[psstwgn]

I know... she looks pretty, right? So here is my problem: I've had my new wheels on for about 2 weeks now. I have noticed at hwy speeds that there is still a slight, slight vibration. Only at certain RPM, and only in the floorboard. Really- this is VERY slight.

So, I take her into my tuner (Yarrowsport), and Yarrow pulls her up onto the dyno machine. While running the diagnostics, I walk around the vehicle with another tech, and we look at the wheels. It appears that they are warped. This is weird- when the car is standing still, there is NO WAY you could see any damage at all. But in motion, there is slight "visual wobble" on three of the wheels.

Yarrow suspects manufacturer's glitch, and suggests I call tirerack- where they are originally from. Of course, upon my call they are no help because I bought them off of ebay from a previous owner. They suggest I call him. I do.

He is cool enough to call me back (by the way- I really trust this guy's
honesty- he is as much a car enthusiast as any of us). He tells me that he had never had any issues with the wheels, and that he only sold them
so that he could upgrade to *chrome* and this is true- I've seen his car uke: He suggests I try a different set of tires, and that he thinks they could still be simply out of balance. *sigh*

So now my question is....okay- say they are actually warped. Should I
just ignore it, and ride them out for the rest of the summer and then throw on my stock steelies for the Fall (which I was going to do anyway) and then just get them fixed next spring? Should they come off NOW as to not damage my differential or other parts of my car?

Secondly, once I put on my old wheels again, will it be bad for the car to
drive around on stock 15"s with upgraded suspension (KW Variant 1 Coilovers)? If so, should I just scrap the whole deal together and put back on my stock suspension? Argh!

Please chime in with your thoughts/suggestions. I'm getting frustrated, and almost feel like returning my car to stock condition, so as not to
detract from the life of my vehicle. Thanks....

-psstwgn

 

[psstwgn]

Before bed Bump....

 

[D.Passat00]

well, try the alignment first, and see if it still exists. warping can't be good for the car. the control arms and tie rods won't like that at all.check the warranty, to see if it covers second hand owners. worse case, you can just put back the stock wheels.

 

[Gerret]

My $0.02: Wobbles are bad for the suspension because they move your suspension up and down at a high frequency that can quickly wear out shock absorbers, tires, etc.. If your wheels are out of round they will "wobble" at all speeds, you just may not be able to feel it except when it hits some certain resonant frequency. I'd change them out with the steelies (which shouldn't harm a thing) until I got them fixed.

*UPDATE*

Oh, I forgot: Nice car. :thumbup:

 

[ny1911]

If the wheel is not balanced, that could cause a visula wobble. A machine shop should be able to tell you if there are any concentricity issues or our-of-round problems.

 

[RAH]

Have them balanced, if they are warped, they will be able to tell right away, since they will have a hard time balancing them, good luck with this :thumbup:

 

[Antoddio]

You can run your steelies, with your current setup. There is no reason to think that your couldn't. Many people do that in the winter anyways.

 

[1.8Tabamoura]

Balance the wheels again on the car.

Find a place that has this machine :


http://www.hunter.com/pub/product/balancer/900T-1/index.htm

 

[crew217]

get them roadforce balanced . . . that'll tell you everything.

www.gsp9700.com

no worth to get them high-speed balanced . . . . I've had many wheel / tires balance out perfectly on the high speed balancer yet they still wobbled when they were on the car.

Dave