Force

So I put my winter wheels/tires on last week... 17" BSA Model 264 Wheels with 3mm spacers on the front, 225/45 Gizlaved Nordfrost 5 Tires.

Since I put them on I've been getting shaking in the wheel at high speed... But only sometimes. The car also seems to pull to the left. On some roads it's BAD, and other times everything is smooth as glass. For people who know the Toronto area, I get the issue on most of the 401 through the GTA, but somehow not at ALL on the 407. The spacers are perfectly centered and the wheels are properly torqued.

Any ideas what might be causing this? I mean, I'd guess wheel balance if it happened consistently, but it doesn't. I'm at a loss. If someone could help I'd appreciate it.

Coblasts

Do you rotate them by marking where they came from when you took them off ?

I personally dont change sides with any tires I just move them from front to back to
stop from having these issues.
Snow tires tend to pattern wear quite quickly if you left them on to long.

What you can try is over inflate them to 60 or 70 psi and then reset the pressure you want in them.
May be something happened to them in storage,did you store them on there side or standing on the tread?

Another thing maybe the silver push on thing that holds the rotors on is interfering with the rim and they arenot seating flat aganst the rotor.
You can remove them they do nothing.

Force

I stored them standing, so that could be it. I just don't know why it's so intermittent.

I did rotate them, but just back to front - they're directional. I did make sure to properly indicate which came from what corner.

I'll try the inflation trick.

shawn672

I have the same problem, the dealership told me I have a bent wheel in the rear, and this was confirmed by a mechanic friend. Jackass who sold me the wheels sold me a bent one..

Force

My wheel can't be bent, it was fine last winter and they literally didn't move an inch between March and now. Besides, if I had a bent wheel, it would manifest itself during ALL driving conditions, not only at high speed and only occasionally.

shawn672

Well I have the same issue, only vibrates above 50mph, and its very weird
below 50: not there
50-69: really bad
70-80: not so bad
80-110: really bad

I've had 2 different mechanics confirm one is bent, and one is iffy (would need a better inspection to confirm the 2nd one)

glen229

iTrader: (4)

could be flat spots, but you'd most likely feel them all the time, have a tire place balence them, its not that expensive and it will most likely fix the problem.

shawn672

Just had Bridgestone confirm 2 of the 4 I have are bent, one on each side (1 rear, 1 front). When switching out the front one, the vibrations went away from the steering wheel but you can still feel them in the seat...

LOVE IT!

insylem

If its only on one road.
Could it just the the road?
Maybe something with the way the road and tires fit or dont fit together.

Permafried-

With the 401 in mind even with my summers I find some days I'll get random shakes in random places, it has nothing to do with my wheels at all. I can be driving from London to KW fine one day, and a week later on one spot I get a hell of a vibration for a short duration depending on what lane I'm in. Just a thought .

Force

I mostly used it as an example... You're definitely right about the 401, but it's not just there. Down the 403 to my girlfriend's place in Oakville, intermittently down 11 Southbound coming back from North Bay, etc... I'm also frustrated because I paid $150 to a GM dealer to mount the tires and road force balance the wheels just last year, and now here I am.

Could it be the way the spacer is sitting against the hub? At first they weren't centered, I had to jack the car up to make sure they were perfectly in the middle. This being said, maybe I'm missing something in this area? They're so small and light that I doubt they're causing the issue, but who knows.

Permafried-

Hmm...looks like they had to do the same with your 17s as they did my 18s that being the road force balance. If nothing changed minus them sitting on end in your garage all summer I'd say flat spotting, but then you'd feel it all the time and with no weight on the tires I can't imagine there was enough force to cause that. I have a rack from Crappy Tire so I can stack them vertically and cover them over the summer.

Even though the spacers are light by the laws of physics the mass of a rotating object will increase dramatically but even then I'd assume you would feel it all the time not occasionally. I might have missed it, did you move the rear to the front this year or are they in the same postions they were last year?

Force

I rotated front-to-back this season - it probably wasn't strictly necessary but I figured why not?

I mean, I could rotate them back, but that doesn't seem like a viable solution... For one, they're directional, so this kind of rotation will be necessary eventually. In addition, all my tools are at my parents' house in North Bay. As for the spacers, they're RIGHT in the middle of the hub now, I made sure of it. The wheels were properly torqued and re-torqued with my own properly calibrated wrench.

I guess I'm just trying to avoid a dealership visit - for this kind of thing I doubt their guess will be much better than mine.

Coblasts

Just a guess but maybe you have water in the tires from the air compressor,but I dont think its to likely.
A shimmy at a certain speed makes me belive its a runout problem where the rim isnt sitting 100% flat .

Permafried-

I'd say you could drop by my place and use my jack and torque wrench, but that's a bit of a trip for you . I'm only thinking MAYBE there's a slight imbalance in what were the rears and it's more obvious now that it's on the front?

madmark

iTrader: (1)

i would say balance them and rotate to see if it pulls the other way, they are directionals but just try it for a few miles to check for a seperated tire

Force

That might make sense. I'll ride it out for a bit and see what happens. I just spoke to the service manager at Oakville Chevrolet and he's at a complete loss too.

If it persists I'll get them rotated back to where they were as a start - the tires that were on the front still have plenty of tread.

I doubt it's water in the tire either. They were only down 1 or 2 psi each when I re-mounted them, so I drove to the busiest Shell station in my home town and inflated them there. I seriously doubt there was a problem with their compressor.

Thanks for all the help so far guys, it's much appreciated.

Permafried-

If you decide to rotate back maybe ask on OCC if someone more local to you has the tools you could use in their driveway instead of going to the dealership? If you were still in the KW area I'd bring mine to our meet since I make the trip down from London anyways so you could do it there but that doesn't look like an option either.

Force

I'll likely wait until it gets colder, too. They're hardcore ice and snow tires so maybe the warm weather is softening them up too much and causing some kind of resonance issue between them and our less-than-perfect roads. The smooth-as-glass 407, for example, causes me no problems.

I had to put them on now because I had to go back to North Bay before the first snow fall, lest I die driving up there on the Continentals. This being said, maybe once they're more within their operating temperature range they'll harden up and smooth out.

Nighthawk243

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm

Find a place that has the GSP9700 Road Force balancer by Hunter. It will cost more than a regular spin balance, but this machine can tell you if you have a bent rim, a broken belt in your tire...etc.