Steering wheels shakes!

[Mr. Red]

so I just mounted my winter wheels and tires, and on the highway, my steering wheels shakes like crazy. Do I need to get them balanced or what? and does have anyone have a good place on the north shore/burnaby to get this done?

[jkcma]

Steering wheel shakes is a sure sign that your wheels need to be balanced.

[320iCar]

agreed. same happenned for me.

[Weeman83]

Remount your wheels this time tighten the wheel nuts diagonally, to half torque, then full torque. You may have a wheel that's mounted slightly kinked.

[Mr. Red]

ok, so I just wasted 2 hours while Kal tire "balanced" my wheels, and my steering wheel still shakes more than ever. they told me that my steering rack has "some play" and that my wheels need hub spacers or something..help!

[scooter]

I can see how "some play" in the rack would cause play in your steering wheel but I just don't see how it would cause your steering wheel shake. More likely wheel balance or worn front end parts. Did they provide any more details as to what "hub spacers" you need and if not, could you ask them?

[BeamR X]

What a crock!!!

I am presuming your "summer" tires didn't have the shake...

Anyways, outside of wheels out of ballance the most common reasons for a shimmy are (not necesarly in this order):

1. Wheels out of round (anything visible to a naked eye on the rims) will promote that.

2. Uneven wear of tires (winter - knoby- tires have a nasty habit of developing shakes)

3. CABs. Even very small (hardly noticable issues relating to 1. and 2.) will be magnified by cracked control arm bushings. I'd inspect these first.

4. Lastly - any play in stearing/suspension - pretty much what Kal tire tried to tell you. It will have similar effect as CAB's.



Again - presuming your winter tires spawned the whole problem I'd start checking in this order:

3. then 2. then 1. then 4. Providing, of course that your wheels are ballanced and centered on hubs.

Also: did they say wheel spacers or hubcentric rings? The spacer's, per sae, have nothing to do with shaking issues.

[Lobstrosity]

If your wheels need hubspacers (aka hubcentric rings) - which they will if they aren't the correct fitting for your car, then they will definitely vibrate a bit without them. If your winter wheels are a known aftermarket company I'm sure a wheel/tire shop like Kaltire or Tiretrends would be able to locate the appropriate rings.

[Mr. Red]

Hmmm, thanks for the help so far! What they have written on my invoice is that there is no hub centric rings. Apparently this is most of the problem. This could be just the start, because my wheel bolts are not very long to begin with, and if I put in rings, they might not screw in properly or all the way, or be unsafe. And this problem only started when I mounted the new wheels/tires, although there was a tiny bit of play before, the problems started this weekend.

[BeamR X]

OK.

There is a difference between the hubcentric ring and a hubcentric spacer.

The ring is most likely what you need.



If you use aftermarket rims with a center bore (the hole in the middle) larger than your overal diameter of the hub you need the ring to fill the gap between around the flange of your hub and the oversized hole in the rim. This also centers the rim dead on, which is the whole point of the "hub" "centric" "rings". This does not space the wheel away from the car or the "wheel mounting surface" (WMS) so the same bolts you are using will be just ine (PROVIDING YOU ARE NOT SWITCHING THE WHEEL TYPE: LIKE GOING FROM ALUMINUM TO STEEL).




The spacers...



... (which may or may not neccesitate - depending on type) longer bolts are a different cup of tee. Their main purpose is to decrease the distance of how deep the wheel sits inside your wheel well, It's literally is a piece oh a giant metal washer that goes between the wheel and WMS of the hub. Most of them will of course incorporate the hub centric feature in their design, for the very reason we already covered.

But I doubt you need the spacer, unless your wheels sit too deep inwards. You probably just need the rings.