Hey all,

I bought 4 Falken Torque 5 Wheels and 4 matching Ziek 17: (205-45-17) tires. I had them installed on my car today. My local tire guy installed them. They are are a high end performance shop, so i know they do a great job. SEE MY GALLERY FOR PICS.

However, as is the case with most of the after market wheels/tires that I've purchased recently, after having them balanced 2 times on each wheel/tire, I have a slight vibration at speeds of 50+ MPH. Once I hit 70 MPH it goes away, but the fact remains, most of my driving is in the 50 to 65 MPH, so I am stuck with the vibration. I've tried less air pressure, lug nut adjustment, rebalancing, yet nothing eliminates the vibration totally. And no, hubcentric rings have not helped. A similar thing happened when I recently purchased Flik Wasp wheels from Edge Racing. However, 2 of the flik wheels were bent and vibrated extremely on my car, so I had to return them to Edge. the torgue wheels are not nearly as bad as the Fliks were.

I would be interested to know if others end up having some if any vibration when switching to after market wheels/tires.

Other than the vibration, they look sharp, which I guess I'll have to live with.

riesek2003

 

My new Motegi MR7s had a terrible vibration around 70 with the plastic centering rings. The local tire shop had custom aluminum rings made up, at no cost to me after trying several times to correct it. They took away most of the vibration, but I can still feel it from time to time.

 

Has anyone done a road force balance on the setup??

 

I was having the same problem with my Rota circuit 10 wheels, NO matter what i did i could not get the vibration to go away!! in fact the alumi hub rings made it worse. I have now given up on them and have returned to factory wheels, and now all is smooth!! I know this does not help, but just sharing a similar story!!

 

Yes, exact same problem.

I switched back to my stock rims to track the MINI, then when I had the aftermarkets put back, the ride was never the same. I even ended up getting new tires (non runflats), and had new hub rings shipped & re-fitted (Keskin wheels from Germany). Balanced over & over (both the tried & true method, and the new digital method). Still have a shimmy at the 50 MPH-ish mark, again at 70 - 75 MPH. I've come to live with it. I've heard every explanation in the book, but honestly believe it's just a 17" aftermarket wheel problem.

My wheels are 17X8.

 

i have absolutely ZERO vibrations on my wheels.

 

Balancing done by the pros. Rebalanced on professional calibrated machine. However, still slight vibration. I do know one thing, being a light car, the new rims/tires weigh much less than the original stock rims/tires. Maybe the lightness is the issue.

 

So, it's a classic Mini? If a new MINI, please share how you got it down to 1600lbs!

 

I have BBS with no problems....

I'm assuming you are doing "high speed" balancing.. this is supposed to be good to 85mph..... curious

 

I have a realy good freind in are local club that has BBS wheels, he NEVER has a vibration problem. and I could never get rid of mine, I tried to live with it but just couldnt, so I ended up selling my 1400.00 wilwood brakes and have now bought JCW brakes and factory wheels to get the car smooth again, its all very SADD!! : (

 

The wheels were balanced a total of 3 times, then rotated the fronts to back and all seems ok now. SLight vibration, but nothing like it was.

 

If you still have a vibration take your car to a shop with a Hunter 9000 machine. Have a road force balance done. Not just a balance. I have a Miata that is very susceptible to vibrations. The only way I can get a smooth ride is with a road force balance. Well worth the money.

 

^ +1 little vibration now could lead to wheel bearing failure.

 

I think your wheel needs hub centric rings. discount tire sells them or your local shop should have them too.

I have the same problem.

Hope that helps.

 

Took wheels to a shop that has a Road Force Hunter 9700 machine. They balanced them perfectly and I still get vibration. The shop mechanic cannot explain it. That's 2 differnet shops, balancing the wheels/tires 4 times. Still vibrates.

I've had it! So, I removed the wheels/tires and re-mounted the stock wheels/tires and guess what? No vibration! Therefore, it's either the wheels/tires, balancing machines, or just plain human error.

I took the wheels/tires back to the shop where I got them and they will refund my credit card next week.

Back to square one. All I want is a nice set of black wheels that ride correctly.

BTW: The wheels were mounted using lugcentric bolts and tuner lugs, then remounted using hubcentric rings and lugs, and neither worked to remove the vibration. They were hand tightened using a torque wrench as well.

 

Weird!

I ended up buying a set of Weds Sport TC005's 17x7 with 215/45/17's from tire rack. They came with alum hub centric rings and ride 1000 times better. Those flick wheels were bad, but these work great. I used to run 18x7.5" flick wasps and they were fine, it just seems some cars are more sensitive than others to vibration.

 

A friend of mine had vibration problems, turned out to be one of the tires was mounted backwards on the wheel. He had directional tires and 1 was backwards. Funny thing was, he didn't even know his tires were directional and got lucky when he mounted them. (except for the 1). Anyway, he had it remounted to the correct direction and the vibration went away.

 

You've all been great! I just have no luck with aftermarket wheels.

 

Same problem with my car. I changed lug bolts/nuts with studs, plastic centering rings, aluminum centering rings, Hunter 9700, etc... and nothing has helped. The aluminum rings and new lug BOLTS seemed to help the most, but it will still be there about 65 mph. Funny thing is sometimes it won't be there and then you take a sharp turn or hit a large expansion joint and it comes right back. It is almost as if the wheels are shifting around slightly. GRR....

 

anything that makes your car unstable, i'd steer clear from. suspension is just as hard to troubleshoot as electrical problems.

 

One thing to look for on your new tires is the valve stem locating sticker on the tire side wall. I learnded years ago on Goodyears this was intended to be at the location of the valve stem only.

I'll defer to Alex on how much this may matter but I was told by the GY engineers this was to counter the added weight of larger new style stems such as sensors.

You may also want to consult a tire shaving shop. They would rather do them new so not to damage the blades but shaving a high spot may cure your problems also.

 

Unfortunately, I have the same problem with my aftermarket wheels. Number of different balancings did not help and I have it around 50 mph. Luckily, the avarage "flow" speed of the freeways are above that around here (when not in a Parking Lot State of course).

What would be the short and long term effects of a shimmy coming from the aftermarket wheels. Should I sell them and get another OEM set from eBay? Darn it... I want anthracite wheels for my MCS!!!

 

You could always have the OEM wheels powdercoated. Then it would be truely unique.

 

R99?

 

I just got 4 hubcentric rings for the aftermarket wheels and had them installed today. Wow! What a difference! The "50-60 mph shimmy" is gone bye bye! I know that hubcentric rings made the situation even worse for some people here, but it helped a lot in my case...
Cheers!