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Steering Wheel Shake with Larger Front Tires

bump for same issue. Had no problems with lug centric 25mm 5x108 to 5x120 adapters. Switched them down to a 19mm hub centric variant, and I've been having this issue ever since. I've checked the studs if they're below the mounting surface and they are (lugs tighten, wheel sits flush with surface. When I look at the wheels at highway speeds, they have a lateral shimmy, but that may just be a radial unbalance forcing it in the direction rapidly. Not even centering rings have fixed this problem, nor has swapping wheels around.

Wheels are balanced, not completely without bends, but "balanced" enough to not have this issue until switching adapters... Can they really be that out of whack from the factory?
 
Put a dial indicator on the rim at the outer most point of a machined surface. Check for radial run out and side to side run out. There should be less than .010 run out. 50 to 55 MPH is the speed where imbalance rears it ugly head. The smallest out of true X time's the run out the farther you get away from the hub
 
Get a dial indicator and start measuring. Measure the hubs with no rotors, measure with rotors, measure with spacers, and measure the wheels.

Should be easy to figure out if its any of those things.

Harbor freight .001" indicator should be plenty good for measuring this kind of stuff.
 
Redwood Chair said:
ET zero, steamroller tires, and you wonder?
Click to expand...

weird, I run ET -5 with 215/45-17s and zero issues (edit: with 25mm adapter style spacers to clear brakes)...


flat-spotted tires, tires with bad road force characteristics (they will balance, but aren't round), bent wheel, unbalanced wheel/tire package, warped rotors, or ****ed off hub...that's pretty much all it can be.
 
Took a look out the window at a lower speed. Both rear and front on the driver's side are officially bent, and can be seen by eye.

Looks like I'll be on the hunt for some new wheels.
 
RvolvoR said:
weird, I run ET -5 with 215/45-17s and zero issues (edit: with 25mm adapter style spacers to clear brakes)...


flat-spotted tires, tires with bad road force characteristics (they will balance, but aren't round), bent wheel, unbalanced wheel/tire package, warped rotors, or ****ed off hub...that's pretty much all it can be.
Click to expand...

On a 240?
 
Years ago, when I was in college, we had a balance machine that would spin the wheel / tire on the car and balance the entire assembly (hub / brake / etc). Kind of cool. No idea is this is still available.

This video is pretty cool. The "road force" bit is interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbL9vMRbMCA

I've had my best luck diagnosing such things by moving wheels to different locations.

Good luck.
 
It's what we have to do to have modernish brakes unfortunately, the offset shouldn't cause vibrations. I am running 25/32 spacers also, 17"x8" rims, 225/45 on the front and 245/40 on the rear, and it was fine for a long time. I let the car sit for a few months, and when I finally took the car out again it had a nasty vibration around 50 mph. It has gotten better but has not totally gone away. I think the low profile tires didn't like sitting there and got a bit of a flat spot.
 
Maybe try having the wheels balanced with the spacers mounted to the wheels. This should show if there's an issue with the spacers. As far as spacer thickness maybe compare the backspacing of the old wheels to the new wheels with spacers.
 
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