QuestionHi Barry...I'm looking for your expert advice.
We have an 07 civic that we recently purchased in April. It always drives smooth at any speed with no vibration problems whatsoever (still original tires). We decided to get winter tires to be safe for this winter and purchased Yokohama Iceguard IG20's. We had them installed the day before yesterday. Now we get severe vibration between 90 and 100kms/hr. The vibration is not noticeable under 90 kms and over 100 kms it dissipates, but my husband says between 90 and 100 kms it feels like the tire is wobbling and shakes the car. Took the car back and asked them to rebalance the tires. They did and I asked the technician and he admitted to me that each tire was slightly out of balance and that they needed their balancer to be recalibrated. I asked "is it recalibrated now??" because otherwise it was a waste of my time. He nodded. He said it was done, and I took the car - same problem!! Same vibration between 90 and 100 kms! I want to complain to the president of the company who did this, but can you verify for me, based on what I've told you, that this is classic bad balancing? Or could it be bad tires? It can't be something wrong with the car could it, because we never had this problem till they put the winter tires on. With your knowledge of tires, can you tell me if vibration that comes between 90 and 100kms and then dissipates is classic symptom of tires out of balance? I appreciate your help Barry, thank you
AnswerDiana,
There are a number of possibilities and some of them are tire related, some are balancing related and some are wheel related.
First, wheel end vibrations occur in the speed range of 50 mph to 70 mph (80 kph to 112 kph), so that fits.
Second is that tire related vibrations (meaning balance and out of round) will be there all the time regardless whether you brake, accelerate, turn to one side or the other. I didn't hear anything in your narrative that would indicate one way or the other.
Obviously you've addressed the balance issue. But what about the tires being out of round? The tire shop should have look at this if the have a Hunter GSP9700 balance machine which measures a tire and rim assembly's uniformity. If they don't have one of those a machines, they could have at least looked to see if the tire wobbles. Even if they didn't wobble, the tire shop should have offered to replace those tires with something else - and I wonder why they didn't.
But there are other possibilities. Did you have the winter tires mounted on separate wheels? If so, then the wheels could the problem. Not only could the wheels be out of round, but if the wheels are universal fit wheels, they do not pilot on the center hub, which is used to center the assembly on the hub. If the wheels aren't center piloted, then the lugs are the centering mechanism - and that way is notorious for not being very good at centering the wheel.
Nevertheless, the shop that sold you the tires, should address this issue and at least tell you why there is a vibration and what they are going to do about. Obviously there are some thing that they can do, but there are also things that are beyond their control. The question is which - and you deserve an answer.
