I'm having a problem with vibration in the steering wheel at 70-80mph.

Its worse on some roads, and on other roads its almost unnoticable.


Is this just a trait of these wide wheels that I must live with if I'm going to run them?

Do any of you have any other ideas how I can eliminate this vibration?



Thanks for any help you can offer.

-Matt

 

Considering the speed at which you are having the vibration, I would say that the tires are the issue, they probably have a very slight belt shift or some sort of minor lateral runout. The Hunter machine is a nice balancer, we have one here at work also. The machine can do rim/tire runout, which will tell you if the problem is the rim, or the tire, for sure. Then it will give you match marks to move the tire & rim together to minimize the possibly of virbation. While this will help to correct most of the vibration, if it is a tire problem, it will still have the problem, simply if its the tires, replace them.

 

That makes good sense Sasnuke. I would be willing to bet its the tires after considering what you said.

Do you think its mainly because they were stretched on the rim. As you know a 185 tire is not made for a 8in rim.

I do not remember having any vibrations when these tires were mounted on the stock steelies.

Do you recommend I replace the tires with a 195/50 or a 205/50 size?

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it.

-Matt

 

I didn't realize you had 15X8, well then I probably say its the tires. As for sizing to match the rim, I would say 205/60 15 or 215/55 15. Really a 195 should not be used on a 8 inch rim, or a 185. The 2 I mentioned would help the speedo to be accurate.

 

Only Problem is I dont think I would like the look of a wide tire on these rims, because the front sticks out past the fender, which would give a Mexical look that I dont like, I prefer the Euro stretch look. The stretch Im getting gives them a rounded edge look, which looks great.

I may just need to swap wheels and tires, so I can fit proper tire sizes on the rims and still get a look that I like.

Im thinking those new sportmax with 15x7 front +15 and 15x8 Rear +0 would allow me to run a 215 tire on the rear and a 195-205 on the front, and be able to keep them both under the fender.