lzaffuto

In April I bought 18" Kazera KZA rims and staggered 225/245/45/18 BFGoodrich KDW2 tires from Tirerack.com. The steering wheel is shaking and pulling to the right pretty bad at highway speeds 60+mph. Around town 50mph or below you can't really even feel it. But on the interstate it will make your hands numb after awhile like holding on to a weedeater handle for a couple of hours. The tires balance out to zero and have been balanced 3 times by 3 different shops including a Nissan dealership. The alignment has been done 3 times by 3 different shops including a Nissan dealership. They seem to think that because they balance out fine and the alignment and suspension is fine, either one of the front rims isn't mounting totally flush or one of the front tires is out of round. Nobody will tell me for sure because nobody wants to accept the responsibility if they tell me wrong and I throw money out the window and it doesn't fix the problem. What do you guys think? Just order a new tire and see if it fixes it? A new rim?

cleanandquick06

iTrader: (3)

bs, a dealership did the same thing to me. its a ****ty balance. they are being lazy and dont want to wieght the rim. its nothing that should cost you money. drop it off and tell them that you want the problem fixed and tested before you pick it back up. and tell them if you pick it up and the prob is still there that you will have a nice little chat with nissan of america. trust me, their bull shiit will go out the window real quick

davidv

iTrader: (2)

There are several potential solutions which may or may not work:

a. Mark the tires and wheels. Remove the tires. Install so that the marks are opposite one another. Balance.

b. Tires are out-of-round? What is the run-out? Tires can be trued (shaved) to knock-off the high spots)

c. Balancing ON the car. Not only do the wheels and tires spin, but so do the wheel hubs and brake rotors. All effect balance. Speciality shops can balance wheels tires ON the car.

It is very difficult to decide if the above is throwing good money after bad.

lzaffuto

cleanandquick06 - I've had 3 shops balance them, including a really good friend of mine that I watched do the work... the tires/wheels are balanced fine. It's either a mounting issue or a tire tread issue.

davidv - Tires have already been balanced on the car. But shaving is something I didn't think of, and a really great idea at that. Thanks! Now I just need to find a shop that does that.

davidv

iTrader: (2)

I wonder if someone local might give you a hand? Say for a free dinner.

Trade front wheels and take a ride. If the shaking is solved, then you know it is a wheel balance problem. If shaking continues, then you can look elsewhere (suspension?) for a solution.

Kolia

iTrader: (2)

Try davidv's idea.

You could have a faulty tire with a broken belt. It wouldn't prevent balancing on a regular machine. Maybe one with a loading roller would identify that.

bacalhau16

iTrader: (32)

Did you check the rim to see if its perhaps warped at all?

yoichi

iTrader: (4)

did u get a hubcentric ring with ur wheels? its a plastic or rubber ring that goes in between the hub and ur new wheels. After market wheels are made for many cars so the opening from the wheels most likely will not match with your factory hub. the ring is there to make up for that small gap. Since the openings don't match slightly without the rings, at high speeds above 65, ur car will start shaking. I had the same problem and after i put in the hubcentric rings, all the shaking was gone. I bet u that is the problem.

yoichi

iTrader: (4)

just call the tirerack and tell them to give u hubcentric rings. they'll probably ship it to u for free if you tell them that u already bought wheels from them. don't bother rebalancing or whatever everyone is telling you. its gonna cost too much for nothin. I am almost positive that the hubcentric rings will solve ur problem!!!!!!

Kolia

iTrader: (2)

I woke up with that idea this morning. You could be right, it might be as simple as that!

lzaffuto

Nope, it's got the hubcentric rings on there. Although I wonder if one of those rings is slightly deformed (they are pretty cheap plastic afterall) if it could cause a problem...

VO...

iTrader: (25)

If the rim was warped it would be difficult to balance it. I'd rule that theory out. Mose likely the tire is feathered out and has uneaven thread wear. Faulty struts or shocks can cause this as well as a bad alignment.

FirstZ

iTrader: (1)

I would start w/ the Hub rings, than maybe mount the stock tires and wheels.

VIPLINE

iTrader: (1)

Yea, it might be the wheels (especially the front) aren't sitting in the center on the hubs. That cuzing wheels to wobble. Get some hub-rings to make the wheels hub-centric.

ARMSTRONGARMS

iTrader: (65)

double check to make sure the tire is mounted in the right direction? ive seen that before.I mean as far as tread pattern? hopefully yall will understand what im saying

Rosko

iTrader: (2)

I had this exact problem for a while. I brought it in to get some tires rotated (having already given up on the vibration). The extremely sharp tech changing the wheels noted a barely discernable bent wheel. Honestly, I could hardly tell without looking for it.

In the months before this incident I had the wheel/tire balanced twice, and nobody noticed the wheel was bent.

MoodDude

I was thinking that the wheel is not mounting flush. Yet, I don't know how to measure this of the top of my head. I guess you could try to put the tire totally level, then take a small level and see if the center of the wheel is level all the way around. There probably is a better/easier way?

lzaffuto

No tire feathering - tires are only a couple of months old and have less than 2000 miles on them. All tires are mounted to rotate in the correct direction... it's the first thing I checked after they were mounted. It might be a slightly bent rim. I'm bringing it to a specialty tire shop suggested by tirerack on Friday. They are going to check that the tires aren't out of round and check to see if the rims are okay. I'll let you know what I find out, if anything.

350Zenophile

iTrader: (20)

I feel your pain. I went through the exact same steps too with a set of wheels on my last car. Turned out the wheel was slightly out of round, but still within manufacturer's (Roh) specs so they would not replace. Had to take it to a shop with the latest Hunter machine that can measure for it. Then they did a roadforce balance where they put the heavy spot of the tire opposite the heavy spot of the wheel (mentioned before). This made it bearable/97% fine, but still not 100% at certain speeds.

Lesson learned. I will never buy cheap wheels like Roh's again. You should have better luck with TireRack though. It shouldn't come to this, but if they give you crap about swapping out for a new one, if it does indeed turn out to be out of round, make sure you find out what does qualify for return in mm's of runout and get a printout documenting this from whoever you take it too as they may require proof.

The only other thing, and I don't think we have them on the Z, is make sure the retaining clip has been removed from the rotor face. Good Luck.

lzaffuto

Well I just got the car back from the shop. A combination of having the front tires trued and a roadforce balance seems to have cured the problem. Thanks for the suggestions guys!