I know, it sounds like a newbie question, but I need to know before I take it in and argue the point.

I had the car aligned a week ago, after putting the stock suspension back on. The shop told me that the 18" rims I wanted to put on would not change the alignment, so I waited to put them on.
I am now riding on all 4 rims, with a brand new tire on one. All tires are nearly new, with very minimal tread wear, and the rims were balanced before they were put on the car.

So after I put the rear rims on, the thing drove fine. I put the front ones on, and know I have a shimmy in the whole car (feel just a little bit in the steering wheel itself)

Would this be an alignment issue?

no you dont need an alignment w/ new wheels. alignments are only needed when you remove struts or any other major suspension part.

do you have hub centric rings?

Yeah... it sounds like a wheel issue, though could possible be a hub issue as well. 18's are heavier and could be the straw that breaks the camel's back when it comes to a hub already going bad.

My bet's on the wheels themselves though.

As asked... do you have hub rings for them?

If so, then you might need to get them rebalanced.

when the rebalance the rims, ask them to use a "PIN PLATE". a pin plate acts as the lug posts the the rim mounts on. with aftermarket wheels, a pin plate will give it a better balance as to how it will sit on the car.

if the rims have centering rings, the wheels should be balanced with the centering rings installed first as long as they fit snugly in the flange of the rim.

all of these combined will give you a better, more true balance for your cars set up.

if they dont have a pin plate, take it somehwhere that does.

also, ask them to make sure they do a dynamic balance. static balancing can caus issues, more at higher speeds, but issues none the less.

like weasel said, it could be a bearing going, but that is usually accompanied by a destinctive sound. it could also be a shifted belt, which any tire installer will kno what you are talking about when you mention that. shifted belts occur mostly when hitting something in the road, pot hole for example, especially when the tire isnt properly inflated.

if your in the southern ontario area and your still having problems let me know. i work in a shop and can take a look at it if my boss and the other guys in the shop dont mind (i work at costco in newmarket, we not supposed to work on stuff thats not ours).





Injection is nice but id rather be BLOWN!
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2290307

Hmmm... I forgot about the hubcentric rings...DOOHHH....
where might I pick those up?

I did check as I installed the rims, they are centered on the hub, but I guess that could be a (the) issue.

whitegoose - I would hope the tire belts aren't shifted, the tires are brand new, and I haven't put more than 100 miles (highway, flat road) on them

I am familiar with the sound of a bad bearing, and I certainly do not hear that sound.

What is the difference between dynamic and static balance? I saw what the tire shop did to balance, and they used the "pin plate", but I am unsure of the difference in types of balance.

Also - do I need centering rings on all 4 wheels, or just the 2? The rears ride real well, and the shimmy only developed after I installed the fronts...

well i take it you dont have them and yes you need them on all 4 wheels. search for hub rings and you'll find the size you need

I just ordered mine from justforwheels.com

balancing types

STATIC - a static wheel balance will basically stop the wheel from hopping up and down by adding weight to the "low point". this will make the weight at the low point the same as the weight at the high point. low point and high point refer to the heavy and light ends of a wheel and tire combo.

static balance is usually achieved by adding weight in only ONE spot on the rim, generaly the inside face that no one will see.

DYNAMIC - this type of balancing will stop the wheel from hopping side to side, which also generally stops it from hopping up and down. a computurized wheel balancer will tell the installer where to install the weights to achieve the smoothest dynamic run.

dynamic balance is usually achieved by instaling weights in 2 spots on the rim, the inside and outside face.

some places when balancing aftermarket rims where only one side has a lip to hammer on a clip on weight will static balance. this is the eazy way out and usually results in a crappy balance. dynamic balance is best achieved with clip on weights, but can be done with stick on (Quick-Stick) weights.

now, if you want a REALLY good balance... get your tires match mounted.

not every rim and/or tire is made perfect. one side can be heavier than the other. having a perfectly balanced rim with a tire that has a "heavy spot" in it will throw out the balance and vice versa with a imperfect rim and perfect tire. if tires and rims were made perfect, we wouldnt need to blance them.

now, match mounting involves aligning the heavy point of the tire with the light point on the rim to minimize the amount of weight that needs to be added to get the tire rim combo to balance. the less weight, generally the smoother the ride.

match mounting involves a few things, one being a balancer that is capable, two would be a tire installer who knows what they are doing, and three being a bit of patience.

to match mount you simply follow the instructions that the balancer tells you to do. the tire will need to be rotated 180 degrees on the rim so the machiene can get a proper reading and gather full data. after the hevy and low points are discovered, the points need to be lined up. both rotating 180 degrees and lining the points require the tire to be broken down on the rim, and in some cases of stiff sidewalls, usually found on low profile tires, a full dismount of the tire from the rim.

so this has been your lesson for the weekend, now go bug all of your local shop to have your tires match mounted if you are having and vibrations!

note!-!---- tires that werent match mounted may be out of round if they have been driven on for a while. once match mounted they may seem like they are worse. drive on them for a while because they should wear themselves true.

have fun

Rob aka whitegoose





Injection is nice but id rather be BLOWN!
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2290307

Okay - thanks for the info
The tires were somewhat match mounted - the guy found the heavy spot on the rim, marked it, found the heavy spot of the tire, marked it, and then mounted the heavy spots 180 degrees (opposite) each other - but the tires are brand new, so I would assume that the out of round issue doesn't exist on a new tire?

They must have been static balanced, but he did put multiple wieghts around the rim, just all at the same depth?

I will be ordering some centering rings shortly, and getting that taken care of... in the meantime, I'm off to order new brakes.



Dang it, I thought I wasn't a newbie... and now I have learn't so much that I feel like one!

a tire CAN be out of round from the factory... hard to believe but its the same as a rim being out of round from the factory. the material just needs to be more dense in one area than the other. hell , once side having a crap load of air bubles in the rubber of the tire could do it as im sure air weighs less than rubber.

the best way to tell if there are static balanced or not is if there are weights just on the inside face of the rim( the side facing the car). if ther are stick on weights on the inside of the rim on the other side of the rim as well as a clip on weight....


here let me try this... possible combonations
s.w= sticky weight
w=clip on

|-----------------| this is your rim
w.........................static balance
s.w.....................static
w....................w dynamic balance
w...................s.w. dynamic
s.w...............s.w. dynamic
.........s.w...........static in middle

multiple weights on the same side of the rim doesnt help either. that actually makes the balance worse. a weight should be taken off the rim and the tire should be rebalanced if it asks for multiple weights in mulitple spots on one side. mulitple weight directly beside eachother is ok, as sometimes an installer doesnt have a weight heavy enough and needs to add weights together. example 1.00 ounce + 1.25 ounce = 2.25 ounce.

centering rings will make a huge improvement if you dont have them.

dont worry about feeling like a newbie, took me three years to learn all that i have and im still not done learning. its a constant process, which is why i like it. doesnt get boring too fast.





Injection is nice but id rather be BLOWN!
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2290307

Okay guys... thank you so much for your help

Turns out the one tire that I just had mounted was dynamically balanced, something like:

s.w...............s.w. dynamic


But the others are just running one set of weights in the same location on the rim.

Also, I ordered (still don't have) centering rings, but I did go out and redo one of the rims, one of the lug nuts on the front had a flat spot, causing the rim to be off center that much more.

The car is riding much better. There is still a slight shimmy, but I imagine that will be taken care of when I get the centering rings put on, and get the front brakes fixed.

Thanks for the information and help.