I bought a new set of 195/55/15's for my 96 EX today. The tires are extremely grippy in the wet remnants of Hurricane Isaac. I wasn't successful in breaking them loose in the wet upon acceleration (I have an automatic) nor upon braking.

I had an issue with the car vibrating starting at 60 and progressively getting worse as speed raised. Now that I have the new tires on there, there is noticeably less vibrating, but it's still there above 65-70. I've read about road force balancing, but my concern is that since I have new tires, the vibration should be gone if it were the tires causing the issue.

Has anyone else had an issue with this? I did replace both rotors less than a month ago or so just to make sure it wasn't a slightly warped rotor.

Edit: I do want to add that I also had an alignment performed on the car today.

Hubcentric rings are not on these aftermarket rims that I have on the car.....would this possibly be the cause?

 

How much vibration are we talking about?

At this point from experience I'd say your suspension (Shocks) is a suspect. Faulty wheel bearings also a possibility.

For curiosity. Does your car drive straight when you let go of the wheel?

 

Yes, no problem with driving straight even before the alignment. I was starting to wonder about shocks as well (there isn't a ride issue, but it did cross my mind), the wheel bearings seem tight, that was the first thing I checked when I bought the car a month or so ago. The "tech" said the front end was surprisingly in good shape.

But as far as severity of vibration, I'm not talking about a severe vibration...it's a bit hard to come up with an analogy that compares severity of the vibration and convey it in words....

I guess you could say it's high in frequency but moderately low in severity felt through the steering wheel... I also noticed that it will sort of come and go in severity.

 

Jack the front end of your car up. Grab the wheel at 12 and 6 and check for play. Grab the wheel at 3 and 6 and check for play. Is there excessive play on either wheel?

 

I checked about a month ago when trying to diagnose the vibration and had no play in any area of the front end. I decided that the vibration could be coming from the worn tires, while replacing the tires, balancing them and an alignment did help a bit, it didn't entirely alleviate the issue.

 

If you let go of the steering wheel, does it still straight or does it turn even a tiny bit? I say this because it sometimes depends on who did your alignment too. Some shops can't do it right if your car is lowered. Or previously lowered before.

 

reputable shop?
possible rebalance or bent rim / what kinda tread on the tires?

Also Ive worked at a shop...a mechanics motto there was....toe and go. He'd set the toe, and ship the car. He also had the most comebacks.... Oddly enough he was the highest paid as well. Lol.

Just b/c the alignment was performed, doesn't mean it was done correct and/or spot on. Take it back and have them recheck their work.

Another note....what'd you drive prior to the 12-15 yr old civic? If your coming from a 2011 lexus...you could just be nit-picking. If your used to used cars, Id check what was listed above. My hunch would be bearing from your analogy of noise.

 

These are the wheels that I have, I went out and looked at the hub to wheel area gap and this is what I found. I'm not sure whether or not this really matters but there is a significant difference between the size of the hub and the wheel's opening for the hub.

 

How do you think that causes vibration? Must defy laws of physics.

 

I do believe that I am going to go back up there tomorrow and see if they can re-balance and/or do the alignment again. I just don't want to throw this on the shop if it's not their fault that it is vibrating since it did have the issue before I brought it in.

 

Universal aftermarket rim usually requires hubcentric rings....

 

It's always their fault. They took a lot of money from you. You have to make it their fault until you find the problem that proves that it's unrelated to alignment, which is their job that is done on your car.

 

^ an alignment charges an hr labor.

I could do an alignment on a car in 15 mins and I don't turn wrenches for a living.

you paid for it. they can at least tell you what it is

 

Ive found that warped rotors and worn axles will cause a vibration on hondas

 

If you make us chase wild goose around, we'll never be able to help you find your problem.

 

Good point.

 

to my eyes...your axle nut doesn't appeared to be correctly installed. It should be "bent" in at that groove to prevent it from being removed/failing off etc.



you want it to look like this

 

Let me ask ya this. The old tires did they have alot of "cuping" on tires? Wierd high/low spots you can not account for?

Brand of tire you bought? Line of tires from < manufacutre? I do tires, tech work you name it at my job. I have a few ideas but not going to post till i get answers on questions

 

My old *** phone doesn't take good pictures, the tab is bent in, I replaced both axles a few weeks ago as well when I replaced the rotors.

 

never mind...lol

 

The right front tire had inside camber wear whereas the left front wore evenly. The boot was torn on the lower right ball joint so I replaced that just to ensure that I didn't have to tear it down later after I had already installed the new axles.

The brand that I bought was from the Goodyear auto center they are 195-55-15s by the name of Fierce Instinct VR. I did a bit of research on them and they seem to be made by Goodyear, you may know more of an inside track on this more than I.

http://www.fiercetires.com/cfmx/web/...&submit=Submit

 

Not familar with them. But willing to bet like alot of goodyears they have assloads of roadforce in them and that is what tou are feeeling. 99% there is not much you can do to balance out bad roadforce, some shops have a machine better suited to check it and have ways to lessen. It can be a pain in the azz to get right. As much as i pains me to say it kuhmo (the cheap ones 90% of lame hondas use) have least roadforce i see as a whole from brand/ line of tire without getting true z rated or other super performance tires

 

Well, I suppose I'll bring it back in tomorrow and have them rebalance and check alignment, I'm unsure whether or not they have a road force machine though. I've never had to bring tires back, but I'd imagine if there is an issue with the tire construction then the warranty would cover it.

 

I got my money on a bent/unbalanced wheel.

Jack the car up and spin the wheels, inspecting the runout with your eye should suffice for this, either an axle, half shaft, or wheel balance/trueness issues.

 

Our cars are lug-centric, not hub-centric. You don't need a hubcentric ring.