Ok, so I just re-mounted my summer wheel/tire setup and when driving I now notice that from 40 mph up there is a mild but noticeable shimmy/shudder/shake in the steering wheel. When I first noticed it I went and had all the wheels and tires balanced figuring that maybe a wheel weight had fallen off during winter storage, but the shop told me that all 4 wheels were balanced at zero from the get-go. So my question is, any thoughts on what the problem could be?

I was thinking that maybe the wheel hubs have a lot of debris on them from the winter and so the wheels may not be sitting completely flush against the hub?

The other thing I heard is that when tires are stored the sidewall of the bottom tire or 2 can get flattened out and that can cause it?

If anyone has anything else they think might be causing the issue please post it up. IDK how relevant this is but the setup is enkei pf01's with BF Goodrich Gforce KDW's (which are a really hard compound) I also have stance coilovers. Like I said, any constructive thoughts or suggestions are welcomed.

 

I've seen bent rims that balanced OK...so there is no guarantee that something isn't going on with that....

I would remove and check that they are all OK...and maybe swap front to rear and try that before I went to more extreme measures.

 

Try swapping the front wheels left to right.

 

Thanks guys, I'll definitely give them a check, although they were riding fine before I took them off. I was told your not supposed to rotate left and right, only front to back.

 

you might have flatspotted a wheel from sitting for months on end. Also go to a shop that does road variance wheel testing. That tells them if the high spot on the wheel and the high spot on the tire are opposite of each other to balance out the wheel.

 

switching front and back.

 

Again, thanks guys! It seems like something must have happened from them sitting over the winter. (how do I avoid that in the future, move them regularly? If there is an issue though, what help will rotating front and back do? And maybe this is a dumb question (and sorry if so) but if I do rotate front to back should I remove the tires from the wheels or just switch the front wheel and tire with the back wheel and tire?

 

yes just switch front tires to the back see if the vibration changes.

 

K will do, and what if it does? could it be an alignment issue?

 

Normally you don't rotate side to side but I said that to eliminate the possibility that you had accidently mounted a "right side" tire on the left.

 

alignment issue is when the steering wheel is pulling to left or right or the car is not tracking straight or you have abnormal tire wear. nothing to do with vibration.

if you switch tires and it still vibrates means tires and wheels might be fine, you have something on the hub assembly out of spec either a bent axle or something like that.

 

Thanks for the help. I ended up pulling the wheels off and the central ring that sits inside the wheel hub was askew on one whel, got it righted and now everything is golden. I appreciate the help again!