curt248

Lexus is not able to get the shake out of my wheels.

I went in for an install of brand new in the box wheels and tires on my sc430. I also had them do an alignment to take out the negative camber (at least down to -0.5).

The wheels are 19X9.5 all around. The tires are 255/35/19 and 275/30/19. The offset is 45 on all wheels, but I also added a 5mm H and R spacer to the front wheels.

The shake was not there with the stock wheels. It wasn't there with only the new rear wheels installed.

As soon as the new front wheels with spacers were install the shake was terrible at 30mph - 60 and ended at 75.

I had all four tires balanced at lexus and the shake was lessened and started at 40 and ended around 65mph.

The right front tie rod was loose a bit (7mm play at the tire). This was probably there before the new tires though. I drove in on the original front tires and no shake and drove out on the new tires and crazy shake.

They started by fixing the tie rod. They said it is much improved. I have yet to test drive it. I want it to be perfect, not improved.

It was perfect before (rock solid with no shake in the steering wheel) and only they have worked on it. They did the wheel mounting installation, 4 wheel alignment, 4 wheel balance, tie rod installation and spacer installation.

Are any of your aftermarket wheels causing a shake at the steering wheel?

mrblister

What brand of rims ? size ? Tire brand ? tire size . More information might help in a diagnosis.

I re read your post and can only say since they are new rims and tires and the balance is good as well as the alighnment is right. Can you put the oem stock ones back on and see what you get there. How is the weight of the new rims and tires compared to the original . Heavier wider rims and wheels can alter the tracking from stock . Perhaps we are missing something else

Buddy

intdiamond

iTrader: (2)

The tie rod may be a small part of your issue but the culprit is most likely the spacers not being seated in place properly when the wheel was mounted and torqued. Do you have hubcentric rings in addition to the spacers? That could be another contributing issue. It's tricky to get the wheels to sit properly, especially w/spacers. GL with your situation.

aquanuke

Did you try it without the spacer?

scdroptop

iTrader: (1)

yep, mine shake a little not bad. worse the leaser I drive it. stay on top of your air pressure, balance, alignments, etc.

johnnyreno

get hub centering rings it will stop.

curt248

It has the same shake after both the inner and outer tie rods were replaced.

I pasted what came with the wheels from tire rack. I'm not sure if they are hub centering rings.

Has anyone else had this same problem when not using hub centering rings and had it go away with the hub centric rings? Please explain how this works or what your experience was.

# 2) Lug adapter
# (4) Required centering ring
# (20) Required lugnut for vehicle
# (4) RETAINING CLIP FOR AL-P RING +

I have Kumo Ecsta tires and bremmer kraft BR01 9.5 inch wheels. 255/35/19 front 275/30/19 rear.

The tire rack said the centering rings are hub centric.

The tire rack suggested taking it to another shop that has a hunter 9700 balancing machine.

I've spent about a $1000 at lexus and the wheels are still shaking. I feel like they should solve the problem, but maybe someone else can figure it out.

What do you guys think??

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

Proper hub rings can make all the difference.

They should all be that way, not sure what they meant by that. That is the purpose of the ring to begin with.

Try a shop that has a road force balancer

Click below to locate a balancer in your area. Sorry for all of your troubles, hopefully you will find a solution shortly. Steering wheel shake can be frustrating.

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm

curt248

Lexus has the hunter 9700 road force balancer and used it.

I discovered that my 5mm spacers don't have a lip on them and make the centering ring ineffective.

I called H and R and they knew of this too. They said the only thing you can do is very carefully mount the wheels. They said to count the number of turns of each nut and try to get the wheel as centered as possible. They said to torque the nuts to factory specs. They said many people use the 5mm spacers without problems. They said they wouldn't sell them if they had tons of problems with them.

I guess the 10mm and up have lips built into the spacer which allow the centering ring to work. I guess the 5mm spacers are hub centric but not wheel centric.

Has anyone had luck with a particular technique to mount a wheel without a centering ring or using a 5mm spacer?

I got the car back from lexus today. It is much better, but there is still a slight shake (about 2mm) at 40 - 60mph. They gave me about $130 off the bill to make me more happy with the result. They did fix the loose tie rod which would have needed to be fixed eventually anyways. I'm not sure I would of had them do it for the $130/hr labor though.

I think I may buy the 10mm or 15mm spacers for the front wheels to make them wheel centric.

What do you guys think. I have 9.5 inch wheels with 255/35/19 tires and a 45mm offset to the wheel. So with 10mm spacers it would be 35mm or with 15 it would be 30mm of extra width from stock. Oh yeah and since the wheels are wider that adds 7mm from stock already. So I guess 10mm spacer would be like 17mm of extra width pushing wheels outward.

curt248

I can't use the 9.5 inch wide wheels without the spacer becuase they rub on the upper control arm.

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

The problem with running spacers with aggressive offset wheels is that the suspension is not setup for it. You could very well throw off the bump steer characteristics of the suspension with various combinations of wheels,etc. Keep in mind the suspension geometry is designed for a particular setup from the factory. This explains why even after a proper alignment some wheels/tires just do not feel right on a car. This could also lead to higher sensitivity to vibration.

In your case I would run 10mm spacers so that they will be hub centric. The whole carefully line up and torque down the nut bit is not going to work for you long term. The vibration will come back and you will have to fight this everytime a tire comes off the car for brakes, etc. Use the proper spacer and your problem should be much alleviated.

Baby ///M3

It's an interesting thread to read, as I also have 5mm H&R spacers on both my Mercedes and Lexus' rear wheels. So far they've been working fine. Vibration is slightly more so noticeable than the stock setup but even without alignment, it's nothing crazy.

As far as I know, these 5mm spacers are hubcentric and perfectly fit the wheel hub fine. I think what curt248's trying to say is that these spacers do not have the protruding center lip like the 10/15/20/25mm ones do, and that the lip may have been a "wheel centric" design.

Now this thread's gotten me pretty concerned, as I am planning on moving the 5mm spacers to my front wheels and install 15mm ones in the back.

If the vibrations mentioned in this thread indeed, come from the lack of center lip design on the 5mm unit, then it would suck big time for me.

Jon

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

Jon

Good points and your concern is valid. You never know till you try it but at least you are aware that it could present a challenge for you.

After many years of mod'n cars I have reached a point where I just want things to work each and every time and not monkey around with a mod once installed. Keeping my new wheels shiny is already pushing the limits for me these days as I expect a mod on a car to work for me and not the other way around. Wheels can present a problem at times and these cars are already sensitive to vibration (not as bad as the GS400) and since you own/have owned BMWs I'm sure you ran into the same with those as the macpherson strut setup is very sensitive.

I just hate to have to keep fighting wheel vibration problems on my cars. But once you have everything setup right it should not pose a problem long term. Let us know how things work out for you.

curt248

My roomate has 18in wheels on his 2 door 4X4 1st generation Toyota Rav 4. The offset is quite a bit less than his stock wheels (wheels pushed to the outside). I felt his wheel yesterday while driving on a somewhat rough paved road. Every bump made his truck move to the right or left. You could really feel it in the steering wheel. He is contributing this to the increased scrub radius. He is a mechanical engineer, trained automovitve technician (2 year school but never worked), and is working on his commercial airline mechanic degree. He has some kind of idea to modify his truck to get the scrub radius back to factory specs. The scrub radius on factory cars is carefully considered to keep the suspension working as designed by the automotive engineers. Any deviation gives sub-optimal effects. It really bothers him on his truck. After feeling the wheel, I totally see why.

Have any of you noticed ill effects from widening the rear wheels? My roommate thinks that the deviation from scrub radius effects mainly the steering wheel so it may not have as much negative effects on the rear wheels. I'm still thinking of putting spacers on the rear wheels to make them more flush. I might not do it if I will get much more negative effects on the ride and handling of the car.

Has anyone had luck with a particular technique for tightening the wheels to keep them centered without a centering ring (or a 5mm spacer without a lip like in my case)?

curt248

It might be hard to tell the increased vibrations in the rear, but in the front you have the steering wheel to let you know when it's shaking.

Mine are really much better now. I'm not sure if they mounted the wheels more carefully or what. The vibration is quite minimal. You can't even see it when watching the steering wheel, but you can just barely feel it. I'd say it's moving less than a millimeter.

I'd love to get it perfect though. Please pass on any techniques to get it perfect. I'm a bit afraid to try to make it better thinking that it might get worse.