pants also, it would be rears.

 

[LJSB]

I think it is balance but it could be something other than where the weights are placed on the wheel.
If it keeps up after balancing, break the bead from the rims and see if anything is inside like water or a piece of the old valve stem.
Water can get in tires from compressors that aren't bled enough in humid weather and I've seen stuff that was dropped into tires when they were changed and gone unnoticed.

 

[nis350]

Got the tires balanced, but the vibration got worse.

I noticed the placement of the weights were on both sides of the wheels before. After I got them balanced, the weights now are all in the middle of the wheels.

Does that make any different?

 

[freelance201]

it shoudn't be a problem b/c the balance machine precisely tells the operator where to put the lead tape.
few things you can check that might contribute to the vibrating problem:

1. alignment
2. brake rotor
3. bend wheel

 

[coldhammer]

I also am having the same issue. I had S03'sall the way around but my front wheels were bent and the tires were pretty badly eaten up from alignment issues. So i retained the S03's on the back and replaced the fronts with sumitomo's. Had a full alignment done with on the car balancing for the front and machine balanced the rears.

I am still having a lot of vibration in front and back at any speed over 65. Under that it rides very smoothly.

The guy at the alignment shop says it is probably due to A) the rears are approaching the end of thier life and possibly are starting to seperate B) the sumitomo's suck and are probably causing the remainder of the vibration on the front.

I tend to agree with him on the rears. However the sumitomos are brand new regardless of the quality of the tire I dont see that affecting balancing. I did notice that when they were doing the oncar balance on the front that it is basically put the weight on, spin the tire, see if the steering wheel vibrates process.

I had my doubts about how accurate the shop guy would be doing something like that. However this place comes very highly recommended as being the best in town for alignments and suspension work.

NSXTASY had a good idea about swapping out the originals. I am going to try that and see if it gets any better.

 

[fkong777]

On car balance work good. it also balance the brake rotors if there is weight difference on it.

Back in the 80's my dad's 500SEL with Lorinsers had to be on car balanced. And the only way the wheel got balance was to put tap on weight on the outside. It was ugly but that is the only way that car got balance. better to have tap on weight than a vibrating mercedes S class.

 

[NSXTech]

As was mentioned, not all balancers are the same, and more important, neither are their operators. Most machines have a +/- .3 switch, which will tell the operator "ok" if within that range. Okay for some cars, NOT any Honda procuct I have ever seen. When I bought my Hunter DSP9000 balancer, I ordered it with switch deleted. They must be balanced to 0/0

Where the weights were placed depends on how the machine was set. Most modern balancers have at least 2, if not 3 settings for plane. If set for 'dynamic' you get readings for both outer rim placements. If set for 'static' you get a single plane, single weight placement, designed for outer rim only. Mine has an addl set setting for centerline single plane, designed precisely for tape weights on alloy wheels.

And the reason it comes and goes is quite simply, harmonic imbalance. The harmonic disturbance is strongest at a specific speed. Alignment can never cause a vibration, nor can brake rotors- unless you are braking when you feel it.

However, if your wheels are NOT hubcentric, its all a waste of time. You will never gets these balanced properly.

HTH,
MB

 

[nis350]

As was mentioned, not all balancers are the same, and more important, neither are their operators. Most machines have a +/- .3 switch, which will tell the operator "ok" if within that range. Okay for some cars, NOT any Honda procuct I have ever seen. When I bought my Hunter DSP9000 balancer, I ordered it with switch deleted. They must be balanced to 0/0

Where the weights were placed depends on how the machine was set. Most modern balancers have at least 2, if not 3 settings for plane. If set for 'dynamic' you get readings for both outer rim placements. If set for 'static' you get a single plane, single weight placement, designed for outer rim only. Mine has an addl set setting for centerline single plane, designed precisely for tape weights on alloy wheels.

And the reason it comes and goes is quite simply, harmonic imbalance. The harmonic disturbance is strongest at a specific speed. Alignment can never cause a vibration, nor can brake rotors- unless you are braking when you feel it.

However, if your wheels are NOT hubcentric, its all a waste of time. You will never gets these balanced properly.

HTH,
MB

thank you for the detail explanation. Yes. he used the static center setting and I think he has a hunter machine as well. However, the result was worse than before when there were weights on both sides of the wheels.

Does the static setting yield the same results? I read that the wheel needs to be balanced for 'up and down' and also 'side to side' motion. Can the static setting take care of the 'side to side' issue since the weight is place in the middel of the wheels?

I have volks GTC that come with hub ring. I hope they are hub centric wheels....

I am going back today to have them balanced with the weights on both sides. Any advise would be appreciated. :wink:

 

[NSXTech]

The static setting is meant to be used with single placement outer rim only. Dynamic is for both rims, outer placement. The third Hunter method is called 'Optimize' and it is a PITA to do but allows for correct center inner wheel placement of tape weights.

Hub rings work if they are a perfect fit. They fit perfect when, 1) they have no measurable play when inserted into the wheel, and 2) have no measurable play when slipped over the hub. If you have just a bit at both, then when put together you have too much. You should barely be able to move the ring when inserted or installed, in either the wheel or on the hub.

HTH,
MB

 

[nis350]

The static setting is meant to be used with single placement outer rim only. Dynamic is for both rims, outer placement. The third Hunter method is called 'Optimize' and it is a PITA to do but allows for correct center inner wheel placement of tape weights.

Hub rings work if they are a perfect fit. They fit perfect when, 1) they have no measurable play when inserted into the wheel, and 2) have no measurable play when slipped over the hub. If you have just a bit at both, then when put together you have too much. You should barely be able to move the ring when inserted or installed, in either the wheel or on the hub.

HTH,
MB

Rebalanced using the dynamic method, weights on both sides. Checked the hub rings, they fit pretty tight.

Still have some vibrations around 65 to 70.. It is fine under 60 and over 80.

 

[mrbone]

please reread my first reply. also consider something in tires such as fix a flat. All these things need to be taken into consideration and verified. recheck the balance to see if it still zeros the balancer before disturbing position of weights. Where are you located? There is usually a very competent high end tire store in most bigger cities that can fix this. Where have you been having work done? Alot of franchised tires stores are volume buisnesses instead of quality. Unless this is somethng very very unusual it will be something in the tires or wheels. like 99 out of 100 vehicles.