And yes, I know this is usually an issue with balance and/or alignment, but have been told both are fine.

Using aftermarket wheels...and have been told by a shop that sometimes that's just how aftermarket wheels run.

Come on now, when you guys are going 70+ does your steering wheel vibrate noticably? I'm talking so much so it makes driving it feel uncomfortable as if something is going to go flying from the car sending you flipping over?

I'm not exaggerating here. If I'm driving 45-60 or whatever, it feels fine. Soon as I'm in the 70-75 range...it feels like it's going to fall apart.

And if the tires are balanced and the car's aligned...what's going on here?

I'm sick of shops (including the dealer and a Just Tires joint) telling me nothing's wrong with the car...

Should a steering wheel feel like a sex toy at 70+MPH?

 

my car does that too, but im slammed front and back with no alignment. but the car did that too while it was stock. even my friend whos not modded notices the same thing. i guess its just the car or the road, coz some roads are smoother than others

 

check to see if one of your wheels are out of round. i had a problem much like what u r describing and it turned out that one of my wheels was out of round.

 

dude..... take you car to a reputable tire shop and talk to a tire sales guy that knows his stuff.

you have 2 different vibrations: 1 around 45 and 1 around 70.
the 1 around 45 is a balance issue of some type
the 1 around 70 could be several things: a bent rim, the begining of a tread seperation, out of round tire.
all of thease thing can be checked and found.
anyone that tells you that its ok and or normal is just not spending enough time looking or doesn't know what to look for.
my box is sittin 4 1/2 " off the groung + aftermarket shoks + aftermarket rim. my steering wheel doesn't vibrate ever at any speed.

if your steering wheel is vibrating........ you have a problem somewere. its never ever normal or just the way the car is.
get it checked again and again untill someone finds the problem.

 

Unfortunately - and I've had first-hand experience with this myself over the years - some aftermarket wheels are just crap, and can definitely, especially in the 65 - 75 mph range, cause exactly this problem.
Other than that, as mentioned, have a shop check to see if they're true (round).
Also - are the wheels hubcentrically correct for your car?
Unfortunately, if any of the above are the problem, no amount of aligning, balancing or witch-doctoring is going to make any difference. You either get a new set of quality wheels, or find a girlfriend or wife who enjoys your steering wheel at high speeds...

 

First off are you running hubcentric rings? Also, if you are running the rings find a shop that has the tire balancer that has a roller that actually places a load on the tire while it's rotating. You may have to rotate the tire on the rim so it will balance out better. Remember... you can balance a square box but it doesn't mean it will roll smoothly.

 

get your tires balanced correctly. my car was shaking at around 70 and when i replaced my tires it was gone. now the rides smooooth.

 

"replaced" is the key word.
a balence is a balence.
as long as the balencer is set up and calibrated correctly, a zeroed out tire is balenced.
you can match balence it and use less weights but its still just a balence.
a balence will not fix a bent rim, a tread seperation, or en out of round tire.

 

Exatly right. That is where the load balance machine comes in handy. It will find the heavy spot of the tire and match it up with the light spot on the rim. The machine also checks the rim for run out and tells you if the rim is true and useable.

 

It could be one of many things Here is a list of things to check. Some have already been stated above.

1. Are your wheels hub centric? if not are you using the correct size hub ring for the wheel as well as the vehicle?

2. Are your lugs the correct seat? Most are tapered seat but there are occasions where they are not. Your original lugs might seem to fit but they should be replaced.

3. Alignment correction.

4. If you used to have an alignment problem that has since been corrected your tires might have warn funny now they might vibrate due to it.

5. Balance. Standard balances are not sophisticated enough for low-profile performance tires and wheels. Find a shop that will RoadForce balance them for you. All 650+ Discount tire stores/ Americas tire have them and will be happy to do it for you. They will also tell you when doing this if they find that one of your wheels is bend or out-of-round.

6. When bolting the wheel and tire assemble on make sure this is done by hand. (not with an air gun) Air tools often seat the wheel off center and the wheel will stay off center once it is torqued down. Always hand tighten and hand torque your wheels to the proper Ft/pound pressure.

 

Thanks, Road force is the name I couldn't remember. I had a set of tires that would balance out but still cause a bad vibration at speed. I ended up returning the tires for new ones from a different manufacturer. 3 out of the 4 had heavy out of round spots that would not pass the road force treatment.

 

Any updates to this saga??? Kinda just left us hangin in the wind without a follow up.

 

Still have to get it taken care of.

There are centering rings on the wheels.

Only thing I can imaging would be needing new tires or the rims are just crap.

I'll let you know as I plan on taking it to a Just Tires shop shortly...

 

I had the same thing happen with my first set of tires that came with my rims from an online order. I wore through the tires in 15k miles, they were utter crap. Had a new set of tires from a different brand put on the same rim at the tire store and now the shaking is almost gone. Running 17x7's

 

I'm running factory tires on Sport Max wheels.

Have 30K miles...so it could be the tires...but the vibration has been happening for a while, and to be honest...ever since the wheels were put on, there have been noticable vibrations...

Sometimes its been lessened just because the tires needed air, but it's never been totally smooth...

Probably crap wheels, or were never mounted properly.

 

I had the same issues with my first set of internet wheel/tires. Come to find out that the balance job was just bad. Had them re balanced and all was fine.
A good rule to follow to ensure good tire life is to have them rebalanced every 10K or so and keep them rotated every 3-4K.

 

i don't know why you are so set on thinking its your rims thats the problem.

its one of 2 things: bad balence or bad tires. if you have 30k miles with the stock tires then its about time for a new set.

ive got stock tires on sportmax rims and ive never mad any problems. BUT i balenced them my self, i always make sure i have 40 psi (i know i know 35, i dont care im not gotting into that right now) and i rotate them about every 5k.

ive see a few people say "sportmax is junk" but ive never heard anyone with a specifice problem, so to me its just hear say.

look back on what everyone in this thread has said.
everyones problem was fixed with a balence or a new set of tires!

 

rotate the front wheels back and see if it still shakes then

 

Chances are if this makes it better you'll only have to have 2 of them repalanced

 

yeah, our rs3 does that too. But I'm taking the 18"s off. I think one is damaged.