I've just gotten a set of Kumho tires mounted and balanced at American Tire Depot. The wheel specs are 225/40/18 sitting on 18x7.5 w/ 45mm offset rims. I've also installed "hub rings" that are for our TSX. It's been a week now and I've taken my car back to the shop 3 times, but there is still vibration on the steering wheel at 60+ mph speed. Alignment was also done after balancing the wheels. The shop showed me the numbers on the balancing machine for all 4 wheels and they were all perfectly balanced. The shop measured the hub rings and they were the right sizes and mentioned that it might have something to do with the struts/shocks, which I did replace just a week before getting the wheels... I'm really concerned whether or not the vibration will wear out the tears prematurely or mess up the rims... Can someone please advise me to what is wrong with the wheels and why my steering wheel keep on vibrating? Thanks!

-K

 

Try rotating the tires to see if that helps.

 

Do I just rotate left rear and right rear forward without cross rotating right?

 

Front left ~> Rear left
Front Right ~> Rear right
Rear Right ~> Front left
Rear left ~> Front right

I think..make sure you confirm it inside your manual.

 

Did you have the vibration problem before switching to the new wheels/tires? If no, then the problem most likely are from the wheels/tires/balancing. If you want to rotate tires to verify, make sure the tires are rotated correctly as you can't cross directional tires.

 

No I didn't have this problem even after lowering on the TL rims/tires, only started happening after I got the 18s. I'm gonna rotate the wheels and see what happens.

-K

 

have you driven without the hub rings recently? does it still vibrate with them off?

 

hmm no i havent, but i thought hub rings are suppose to make the wheels more secured? removing them will only vibrate more aint it?

 

Some people have been able to fix their vibration issues by properly mounting and torquing the lug nuts w/ the wheels off the ground. You can do this on the rear tires by yourself, b/c the emergency brake will hold the wheel still. However, for the fronts, you will need someone sitting inside the car w/ foot on brake on pedal.

You can try this with or without hubrings. Put the rim on the car. Push until the rim is evenly centered on the 5 lugs and the hubring. Hold the rim in this position as you hand tighten the lug nuts in a star pattern. Then, using a torque wrench, bolt down the rim in a star pattern. Don't go right to 80 lb/ft right off the bat. Work your way up to 80 lb/ft incrementally.

 

ok.... i think i'm gonna (#@$(*ing explode. I just went downstairs to the garage trying to unbolt the bolts on the wheels and u know what??? I could not get the bolt out! I used my torque wrench with max of 140 lb/ft trying to unbolt but the bolts were even tighter than that!!! Broke an extension because it was so tight! These dumbasses at American Tire Depot did not torque it to spec and over torqued everything, now I only hope the bolt stems arent bent or twisted. I'm gonna go medieval on their asses tomorrow morning and getting my damn money back. sorry guys, i had to vent >.<

 

Holy shit that's not cool! I just hope there's no damage to your rotors either. I'd definitely raise hell with them.

 

Dan, is there a way to tell if the rotors are bent? I wanna make sure I know how to show them if the rotors do get bent.

 

You'll be able to tell once you hit the brakes.

 

aww fawk.... >.< can it be resurfaced instead of being replaced..?

 

Probably but you should go down that road if/when you get to it.

 

well they should be paying for it if they over torqued the lugs. And the shaking is very much a sign of hub rings... if they can't torque lugs, they might not be able to find the right hub rings. Post your size, someone might know what it is, mine are currently on my car

 

Holy shit. Sorry to hear about that Kevin. When some lame ass tire shop over-torqued my lug nuts on one of my old cars, I didn't have warped rotors, but what I did have was a stripped bolt. It was almost impossible to get the lug nut off. I had to replace the wheel bolt. So, once you get the lug nuts off, check to make sure that the bolts aren't bent and/or stripped.

 

I bought the hubrings from the rim dealer instead of from the shop. Can you please post the proper hubring size for our tsx so I can confirm again with the person who sold me the rims? The hubrings I have right now are plastic, when I tried to put them onto the rotor center where the OEM hub center is, the hubring sits nearly perfect, but just a tiny bit loose, you can remove the hubring easily, is that normal?

 

Yea, that's what's happenin' right now, I cannot get any of the lug nuts out, I pried on it with a 140 lb/ft max torque wrench and it wont budge at all.

I'm wondering how I'm gonna tell the shop... they showed me their computer and it was perfectly balanced (tires), can you guys help me out with suggestions? sigh... and I thought American Tire Depot is an reputable tire company...

 

Just tell them that they clearly overtorqued the lug nuts and ask that they pay for the cost of getting the lug nuts off and replacing whatever was damaged (wheel bolts, rotors, etc.).

I just realized something - you're using a torque wrench to try to get the lug nuts off. You should only use the torque wrench to tighten stuff.

If you want to try to remove the nut yourself, you can try your electric impact wrench or use a "breaker" or "cheater" bar. This is basically a long metal bar that accepts a socket. Don't use the standard 3/8" socket sets as they may not be strong enough to withstand the force that a breaker bar can apply. I did this once and permanently rounded/embedded the nut in the socket! Use impact rated 1/2" sockets.

 

I would just take the car back to the tire shop and have them remove the wheels and torque properly with a torque wrench. If they break the stud in the process of removing it, then it would be their fault. Btw, how did they balance the wheels? Weight on both sides or just one side?

 

1 out of the 4 wheels have inner and outer weights, while the other 3 have weights on the inner part (away from the spokes). But for some reason, all 4 wheels show "00" on the balance machine, which is the # for a balanced tire right? Is there a difference between weights on the outer and inner part of the wheel?

 

I hope you solve your problem kaikai
Where is American Tire Depot.....so that I can stay away from that place.

 

that's normal. I don't have my sizes since I put my rims back on my car, maybe someone else has their aftermarkets off their car right now.

 

Great news! I've taken my car to Just Tires and guess what, the technician there did the checkup on tire balance. The tires were actually 1.75 off on all 4 wheels! So they've rebalanced everything and now the vibration is gone The lugs were locked so tight that the Justtire technician could not unbolt them with the air pressure gun!!! So he had to get help from couple other guys using a wrench to pry the lugs loose, took them nearly 40 min just to get all the lugs out. Good thing is there is no damage to the wheel bolts nor the rotors. The technician was so pissed off trying to get the lugs out that he was cursing and going nuts He yelled... "Who the fawk and why the fawk would some fawkin' moron lock the fawkin' lugs so fawkin' tight!?!" It was just hilarious watching him, though I was really worried too =\

As for the shop that messed up on the balancing, I've called them and asked for a refund, not only did I not get my refund, I got bunch of bullshit from the manager questioning my knowledge on cars/wheels!!! So then I got pissed off majorly, called my my creditcard company denying that charge. Called their headquarter, but nobody picked up, left a nasty message promising them I'd take this to court and report it to Small Business Administration bureau. Though the amount on dispute is not worth going to court for, so I'm just going to report it to SBA bureau.

For those of you in SoCAL, here is your fair warning. Here is the shop who messed up on my car:

AMERICAN TIRE DEPOT
Installer since: 07/17/2001
Address:
310 N TUSTIN AVE
ORANGE, CA 92867-7721
(714) 532-3333

I wouldn't say American Tire Depot is all bad, as you know there are always a few dumbasses even in the most reputable tire shops. What I did not like was the service and how they hung up on me when I was complaining about the poor job done. The Just Tires I went to at the intersection of Jamboree & Irvine Center Drive was great. I actually made friends with that technician after that lug ordeal, so if you guys are looking to buy tires or any service, let me know. I can probably get a discount for you. Thanks for all the help and information, I'm knowledgable in car now because of all you guys and I wouldn't have fixed the problem without you!!!!

-K

 

Glad it all worked out and there is no damage to your car. Post pics of your car w/ the new rims/tires!

I feel sorry for all those other people who had tires replaced at American Tire Depot. Most don't know how messed up of a job they do. What a pain in the ass it would be to not be able to change a flat tire b/c some f-cknut torqued the wheels to 140+ lb/ft!

 

Ya, sounds like a bish. Man Kev, glad everything worked out for you. And I can't wait to see your ride at the meet this Saturday!

AlterZgo, you going to it?

 

I'm planning on it, but I have to check w/my wife to make sure we don't have something else on calendar this weekend. Looking forward to meeting everyone and checking out the TSXs.

 

yea I'm glad everything's settled with no further problems

AlterZgo, I'd really like to see you MR TSX again, you'll stand out in the crowd for sure

-K

 

Specially with that nice drop! BTW very nice write up AlterZgo. Makes me think about lowering my car as well

 

glad to hear everything worked out. see you all at the meet. almost there!

 

Thanks! See you on Saturday.

 

Wish I didn't live so far.....Make sure to try and take lots of pics guys

 

Often times the less than perfect shops will buy the balancing machines, and then almost never have the machines calibrated. The balancing machines along with the alignment machines are precision instruments. They need to be calibrated every once in a while to ensure proper operation.