Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Wheels & Tires Luke! Steering wheel Vibrations!! Help

My SVT was riding fine with the stock wheels on at 10,000 miles and I changed to 18x7 Team Dynamics Motorsports with 225/40ZR18 Yokohama Paradas, The ride was fine and stable till about 65-80mph then the steering wheel shakes (shimmys), sometimes more, sometimes less. Then it will then go away and then come back about 5 or so miles down the road. but if I go over 85mph it stops.

I bought the tires and rims online and they were supposed to be balanced. I made sure I used the hub rings (maybe they sent the wrong ones?!?!?!).

I took the the wheels to a reputable tire center and they rebalanced them and I watched them do it and all the wheels were balanced. I get back on the highway and still it has the same shaking problems at 65-80mph.

Do you think I might need a alignment since I got bigger rims and different tyres???

Do you think one or more of the tires are out of round???

Is this common and should I just ride them some more to see if the tread needs to be broken in, I've only had them for 2 days now and have put 300 miles on them (yes, I know I drive alot).

Maybe I should take the plastic hub rings off???

Luke or anyone that wants to chime in on this from experiecen please do. Thanks

in order to get a proper diagnosis you need to do a couple of things first.
1.) move front wheels to rear and rear wheels to front
2.) drive car and note vibration i.e. is it the same or different?
3.) if different move rear wheels side to side does vibration change again?

Let me know



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Luke Pavlick
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I will do this and post back tomorrow. Thanks

Sounds like out-of-round to me. Balancing doesn't do **** for it. I hope for your sake Doug, that the back ones don't do it. You should take it back to the guys that balanced them and get them to mount them on the balancing machine and spin the wheel by hand (i.e. slowly). Then get close to the wheel and watch for the edge of it to see if it moves around. Best way to see out-of-round.

I was instructed that I might have the wrong hub rings and/or have installed them wrong.

The possibilty of a out of round wheel is pretty slim.

I'll see tonight.

I do notice my speedo reads 1mph slower. I think that it is actually more accurate now for some reason.

Doug, that would do it! YOu wouldn't believe how critical those centering rings are. AND they are only plastic (they are NOT load bearing). But the thing is, they GA-RON-TEE your wheel is smack-bang in the right place. I bought some wheels once in Australia without them and I had the same problem (don't know why I didn't think of that earlier ). Anyway, lucky for me the wharehouse that distributed wheels in Perth, was close by, and the guys there let me look through boxes to find the rings I needed. I put them on instantly the problem was fixed.
Good Luck bro!

Luke,

I made sure the centering hub rings were intact in the rims. They are.

I took the front tires and flipped around them with the rears and the vibration is still the same on the freeway at 65-80mph.

The steering wheel feels wobbly at some speeds (but then it stops) and I get no vibration for about 5 miles or so.... obviously a symtom of something.

I made sure all the wheels were bolted on using the top,down,left,right bolt tightening pattern. And the rims were all flush against the hubs.

All tires have the same amount of air, 34lbs.

I have no prior problems with the stock rims and tires or suspension. It would ride like a charm at any speed with the stock rimsa nd the BF KDW's on. The car always is driven on the freeway and barely/never ever see crazy turns or potholes.

Do you think an alignment is nessecary? Since I have the larger rims and different tires???

Or... a rebalancing... for the 3rd time!!!!

Thanks for your continued support.


P.S.
(My drive to work everyday is become more and more irrating....)

Did you take the disk retaining clips off your lugs before installing the new wheels? From the factory, they put a clip on one of the lugs that holds the disk on while the car travels down the assembly line. Your stock wheels have a chamfer cut in the backside of the hole to accomodate this. If your aftermarket wheels don't have this chamfer, and you still have the clips installed, you will get a shimmy just as you described. It took me 3 tire places and a full week to figure this out. Hopefully that is it--since it is easy to fix. Good luck...

flyer1704

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'99 SVT Contour
Black/Tan
K&N Filter
B&M Edge Shifter
Dynomax Bullet (In Place of Rez)
Alpine/BA Stereo
'Foamed' Chassis
other Misc Mods
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This is a clip of some kind ?? on the hub of the car?????

We are not talking about hub rings.. right?

So should I pull the aftermarket wheels off, and look on the hub where i place the wheel to, to look for these clips??

Hmmmmmmmm. maybe this is it!

Please, can anyone chime in on this.

The clips will be on the studs. look close, they look like washers. We use them here at AAM.