New wheels and tires and now, vibration

[NewNeptune]

For those that didn't read my prior threads, I ran into a curb on Monday, taking a hunk out of the tire and slightly bending the rim. I've been looking into new wheels and tires, since I can't see spending money on a new rim+junk tire+hub cap.Yesterday I went to Discount Tire and got a new set of wheels and tires (Pirelli P3000) installed for slightly more than Tire Rack. I've been driving on them and they look great and ride nicely, except for a vibration on the highway. At speeds of about 60+ MPH, it will vibrate for a few seconds, go away and then come back over and over again. I really don't know if this is the new set of wheels and tires, since I couldn't take the spare up past 55 MPH.I am taking it back in this afternoon so they can recheck the balance, but what else could I have damaged? I know the alignment is off, since it pulls to the left now, could that be it? These are the wheels I put on:http://www.discounttire.com/dt...5-100If I put them in the cart, it adds hub centric rings. Is there a way I could check to see if those are installed without removing the wheel?Any help appreciated, thanks!Will be taking pictures after I get the car washed again.

[Mavrik]

If something is broken or bent from the impact, that could cause a slight vibration. Is the wheel bearing ok? If there is a little play there, that can vibrate. Now when it vibrates, does it do so at a certain speed? And does it remain if you were to set the cruise at that speed? If so then it would seem tire balance related.

[NewNeptune]

Quote, originally posted by Mavrik »If something is broken or bent from the impact, that could cause a slight vibration. Is the wheel bearing ok? If there is a little play there, that can vibrate. Now when it vibrates, does it do so at a certain speed? And does it remain if you were to set the cruise at that speed? If so then it would seem tire balance related.I'll see if they'll let me check the wheel bearing when I take it in. It remains if I set the cruise control. If I speed up, say go at 75 instead of 65, it vibrates a little harder and longer and the gaps between the vibration are a little longer. Does that sound like a tire issue?Oh, and to eliminate the road, I drove it on one of our rubberized asphalt highways. Didn't help.

[SuperSpeedWagon]

well if its a new set, well this pretty much happend to my big bro also he hit a rock boom there goes the tire and rim, he bought some 18's from a friend for a killer deal... any way we would be driving and once he got over 65 it would start to vibrate and all i did the next day was take it in and i got the tires balanced and it went away so you might want to try that if anything i boubt you busted anything when you kit the curb hell anything besides your rim and tire

[NewNeptune]

Quote, originally posted by SuperSpeedWagon »well if its a new set, well this pretty much happend to my big bro also he hit a rock boom there goes the tire and rim, he bought some 18's from a friend for a killer deal... any way we would be driving and once he got over 65 it would start to vibrate and all i did the next day was take it in and i got the tires balanced and it went away so you might want to try that if anything i boubt you busted anything when you kit the curb hell anything besides your rim and tire I'm hoping that's it. The rim was only slightly bent and that was at the lip at the same spot the cover got crunched. I wasn't going all that fast, so, I'm crossing my fingers.

[SuperSpeedWagon]

nah man it shouldnt be a huge problem if you only bent the lip when you hit the curb just go and balance your new rims and tires and they should be as good as new you wont feel the vibrating at 60 if it still does it just go all the way and align your tires also but it should be good after the balancing

[Mrizzle05]

hey buddy, same thing happend to me. cost me some new rims adn a alignment... the guys check the suspension and everything, but it still pulls a tiny bit and theres a slight vibrations sometimes... im used to it now, but i dont know what to do.Hope everything works out and you find out what happend.

[NewNeptune]

Resolved! Discount Tire didn't put the hub centric rings in and they also found all the tires to be out of balance, between 1/4 and 1 oz. Rides smooth now. Thanks everyone! After I get it washed I'll post pics.

[NewNeptune]

*Sigh*It was just my imagination, since the vibration is definitely not gone. They've put the tires on the Hunter Roadforce machine, replaced one bad tire (the tire already had 3/4 oz of weight, Hunter machine said to add 7 oz) but it didn't really help. Dealer is going to look at it today to see if I damaged anything.Could it being out of alignment cause a vibration?

[Mavrik]

7ounces? WHOA!!! talk to any tire guy and for your rim needing to put on more then 2 ounces means something is wrong with the tire or rim.But an alignment can also cause a vibration... my alignment was out when I lowered my Vibe. It developed a vibration around 110KM an hour. It went away once the alignment was corrected.

[CAN-AWD-VIBE]

7 ounces is crazy!!!I hate that roadforce balancer, it's cool, but I like the old school spin em ups.Ask them to reindex the tire on the rim, if that doesnt balance out then the rim or tire is screwed.Your wheel bearing might be messed up too, but 7 ounces is way more then any wheel should need to take.CAN-AWD-VIBE

[NewNeptune]

The one that the hunter machine said needed 7 ounces, they replaced. It now balances with even less than the put on it originally, 3/4 of an ounce. All the other tires balanced out on the Hunter machine. When they had it up, I tried pulling back and forth at the top and bottom of the tire to test the wheel bearing, but it didn't budge.

[CAN-AWD-VIBE]

so is the vibration gone then?

[NewNeptune]

Nope, replacement of the tire didn't help. It's going into the dealer in a few hours for them to tell me if I damaged anything on the car when I hit the curb.

[CAN-AWD-VIBE]

bearingeven if you cant feel play, it probably didnt like the impact too much.sorry about your luckCAN-AWD-VIBE

[NewNeptune]

Dealer said that there was nothing bent, broken or leaking, so they don't think there is anything wrong with the car itself. They aligned it and that fixed the pull, but didn't change the vibration. Discount Tire then said they would try a different set of tires, so today they installed a set of Goodyear Assurance ComforTred tires. I noticed the following:The first five or ten miles were completely smooth. No vibration. The next 10 miles or so, there was a slight vibration. Then for the last 20 miles home, there was a noticeable, but vastly improved vibration, compared to the Pirellis. The steering wheel doesn't vibrate any more, but I still feel it in the seat.So what does this mean? Should I go back to Discount and have them roadforce the Goodyears to verify that none of them are bad? Or should I go back to the dealer?Thanks for everyone's help!

[CAN-AWD-VIBE]

usually if the shake is in the steering- it's the front wheelsif its in your seat its the rear.if they replaced all four then get them to try and balance again, this is a little strange as by now this should be smoothed out.Something wierd is going on... bad tire? bad rim maybe? i dunno.Don't quit untill it is as smooth as it was before. That should be able to be done again with another set of tires.CAN-AWD-VIBE

[NewNeptune]

Yep, very wierd. I'm going to take it back to Discount and ask them to make sure that these are all good and in balance. We'll see if it starts shaking in the wheel again.

[NewNeptune]

Finally some progress! Yesterday they roadforced the rear tires and found one of the brand new Comfortreds was out of round. So they ordered another one and in the mean time moved the out of round tire from the back to the front. Driving around now is much worse, proving that the vibration was from that tire. It finally looks like it's going to be solved.

[CAN-AWD-VIBE]

i still dont like that roadforce balancer... it is cool thoughwhy did they put it on the front? just to drive you crazy or just to prove the point?

[Mavrik]

Quote, originally posted by CAN-AWD-VIBE »i still dont like that roadforce balancer... it is cool thoughwhy did they put it on the front? just to drive you crazy or just to prove the point?sometimes tire issues can only be felt on the front. perhaps in the process of deteriming what was wrong they rotated the tires? Just as guess lolAt least they found it.

[CAN-AWD-VIBE]

but why would they leave it there? Even for a couple days that would drive me nuts.I might prefer the donut spare tire over a bad vibration

[NewNeptune]

I probably could have gone back in and asked them to rotate it back to the rear after verifying that it made it worse, but I'm just tired of the in-out-in-out-in-out and they should have the replacement on Monday it just doesn't seem worth it. Now, if it isn't in on Monday and it will be a little while longer then yeah, I'm going to have them rotate it back.

[ashleymc_38]

alright lets try this one more time..went to go post but wasn't logged in...gah!!!! Well neways, had the same problem as you do. Got a flat tire from a nail in the side wall, went into discount tire just like you did, and they hooked me up with a tire that was compatible with the others b/c they didn't have the same exact tire as the rest of mine. Cost me 147 bucks for the dang tire but i did get that warranty that covers all four if anything does go bad with them. But went up north later that day and had major vibration. Steering wheel shaked like crazy. Took it back in Monday afternoon and they rebalanced the tires. I have yet to ride back on the expressway but i hope the vibration doesn't come back. Only thing good that came out of this, was that discount tire put my tires back on in the right direction b/c they told me that whoever put them on last (which was the dealership) didn't have them on right. Good luck though and let us know what happens. I just thought it was weird b/c we both went to discount tires and the same thing happened.

[ashleymc_38]

Quote, originally posted by silverawd26 »I do not know if you have steel or alloy rims, but the Discount Tire in Hall Road did not look for the weights that were inside on Daniela's allow rim and I had to take it back to be rebalanced. Also, since the Vibe is a Toyota the wheels need to be "roadforce" balanced with a "hunter" machine. Ya, i would of had no idea about that. Whats "roadforce" and whats a "hunter" machine? If it happens again which i haven't noticed yet and if i have to take it back than i can suggest/tell them about whatcha said. At least then i can feel smart when i go in..lol.

[NewNeptune]

Final result is that the problem cannot be solved.Discount tried Pirelli P3000, Goodyear Assurance ComforTred and Michelin Pilot Exalto A/S. The Pilot Exaltos were the best, but didn't completely solve it. The dealer was adamant that the problem was in the tires, so I made the dealer take them back and put the three factory tires and wheels back on. I had the dealer put on a factory rim and tire and then balance them all. Dealer said I was all set and it rode as smooth as glass.In actuality it was no better than the Exaltos. I brought it back and drove around with the shop foreman. He went from not feeling it, to saying he felt normal road bumps and then finally he could feel it, but said it wasn't even close to what their Vibration Analyzer would allow them to fix under warranty. Oh well.