[skeezy]

I recently bought a set of rims and I when i had them installed the tire place told me that i needed hub rings because there was a pretty big space between the rim and the hub of the car. I had the rings custom made (cuz of course it was an off size) but the my steering wheel is still really shakey between 70-85 MPH. Atleast it feels like it was shaking more than when i had the stock steelies on.

Thanks for any help in advance.

 

[toyomatt84]

Your wheels may be out of balance (could have lost a wheel weight), or your tires could have damage/improper wear. At worst, you could have a ball joint or bushing that is damaged, or the car may even need an alignment.

 

[skeezy]

I got the tires rebalanced...no luck. It got a little bit better tho.

I am getting an alignment done tomorrow. they said one of my tires was worn (i bought all 4 new) so they rotated the tires. But they said that it wasnt worn enough to cause any problems...

SO confused. Luckily I have an extended warranty up to 85k miles so if it is a ball joint or bushing that is damaged it SHOULD be free.

 

[skeezy]

***PROBLEM FINALLY SOLVED***

For anyone who finds this thread with the same issue, I ran into an awesome discovery.

Alloy wheels need weights to be set in pairs. One on the inner edge of the inside of the rim and one on the outer edge of the inside of the rim, running parallel to each other.

I went to 2 different tires plus locations, one running a regular balance machine, and the other was running a "Road Force Balance" machine.

The first place running the regular balance machine rebalanced my tires with little improvement. And when I complained that I didn't do much they told me to head to the other tires plus that has a "Road Force Balance" machine. After waiting 2hrs (30 min per tire, literally) they drove it and I drove it. No luck.

Of course they wanna blame something the cant find or fix, they tell me there is a problem with the front axle somewhere but they didn't look to deep because well I wasn't paying them for this balance since the other place couldn't fix it and they weren't gonna work for free.

I started flipping out, even though I am under Warranty this could really cost me an arm and a leg or at least several days of inspection and work.

Needless to say I get to the Toyota store about 2hrs before closing and their master technician offers to take a ride with me. While he is driving I tell him "Hit 45 MPH" and he says "Its a balancing issue". I didn't believe him but I figured if that didn't fix it I wasn't paying for it and they might find the real root of the problem.

They balanced the tires and found that tire plus only mounted one set of weights on the inner edge of the inside of the rim and not on the outer edge of the inside of the rim. PROBLEM SOLVED!

Moral of the story is even though we often rag on the "stealership" because they are expensive, they will more often than not get the job done right the first time. And if they don't they will certainly compensate you for it. I mean I honestly spent ~$47 at the dealership to get the balance done and ~$41 at tires plus to get the balance done there and the $6 and change really wont make or break me.

P.S. Tires Plus will be refunding me for the balance or should I say imbalance they did.

---------- Post added 12-16-2011 at 07:22 PM ----------

I'm closing this thread. If anyone has any questions feel free to PM me.