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Steering wheel shakes


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Ok ive done the alingment my self to make sure all numbers match . I have arizona z car control arms so every angle is adjustable caster camber everything .Even new wheel bearings and such .

 

The numbers are dead on and i have all new bushings a new steering rack new rims and tires all balanced . New tokico struts and springs everything is tight yet when i hit oh 50 mph and up the steering wheel starts to shake or wobble it is annoying .

 

I have been told by some fellow z owners this is normal and cant be fixed i dont believe that one bit . So if anyone has had this problem and fixed it let me know as ive lived with this problem for 3 years and im sick of it .

 

Jason

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Make sure the wheels and tires are DYNAMICALLY balanced. If they're only balanced with weights on the inside of the rim that could be an issue. That's probably the #1 cause of tire balance issues, especially with all the blingy rims that don't have a lip on the outside. You have to use stick on weights with those, and lots of people don't like the weights showing.

 

Also, if you're using wheel spacer make absolutely sure that the inside hole in the spacer is big enough to fit over the hub. I chased what I thought was a wheel balance issue for a LONG time and it turned out that the spacers you buy from the auto parts store have a hole that is .005" too small.

 

Could also be a bent rim. I would say look for a bent stub axle but if you feel it through the steering wheel that's probably not it.

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if its only when you hit the brakes its warped rotors. if its all the time, sounds like something isnt right... maybe tires out of alignment or you got a bearing on wrong. i think you got something on just a little off.. id go back and check.

 

as for the tire ballancing static ballancing (weights only on inside lip) is just as good as dynamic. in fact its actualy better because there is no stupid weight on the outside of your rim. (i have static ballanced rims on my Camaro and ive had it up to 150 and it was extremly smooth)

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as for the tire ballancing static ballancing (weights only on inside lip) is just as good as dynamic. in fact its actualy better because there is no stupid weight on the outside of your rim. (i have static ballanced rims on my Camaro and ive had it up to 150 and it was extremly smooth)

Fresh out of high school I had jobs at a couple different tire shops. I've seen enough comebacks get "fixed" when the owner agrees to put weights on the outside of the rim that I know that I'm right. I've also had to take my own car back to the shop when they did a static balance after I asked for a dynamic balance. The vibration at 65-75 was gone after a proper dynamic balance.

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Yep.. all true.

Especially considering how long its been going on.

 

Do you have a set of fronts from a happy Z driver that you could borrow for a six pack? Test drive em.

 

Need to eliminate some stuff here.

 

I chased a vibration one time on tires that were at about 6000K mi.

Did the alignment thing, balanced and rebalanced. Balanced at a different shop!

Shop number two blamed the tires! They were right in the end.

Out of round.

Damn cheap Firestones. I would have never suspected.

 

Any how if you can get a set to borrow, and have no probs, you can go after the hubs, rotors. if they have been over heated or otherwise abused you might have em.

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yeah, id also check your tire pressure

 

jmorstensen - if you put a tire on a ballancer, ballance it with static ballance, and then do it again with a dynamic, you will in almost every case come up with 0. this thread is going to get turned into an arugment of static vs dynamic ballancing, but if you do static correctly it is just as good as dynamic and much better than stickons

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yeah' date=' id also check your tire pressure

 

jmorstensen - if you put a tire on a ballancer, ballance it with static ballance, and then do it again with a dynamic, you will in almost every case come up with 0. this thread is going to get turned into an arugment of static vs dynamic ballancing, but if you do static correctly it is just as good as dynamic and much better than stickons[/quote']

 

Me no expert here so for my info is static were you plop the wheel on the cone looking thing. And dynamic is where you spin it?

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if you put a tire on a ballancer, ballance it with static ballance, and then do it again with a dynamic, you will in almost every case come up with 0.

That has NEVER happened to me. Ever. Like I said, I spent several years busting tires, so I've got a bit of experience.

 

this thread is going to get turned into an arugment of static vs dynamic ballancing, but if you do static correctly it is just as good as dynamic and much better than stickons

Say it as many times as you like, it is still wrong.

 

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/features/intro.cfm

 

Quote: Static wheel balancing uses a single weight plane and only addresses "up-and-down" imbalance. This is simply not adequate for today's vibration sensitive vehicles.

 

http://www.volvoclub.org.uk/faq/WheelBalance.html

 

Quote: Static balance is accomplished by placing the rim/tire on a special balancing stand that has a cross hair and bubble level in the center. Wheel weights are added to the appropriate place along the outside edge of the rim to line the cross hair with the bubble. When this is accomplished, the tire is balanced. The major shortcoming of this method is the fact that the tire is not spinning and therefore the added balancing weights are unable to compensate for any rotational inconsistencies. Years ago when parallel steering systems and "mushy" bias ply tires were the norm, static balancing generally proved adequate.

 

http://www.innerauto.com/Automotive_Definitions/Dynamic_Wheel_Balance/

https://www-auth.cs.wisc.edu/lists/vfr/1995-July/msg00821.shtml

http://www.tpub.com/content/construction/14273/css/14273_330.htm

 

This last one is particularly good:

http://www.cjtire.com/pdfs/Servicing%20Tires%20&%20Wheels.pdf#search=%22static%20dynamic%20wheel%20balance%22

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the only tire ballancers that ive ever seen spin the tire.

 

there is a button on the tire ballancer that you press letting it know if you want to put weights on the outside or inside of the wheel or if you want to put wheel weights on it. i always slelect inside only. no problems ever with ballancing ever, even at 140+

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The spin balancers can do either a static or a dynamic balance. A static balance on a spin balancer is the same type of balance done with the old bubble style balancer. You can't dynamically balance a tire with weights only on the inside. It just isn't possible. If you couldn't feel a shimmy at 140+ that's great, but that doesn't mean that the tire was balanced dynamically, or that the static balance was as good as a dynamically balanced tire.

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Could be the tires the rims and tires are only about 2 years old 15x9 all the way around no spacers ive never hit a curb or hole thank god . Unfortunetly there are no z owners where i live or ive never seen any in Colorado springs Denver is another matter lots of z cars .No tires to borrow from to test the tire theory .

 

The shaking only starts at 50 mph plus Doesnt shake when braking nice and smooth under 50mph .Ill try a tire balance first as i work for Mitsubishi so i have free access as a mechanic thanks for the help .

 

Jason

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The shaking only starts at 50 mph plus Doesnt shake when braking nice and smooth under 50mph .Ill try a tire balance first as i work for Mitsubishi so i have free access as a mechanic thanks for the help .

 

Jason

 

 

If you are over 50 mph and it's shaking and you touch the brakes does it go away?

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  • 5 months later...

Anyone ever have an intermittent vibration (felt in the steering wheel)? I don't just mean only at one speed. What I've been experiencing is some days (maybe half the time), everything is perfectly smooth, from 10-80mph. Other days, I may get a vibration at one speed (say 50-55mph or 65-70mph) that goes away in other speeds or a vibration that is almost constant from 40mph all the way up. Sometimes the vibration is very minor, some times it's really bad.

 

I can't tell if it's weather/temperature dependent. I'm sure it must be tire related (all susp./brake stuff is new and I've checked/rechecked bearings, lugs, etc.). My steering rack seems pretty tight - though I'm sure my "test" is not really adequate.

 

I need to get new tires soon (after sourcing some adjustable LCAs), but this problem is just too weird. Worst part is I have a squeak somewhere in my dashboard and when I have a vibration day, there is a maddening noise - and since I can hear it over the LS1 exhaust noise AND my ear plugs, you know it's bad.

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OK... MY racing buddy owns a Wheel and Tire store... He has been in the business for over a decade... He is THE SOURCE for tire mounting for all of the racers in our area... He is that good... He performs insurance work and is also THE MAN for nearly all of the local dealers who run into problems related to tires...

All of his equipment is Hunter... He uses several of their Road Force Balancing systems...

 

 

If you are having a vibration problem and it is related to wheel and or tires then YOU MUST FIND A SHOP WITH A ROAD FORCE BALANCER SYSTEM... This machine accounts for both wheel and tire issues with both balance AND SHAPE... The tires can often be rotated on the rims get get everything lined up for a smooth running set up...

 

This machine loads the tire and wheel assembly as it's rated capacity and then spins it under tension at speeds equivalent to 80MPH... If there is a problem... IT WILL FIND IT... period...

 

Any other type of tire balancing machine is functionally OBSOLETE... Modern cars and tires have come a long way in the past decade... YOU CANNOT PROPERLY BALANCE A MODERN WHEEL AND TIRE ASSEMBLY WITHOUT ROAD FORCE MEASUREMENT! If you manage to get it right in any other way.. you just got lucky... There are too many cars with out of round issues... and there are a surprising number of bad tires frmo many of the manufacturers... even the best...

 

The static vs dynamic balance is a decades old argument... There is NO ARGUMENT HERE... Modern cars REQUIRE dynamic balancing... liek I said before... if you get it right any other way.. You just got lucky...

 

Oh.. You don't always need to place weights on the outside of the wheel for dynamic balance... High offset wheels allow the weights to be placed inside the spokes and still achieve a dynamic placement...

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my car's tires have some axial run out. This causes the wheel to shake at around 70mph. They were able to balance the tires perfectly, but the shape of the wheel is more important than balance.

 

I would start by checking runout... axially and radially.

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Get some new tires at Discount Tire and pay the extra money for their Ride Matching service (i.e. Road Force Balancing mentioned above). It makes a huge difference and I do it with all my new tires.

 

It's also easy to mount 4-lug wheels slightly off balance. You should install each wheel, hand tightening lug nuts in a cross pattern until the wheel is snug. Then use a torque wrench to tighten to the right spec. Dont just fire them on with an air impact - thats a good way to cause problems.

 

Try moving your wheels around on the car and see if the vibration feels different (like moving front to rear).

 

 

 

- Greg -

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