steering wheel shake after 20" wheels/tires

[Viperbluelx]

When I bought my car about a month ago I only kept the factory 17's about a week before I put brand new 20x9 and 20x10's with brand new tires. Since then the steering wheel moves left and right starting around 40mph, especially when the cars cold. It does this from 40mph-up, all the way to around 70mph and then it goes away. Once the tires are hot it seems to be not nearly as noticeable. The tires are balanced and the car doesn't have a vibration, just the steering wheel shaking left and right on it's own. I pulled the tires/wheels and took off the rotor clips that people have issues with, also resurfaced all 4 rotors and replaced all the brake pads. I found that both the outer tie rod ends had play so I replaced them also. The shake in the steering wheel is still there and I don't know what else to do really.

 

[I am Legend]

I have the same issue. My car is perfectly aligned, and has nothing worn on it. I recently purchased a set of Nitto Invos and now I have the same steering wheel shake. Only between 30-40mph. I brought the wheels to a different shop to have them re-balanced and was basically told that the tires are just slightly out of round. You can visibly see a little hop in the rubber as it spins on the balancer. So, even though the wheels balance out fine, that hop causes a very slight vibration in the wheel.

 

[stkjock]

Try a Roadforce balance?

 

[Viperbluelx]

That will be my next step. I balanced them on my Hunter machine at my shop and they look smooth on the balancer and don't take a lot of weight either.

 

[Blue07GT]

I get this problem every now and then. It turns out to be the wheel/tire isn't balanced. Typically it's due to throwing a weight and its actually the rear tires from what I've been told. I just taken my car into Les Schwab when this starts happening and they fix me up.

 

[VTXFrank]

I had this issue with my first set of wheels. Turned out that the wheels weren't hub-centric friendly like I thought they were. As soon as I used a 5/16" hub-centric spacer on them, that went away. I wish now I wouldn't have sold those spacers.

 

[whoapony]

You can take them in to be rebalanced, have them slide the tire on the rim to a a new location. Depending on the amount of weights used they might be able to reduce it that way.

This may sound strange, but mine did this as well when it was cold out and I was told they are flat spots. Develops with soft rubber, the weight of the car press down on the rubber while warm, then the tires get harder in the cold while sitting. The flat spot is present during initial driving and then goes away as the tire warms up and softens again.

 

[Mach2burnout]

The tires are probably slightly out of round. If so, there is nothing you can do to correct it by balancing, etc. Contact the vendor or manufacturer and have them replace under warranty. This is becoming more and more frequent, I guess with the number of tires made, maybe testing is lacking or something. But, the last two sets I've bought, one set was Continental DWS's (1 out of 2 front tires, had an out of round issue) for my mustang and one set was Hankook (1 out of 4 had an out of round issue) 275/15 for my chevy truck. Each came from different venders. I bought a set of BF Goodriches for my Ford F-150 a few months ago, no issues.

My nephew and his father run a tire store and have been in business for about 20 yrs. They tell me have had more of these in the last year than ever before from all manufacturers.

^^^ whoapony - flat spots will occur in any weather conditions if you tend to let your car set for more than a week at time or so. It just tends to take longer and seem more severe in cold weather. If you store you car for the winter, set it on jack stands.

 

[whoapony]

^^^ whoapony - flat spots will occur in any weather conditions if you tend to let your car set for more than a week at time or so. It just tends to take longer and seem more severe in cold weather. If you store you car for the winter, set it on jack stands.

Yeah, mine would do it daily from basically fall until spring, it didn't have to sit for a week. I would get a slight shimmy in the wheel on initial driving and after a few minutes of being on the road it would slowly fade away. During the super months it was pretty much non existent.

 

[DarkTrak]

Did any of you guys think to pull the little rotor hold washers off of the studs? Betcha $5 if you didn't, that's it.

 

[Viperbluelx]

Did any of you guys think to pull the little rotor hold washers off of the studs? Betcha $5 if you didn't, that's it.

yup

I pulled the tires/wheels and took off the rotor clips that people have issues with

 

[BNH4.6]

Roadforce balance would be my guess and what I'm trying next, my fronts do the same thing between 45-70 mph and only the steering wheel shakes. Check the weights too my are taped on the inside of the wheel and that could also be a problem.

My wheels are 20x9 front 20x10 rear. Another thing could be a bad belt in the tire I had som KDW's that did the same no matter what.