After taking my civic's tires off multiple times in the past six weeks for various repair jobs (especially driver's front tire), I noticed driving on freeway yesterday that I was feeling a vibration in wheel at 70mph which felt to me like my tires were slightly out of balance. I asked my buddy if repeated removal/install could have knocked a tire out of balance. FYI, the tires are only 2 months old and were professionally mounted and balanced. He said that was unlikely and it was probably a result of my lug nuts not being tight enough.

He checked them and said they were way too loose. I knew I had tightened them to 80ft/lbs with my torque wrench, but he insisted that they were not tight enough. He then tightened them to 100ft/lbs and told me I should re-check after driving on freeway and maybe even add another 20lbs pressure. He says he was taught to tighten lug nuts as tight as he could... and that is the way to do it.

The wheel still vibrated at 70mph on my way home from buddy's house, but was not as bad as before, which may give some credence to his theory. ???

My plan is to to loosen the lugs back up and then tighten them back to the 80 ft/lbs amount today, as well as check tire pressure with gauge to make sure they are properly inflated. Then, if I still notice any vibration in high speeds, take it to a tire place to have tires balanced again. But I thought I'd ask you guys a few questions first.

How many use the 80ft/lb spec torque for lug nuts vs. just tightening as hard as one physically can? Do you think the vibration at 70mph is related to the lug nuts or is it more likely a tire balance issue? Any troubleshooting suggestions other than spending $20 to balance the front tires?

 

DO NOT tighten lugnuts past 80ftlbs. It streaches the threads on the studs and pretty much ruins them. I would replace the ones that were tightened that tight. It may be that you have a slight bend in your rim. My moms bmw was doing the same thing around 60mph with a brand new set of $700 tires on it. come to find out the rim was bent slightly by the place she got the tires put on at. They never admitted to it of course but it never drove like that before and they offered to take the tire off the bent rim and put it on the new rim when we bought it and balance it for free. We knew it was them that bent the rim at this point. anways, we replaced the rim and all problems were solved. my advice, get a new rim. If you have aftermarket rims, get someone to put the rim on a stand to check and see if its bent. I think its called a truing stand or something like that. hope this helps

 

jack your front up, make sure there 80ftlbs then grab your wheel while its in the air and if you can swivel it left and right a little bit you need new wheel bearing. do that on the front wheels. if your cars and if your running negative camber your bearings wear out fast and will probably need to be replaced

 

I finally got around to jacking my car up yesterday to check on the intermittent vibration problem. The wheels do not move at all, but I did notice something on the driver's side that looks like it could be the culprit??

 

your tie rod bellow is ripped alrighty, if there isnt any play in the inner tie rod though, you could get away with regreasing the tie rod and replacing the bellow,

any slight amount though could warrant your vibration, but would also cause a pull or lead in one direction

 

could just be cheapo tires. even when perfectly balanced out some tires can have excessive roadforce or "hop" that will feel like an imbalance.

 

You could try moving the suspected tire to the rear and see if the front end vibration goes away. This would help you narrow down whether it's a tire or front end issue.

 

almost always worn rotors.