I have a set of AT Italia wheels with Falken tires, both less than 10,000K miles and a year old. These are my summer wheels and tires. The winter wheels and tires were fine.

Pop the summer set on, and I get a vibration that starts around 60mph, feel it all the way to 80mph.

I had my dealer do an alignment and wheel balance. Alignment was off just a bit, they claim its dead on now and gave me the spec printout to prove it.

Wheel balance didn't work, still get a vibration.

Go to a TireRack authorized installer who solved a similiar problem with my Saab's custom wheels. He rebalanced the wheels, its better, but the vibration is still there and noticable.

Went back to the dealer, they inspected the front end, and see no problems, they also put front to rear, rear to front, no dice.

Dealer is now pointing the finger at the wheels and tires and claims a belt has slipped in the tires or the wheels are bent.

I find this hard to believe, since I had no problems last season with this same set of wheels, and then wouldn't the balance be off?

I'm out of ideas and places to look - dealer recommends I invest in a new set of tires ($500-600 - OUCH), and if that doesn't fix it, to toss the rims. Not likely since I spent almost $900 on the rims and they're less than a year old!

Any ideas guys?

Thanks!

 

honestly and as much as it hurts I had the same issue and bought new tires about 2 weeks ago .... car now rides like a dream!!!

 

rotate your tires, if it goes away then you've isolated it down to 1 problem tire/wheel. You feel more from the tires/wheels bolted to the front so use your steering wheel as a do-it-yourself diagnostic tool.

 

Do you normally use wheel hub adapters? Maybe one isn't installed.

 

It normally is either a defect in a tire or a bent wheel. Rotating them can often change the vibration characteristic and if it gets worse, then you know it is now isolated to the front (and vice versa).
Here's something: Twice, not once, but twice I went with the same problem to a place I always use. A different m0r0n touches the car all the time even though the owner and I are friends...I'm thinking it is totally a balance issue as I've got the same vibration as you but between 70 and 85 or so. The worker comes in twice and says it is perfectly balanced. I say it isn't, I know. The owner and I walk out and he's showing us the balance display but yet when you spin the wheel on the machine, the
fu(kin' thing is obviously bent to h=ll and back. Sometimes the obvious is often overlooked...Now a tire isn't going to be as obvious but rotating them around will help isolate which one/ones are affected.

 

try getting hub centric rings, you know, the rings that go in between your wheels and the actual rotor... i think that should do the trick...

 

You wrote that your winter tires and rim are fine. So what is the difference? The problem is either the AT Italia wheels or the Falken tires.
My vote is that the belt slipped on one of your tires.

 

Thanks for the advice!

More info for you...

The dealer did the front to back trick - no dice, still a vibration, maybe a bit worse.

The note about the wheel being obviously bent on the balance machine is exactly what happened with my Saab.

Three dealers reported balance was correct, but the TireRack authorized place spotted that the Saab wheel was bent in a second on their machine.

But this same TireRack place says my Acura wheels balanced fine on their machine. So....

Looks like a set of tires. :-)

I have a set of Yokahama's picked out already, unless someone thinks something else may be wrong?

The only other item is that I don't have hub rings and don't believe I ever had them - would they make any difference or cause vibrations?

Thanks!

 

Weather you need hub centric rings or not depends on the type of rim you have. The wheel is either 'hub centric' or 'lug centric'. Meaning the rim either rests on the center hub or on the lugs. I'm told the stock Type-S rims have a ball type base on the lugs where they touch the rim so the ever common conical shaped lugs won't work without damaging the rims. Your may be different though.

This link may help:

http://www.contemporarymotorsport.co...ore/wheels.asp