alex92accwgnex

Firstly- Lots of great people here the forum has given me lots of help and information in taking care of my own mechanical needs.

I will try to lay this post out as logically as possible and please direct me to a different thread if this question is already answered. My main question is this: I put on smaller tires and I have steering wheel vibration at highway speeds, is it possible to chalk it up to smaller tires or should I be worried? Details below.

92 honda accord ex wagon
162k on it
Daily driver northern Wisconsin- between 80-100 miles per day

I got wheels and snow tires at a screaming deal: 120 for brand new blizzaks and new wheels from a chinese physicist who was moving out of state.

Stock tire size is 195 65 15 new tire size is 195 55 15. So it is a lower profile smaller tire than the stock size.

I installed them myself to find that they weren't balanced. Big steering wheel shake. I also put the tires on the wrong wheels first drivers side front and pass rear mixed up.

I took it to a tire shop and had them balanced and tires were moved to proper place- won't screw that up again-also getting a torque wrench so I don't over tighten.

I just got it back from the tire shop, they balanced the wheels and changed out my locking lugnuts.

The car is slightly out of alignment and has had the steering rack welded back together on the drivers side. This repair was done by an excellent shop in Milwaukee. Both wheel bearings are ok, ball joints have been changed recently and rotors have been changed recently. The HoR design sure gets time consuming.

So should I chalk mild-moderate highway speed steering wheel vibration to smaller tires and/or being out of alignment or should I be talking to a mechanic about this? Could driving with the wheel backwards have caused damage to steering/axle?

I have some tools and I am pretty good with engine/electrical stuff, but as you can tell by my mistake with the wheel being backwards above-not awesome with wheel/axle type stuff.

Any thoughts/ suggestions i would appreciate them.

bigtimegambler

They are 6.55% smaller than the stock tires. That is way too much. Ideally you wouldn't have gotten these.

Did you drive though any snow? snow build up inside the rim will make the wheel unbalanced leading to a very noticeable vibration.

alex92accwgnex

I did drive through a little snow. I just drove on the highway to work which is a 45 mile drive and the vibration is noticeable but minute on dry pavement. Being that the tire and wheel were 30 a piece I was prepared for them not working awesome. I haven't noticed a snow vs no snow difference in vibration.

Although this is less than ideal will using these tires be bad for other components in the wheel/ suspension/ steering system? I'm gonna start looking around for stock size replacement snow tires.

toyomatt84

iTrader: (1)

Not working awesome is far different then being unsafe. Those tires can cause premature failures in other components, if in less then ideal scenarios.

Turk@TireRack

Going that much smaller than stock is not a good idea, regardless of the price.
That being said, are these OEM wheels? If they're aftermarket, are they hubcentric? Or do you at least have hub centering rings with them? That could cause an issue if the wheels aren't centered on the hubs.