Steering wheel vibration (Long)

[Anthony2002GTS]

Hey all.

July 22nd, 3 weeks after I bought my new "whip," I got rear-ended and lost the car for a month and a half. Completely the other drivers fault and it's all covered.

I got it back, everything was fine (8k of damage... $8126.28 to be exact). I proceeded to throw on my 18inch enkei RS5's, everything was still fine. I proceeded to take them off and paint my calipers, had all 4 off and the car was on jacks. Finished up, put the tires back on (all bolts tight, and wheel level up against rotor? cover). Took her for a spin after everything was done drying (heat up the rotors so the excess paint came off...I brushed it on). Cruising on the highway, steering wheel vibrates at around 63 and 75ish.

So, with the higher speeds I figured that any excess paint should be taken off, just incase it was causing the wheel not to be completely upagainst the rotor cover. So I did.


Steering wheel still vibrates. Could I have upset something putting the car up on jacks? Caused something to be loose that was fixed? Need an alignment? Tire pressure is all even... running my nitto's at around 38psi. I dunno, it's bothering me. It's not the wheels, they were just balanced 3 weeks ago. The reason why I put in the spew about the car being hit was it might have something to do with the vibrations now?

Any ideas? Things I should check, do... sorry for the length all, just upset that with the car only being 3 months old I've had all this drama with it.

Thanks in advance.

[EzRidA]

Well after you got the car back and put the rims on did it vibrate?

[nyoneway]

Maybe you didn't torque the nuts onto the rim correctly. You suppose to tighten the opposite nut and then torque it... or maybe your rims don't have a hubcentric ring.

[autxr]

Do you have hubcentric rings with those wheels?

Did you torque the lug nuts with the wheel in the air or with it on the ground and the entire vehicle weight on it?

Scott

Edit: Damn I can't type worth a carp!!

[ArchangelX]

IS the offset correct on those? I mean for our cars? That'll mess you up, I hear..heh.

Of course, I wouldn't know. I don't have rims. :wtc:

[Anthony2002GTS]

Here's what I did for each of the wheels...

1.) Tightened all lug nuts as much as I could by hand.
2.) Torqued each one as tight as I could while the car was still in the air.
3.) dropped the car down and tightened more (usually couldn't... just did it to make sure).

The thing is though, if I didn't put the wheels on right, wouldn't it vibrate at more than two speeds? like a constant vibration?

[cftofu2k]

im having the same problem, even with hubcentric rings. lug nuts are on properly too. i heard theres a sensitive balancing machine out there that can be used to solve this vibration. gonna check out big o tires tomorrow in the morning. the normal balancing machine that most tire shops have wont detect the imbalance if the wheels are "too big" for the car. well ill let u know what happens.

[Raymund]

The wheel could have slipped from the rim and throw of the wheel weights. This happened to me recently when I instaled some used tires on a new set of rims. I read this can happen if the beads are still wet and unsettled. I drew a straight line from the sidewall all the way to the rim surface. Sure enough the line moved about half inch from each other.

Wheel weights could have come off too.

And as Scott mentioned, "do you have hub centric rings?"

[cftofu2k]

found the thread about the GSP9700 system.
http://www.newcelica.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38704&highlight=steering+wheel+vibration

[HilfigerCelica]

My car is doing the same thing at 70ish mph. I got an alignment. I'm riding on stock GTS 16's. I got stock lug nuts and Toyota wheel locks. The only thing I can think of is to get the tires balanced.

[DGibb]

My girls Civic does that with her 17" wheels. At around 65-70mph steering wheel starts vibrating.

We got the stuff aligned and it still did it. Put the stock wheels on, vibrating went away...

Gonna call the shop I got the wheels from and ask about this 'hubcentric ring'.

[RJAY]

The same thing happens to me too. I have the stock GTS rims and my steering wheel vibrates at 70mph and over. It bugs so much. It'll vibrate for a while then when I change lane, it will stop and then come back again. It comes and go but mostly now, it's constant. I hate it. I drive on the freeway everyday and I mostly drive at 70mph or over. Can anyone help me please?

[Anthony2002GTS]

Well here's the deal. I put my car up again and made sure the wheels were on right. Took it on the highway and the f*cker still vibrated.

So, with me being frustrated, it's at Toyota as we speak getting aligned and wheels balanced, hopefully for the $80 it'll all be gone.

Hubcentric rims? I'm not sure you tell me, I'm running Enkei RS5's, 18x7.

I'll update everyone on the status when I get it back.

RJAY how many miles you have on her? Could be out of alignment...

[RJAY]

I have 11500 miles on her. What else could it be?

[Anthony2002GTS]

The car could easily be out of alignment, or the tires may be out of balance, or a rim might be bent.

[Peab0dy]

Originally posted by Anthony2002GTS
Hubcentric rims? I'm not sure you tell me, I'm running Enkei RS5's, 18x7.

Hubcentric rings are not part of the rim. It's an extra "ring" that fits between the aftermarket rim and hub that more accurately centers the rim on the hub. Without them, you rely on the lugnuts to center the rims on your hub.

There's a pic on this page (http://www.mz3.net/articles/222.html) of some hubcentric rings. Mine are brass looking, but same thing.

You should get some quickly :wave:

[GTS LAID]

did toyota check the rotors for warp?

[RJAY]

How can I tell if the rim is bent?

[GTS LAID]

when you out it on the balancer you'll see the lip where the rim and tire meet change location as it rotates...