Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

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Thu 14 Nov 2019 11:12

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - clappedout

I'm wondering if anyone could shed some light on this for me?

I recently had to replace my front tyre with used / part worn. Before getting that done, although a very old car, it was pretty smooth.

After the change, I noticed there was some vibration through the seat, floor and steering wheel. I had it re-balanced, but after a week or so, it still felt at most times driving with a flat spot and very noticeable road noise. It was a relief to get respite when rolling to a stop from the noise!

Convinced it hasn't been re-balanced properly, they switched that front tyre to the back and moved the one from back to the front. This was also balanced.

However, it still exhibits the same symptoms. What could be causing this?

Would a clutch on it's way out be a factor? Nothing else has changed with the car before and after the wheel change.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

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Thu 14 Nov 2019 15:02

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - Bolt

Its possible the tyre has a tread out of line with the carcase and is causing the vibration, they dont occur often but are a pain when you get one, its where the tread in a small area is not in line with the rest of the tread

no amount of balancing is going to cure it only another tyre

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Thu 14 Nov 2019 15:19

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - clappedout

Thanks - really appreciate your reply.

If they'd balanced it for a third time and the problem still existed, then your suggestion may be feasible, but instead of re-balancing, they swapped over the front with the back tyre, balanced that and stuck that on the front.

It's coincidental that the rear tyre also has the same issue?

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Thu 14 Nov 2019 18:49

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - Bolt

Thanks - really appreciate your reply.

If they'd balanced it for a third time and the problem still existed, then your suggestion may be feasible, but instead of re-balancing, they swapped over the front with the back tyre, balanced that and stuck that on the front.

It's coincidental that the rear tyre also has the same issue?

problem you have is It wont matter where its put on the car the effect is still the same and balancing will have no effect, it will still be out of straight which causes a wobble on the car, you cant see it, but its there and will be felt as you know

ask them to check for tread alignment, its plain to see assuming they know what to look for all they have to do is jack wheel up off the ground, spin the wheel, and put a straight edge very close but not touching the tread side.

if a part of the tread is out of alignment you will see the tread either move closer to the straight edge or move away at the point where its out of alignment, if its close all around its not that thats the problem and will have to look elsewhere

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Thu 14 Nov 2019 17:56

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - Andrew-T

One supposes that nothing has changed except this used tyre. Is it possible that anything has been affected during the work? Might there be anything loose inside this new tyre?

Not sure why you 'had to replace with a part-worn' - are you very hard up? :-)

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Thu 14 Nov 2019 19:11

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - bathtub tom

It's a part-worn, used tyre. You have no idea what happened to it before. Why would anyone get rid of a perfectly usable tyre? I'd suggest it's got a problem and that's why the previous owner got rid of it and why you you were able to buy it. It may even have come off a car that was involved in an accident and perhaps came off a locked wheel that could have worn a flat spot.

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Fri 15 Nov 2019 06:40

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - edlithgow

Why would anyone get rid of a perfectly usable tyre?

Some people firmly believe that tyres should be replaced in sets of four, which, since all the tyres on a vehicle don't usually wear the same, often involves getting rid of perfectly usable tyres.

I don't have such a belief.(It'd be funny, though not hugely surprising, if you did) but when I was in the Yook I often had to scrap cars, every one of which had perfectly usable tyres on it.

Edited by edlithgow on 15/11/2019 at 06:46

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Fri 15 Nov 2019 07:25

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - Bolt

Why would anyone get rid of a perfectly usable tyre?

Some people firmly believe that tyres should be replaced in sets of four, which, since all the tyres on a vehicle don't usually wear the same, often involves getting rid of perfectly usable tyres.

I don't have such a belief.(It'd be funny, though not hugely surprising, if you did) but when I was in the Yook I often had to scrap cars, every one of which had perfectly usable tyres on it.

another point is these out of straight treads dont always appear from new, sometimes the tread is perfect at the start, but as wear takes place it exposes the part of tyre tread that is imperfect which could be any point of wear, and because some dont know what to look for when the imbalance starts they give up looking for a problem and buy new/replace

thats when not so worn tyres are sold as no one knows a particular tyre looks perfect, its sold not knowing its faulty, and in many cases of these second hand tyres no one really knows its history and if it has faults until its too late

luck of the draw where second hand/used tyres is concerned as some drivers buy these all through the lifetime of a motor and never find a bad one.

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Sat 16 Nov 2019 14:17

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - edlithgow

One of my tyres develped a bit of a bulge in the tread recently, which set up quite a strong periodic vibration and steering wheel twitch when it was on a front wheel,

It was clearly visible on inspection, but I'd think a smaller less visible one might still have a noticable effect.

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Sat 16 Nov 2019 16:33

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - Bolt

One of my tyres develped a bit of a bulge in the tread recently, which set up quite a strong periodic vibration and steering wheel twitch when it was on a front wheel,

It was clearly visible on inspection, but I'd think a smaller less visible one might still have a noticable effect.

Car buncles were common years ago as the sidewall was caught and pinched on a sharp curb or similar, with similar effect on all corners of the car as they cannot be balanced out either, but are more dangerous because they can explode as they are damaged sidewalls

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Sat 16 Nov 2019 23:24

Imbalanced wheels - vibrations and noise? - edlithgow

This one is in the tread area.

I've been driving more on mountain roads lately and these often have a rather poor surface due to landslip and typhoon damage, but the tyre has some dodgy-looking cracks in the tread grooves and could just have aged out.

Sunlight and ozone levels are high here.

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