17's and Vibration in steering wheel
 

Hey,

Im pretty new to the forum and well pretty new to owning a car for that matter.

Just bought a used set of 17's for my 03 lx. After finally putting them on im noticing quite a bit of vibration in the steering wheel. I've read and know I should get the tires balanced however, i also read about wheel spacers.

Do these things have any effect on vibration? Will they help ease the feel I have right now on my steering wheel.

And are there any others tips as to what I should have done while putting these rims on to replace oem?

Thanks in advance!

If ur tires and rims arent balanced, go do that. It's physics. Tires and rims arent 100% perfect in weight distribution. Since they're spinning round n round at a fast speed, any unevenness will cause the wheel to stutter from the unbalanced weight, which translates to ur ride/steering vibrating. Weights counter the unevenness.

yes and yes you should look into both.

It could also be that the rims are bent or have a side wobble to them, and the bead in the tire could have shifted, which would make it vibrate. Where abouts are you located at, because i would at a shop, so we could take a look at them for you, and it would not cost to much to do it.

Try this: jack up the car, take the lug nuts off and try moving the wheel up/down/left/right. If it moves around that means you need centering rings.

damn, thanks for all the tips guys.

its snowing again so, as soon as it warms up and the sun decides to come out, I will see if these wheels move.

im located in the sheppard and morningside area. anyone know a place to get my wheels balanced for cheap?

and, where can I get a good set of spacers? right now im thinking pmall.

thanks again! hope ya'll can help with the other projects I have planned.

When identifing this sort of problem, it is important to remember at which speeds this occurs. Also, if you're going from a 15" with a low profile, to a 17" rim with a low profile tire, it might not hurt to get a wheel alignment done as well. More likely than not, it's a simpe tire balancing, which takes about 0.5h to do all four, if the shop isn't busy.

What do you mean by spacers? Maybe you mean centering rings. Also, if the wheels and tires are used, they may be worn unevenly or the wheels themselves could be slightly bent.

Most likely they just need to be balanced. Hopefully its nothing big.

Im going to look for a place to get them balanced and probably do an alignment since ive never had that done with this car.

And I was looking into wheel spacers just to get a better look with my car. Dont they help with the vibration? I will look into centering rings as well.

Thanks!

I have similar problem - but mine are 16's with low profile tires - have the tire balance many times at mechanic (maybe he sucks or something). My steering starts shaking at 110km/h - will it help if I tried to get it balance with the Road Force Machine from a tire shop (any recommendations)? Aside from bent rim - how to check that, what else can cause the problem?

if a rim was bent or out of round, you're mechanic would have to be a retard not to notice in when he was balancing the wheels.

Could also be a warped brake rotor causing a vibration

^^
and also again, with most aftermarket rims you require to have centering rings. without them your wheels will vibrate a bit.

have the wheel lugs been torqued to spec? it could also be a shifted belt in the tires.

if you want a quick fix try switching the tires you have on the front and put them on the rear. if it goes away its probably a bent or out of balance wheel assembly.

When dealing with tires and wheels with high road force i've only noticed a noisier ride ...not so much a vibration... i've road forced wheels that have been bent and damaged and got a low readings too and the tires have balanced.

I had the exact problem last spring. After wasting my time at 3 small garages and stuck with the same steering wheel vibration (with them blaming my car's lack of a camber kit), I gave the dealership a chance. They fixed it on their balancer in one shot.

Have them balance the wheels and get an alignment done asap if you havent. It'll save you in the long run.

Also, most small garages dont carry good balancing machines, check your dealer as the last resort if the other garages arent solving your problem (honda carries the hunter balancer).

Honda Civic steering wheel vibrations on highway problem solved

car profile:
2002 honda civic ex
218,000 miles
stock steel wheels with hubcaps

My honda civic started to have vibrations when driving on the freeway.
The vibrations were slightly noticeable between 60-66mph.
As soon as the speed reached 67 and above, the steering shaked very bad.
Even when I gripped the steering wheel with both hands, my hands would
also shake from the vibrations. It was highly annoying just to drive and keep up
with cars ging at 70 mph and above. Because my civic has so many miles, and it still
runs very well, I invested in replacing parts as part of the mainenance.

Here are my journey to solving the problem.
My civic has Centric rotors and brake pads with about 12000 miles. It's
quite new. I also know that civic and hondas' in general have a
tendency to have brakes that warps the rotors quite quickly.
My diagnostic to test the rotors was to use a dial gauge. The rotors were
in factory specs and not warped. My brake pads were
wearing evenly so my calipers were not stucked and dragging
on the rotors causing them to overheat and warp.

I also changed my driver side cv axle w/ a new cardone cv axle. This also did not help.

My front lower motor mount with cracks, and upper transmission were replaced
about a year ago.This did not help with reducing the freeway vibrations.

On the driver side, I replaced the swaybar end link which was worn. This made
the ride steering responsive but did not reduce the freeway vibrations.

On the driver, side, I replaced the wheel bearing and hub with new
bearings and hub and studs and lower balljoint. This did not fix the freeway vibrations.

I've also replaced all 4 struts with kyb excel g struts. This improved
the car's responsiveness, but did not reduce the freeway
vibrations.

Finally, I took my civic to pepboys where they found that the tires
were separating from the inside. This means the sandwiched
steel belts, chords and rubber were deteriorating from the inside.
This caused a slight bump in the tire that leads to the bad vibrations.
I remember running my hands over the tire to feel for warpness but I did not
detect any bumps. My bridgestone tires visually looked fine with 20,000 mi of tread left.
I also did not see any cracks or signs of separation.

I decided to invest in a set of new kumho tires at a local tire shop
where they installed and balanced the tires.

I took it on the freeway driving 60-85 mph, and NO MORE highway vibrations.

I'm posting this article and hope it helps other civic owners plagued
with wheel vibrations on the freeway.

Good to read that the steps you took solved the issue.

Appreciate the write-up, thanks...it may be one of those details that will assist someone else who may be experiencing the same problem.