steering wheel wobble
 

So I mounted and balanced the Sumitomo tires on my anthracite Fr500's and since installation I am getting a shake in the steering wheel at about 40-45mph. I know the wheels are balanced perfectly... I did them myself at work(as I do every day for BMW's) and I know it was done right. I pulled the wheels off today and re-balanced them...none of them were out of balance. I guess my question is are these 17/9 and 17/10.5 FR500's hubcentric? Should I need a hubcentric ring?

I'd say you might need a front end alignment.

Well, I do those too at work, but in my five years doing this kind of work I have never solved a steering wheel shake with an alignment. I should do an alignment purely because there are new wheels and tires on the car so it is in the plans soon. The car didn't do this with the stock wheels on it, so I feel like the tires and rims are to blame here. I will measure the hub flange and the center of the rim area where it mates with the hub...that will tell me if I need hubcentric rings. Any one ever had issues with alignment when running such fat tires?

I have had several wheels on different mustangs and I have never had to use a ring for any of them. I suggest you put on a different set of wheels like your old wheels and see it problems goes away.

i have a friend who purchased the anthracite fr500s here and he mounted/balanced them himself as he is a mechanic as well. he also did an alignment and never had any problems. i'm not doubting your experience however i would guess it is not your wheels. since you've double checked youself with the balancing i would get that alignment done, or what venom said put the old wheels back on to see if it still exists...

good luck!

Ok, put the stock wheels on today and the wobble is gone...re re balanced the fr500's and the wobble is still there...front end parts are fine...I will have it aligned (I hate doing alignments) and see what happens...It's not something I can't live with as it only happens around 40mph so I am not too worried about it. I mic'ed the hub flange and inner wheel area and they are different enough to cause a non-perfect fit...but not bad enough to cause this wobble. We'll see what happens with an alignment. I also re-tourqued the lugs. The thing is smooth as butta on the highway anyway.

I have sumitomos w/ cobra wheels 17x10.5 rear and 17x9 front, I too have the steering wheel vibration at about 50-55mph. But I also lowered the car at the same time and did'nt get it aligned yet. Im thinking it my alignment.

let me know if anthing changes after that alignment.

is there two different types of balancing, a regular setup and high-speed? maybe that is it? is the shaking only when you brake? maybe you need rotors cut.

usually in my experience if it's not the balancing of the wheels, it's a warped rotor or a bad tie rod end.

I did the high speed balancing on a Hunter GSP 9700 machine which is one of the best out there...I have balanced them 3 times now and they have been within tolerance all times.

Never vibrates more or less during braking, but I'll check my tie rod ends...car's only got 23k on it...tie rod ends this soon?

if they're balanced they're balanced... no use in beating that horse any further.

If you're lowered then it's possible that the tie rods wore early. Could also be a ball joint. you seem to know what you're doing in that regard so I'll forego the tutorial on checking them.

Yeah, I balanced the C-Rap outta them...(I secretly like balancing tires)

Stock suspension. Here's a thought...whaddya think? ... ... Could the lug nuts be the culprit? I got them from Auto Zone...maybe the conical seat isnt quite right on them...maybe I should go to Ford and get a set of the ones used with the Bullit style rims. OR...could the wheel bearing nuts be loose..as in have you ever seen this? I'm gonna align the car tomorrow so we'll see if that helps...if the front tires are fighting each other that could cause a shake in the steering wheel. The fact that I went from a 225 to a 275 up front could have worsened this condition that couldn't be felt with the skinnier tires.

Yea an alignment would rarley ever fix a wobble in the steering wheel.

Possible problems:

Bearings
Ball Joints
Balancing
Tires/Wheels themself (bent rim)

(This is a typical question i remember seeing on the ASE test)

Hope they arent bent...its been wobbling since the rims were brand new..and I didnt see any bends when they were spinning at 60 mph while I was balancing them. I have personally experienced steering wobble due to a car be out of alignment. I'm gonna check all that stuff again as well. Thanks for the reply.

This may be true but remember he said he installed the stock wheels and the wobble went away. I would imagine that if it were the bearings or ball joints the wobble would continue no matter what wheels were installed.

zigzagg: have you done the alignment yet? if so any luck?

didn't even see that part. if stock wheels fix the wobble, then there's a warped rim. If it's wider than stock then any warpage will be magnified to the sensation of the driver.

Brand new rims warped? I hope not...I doubt I can return them since I have used them. That would suck! No alignment yet, I spent my day today installing my TB, Plenum and CAI...I didnt feel like sticking around to do the alignment. I did order 20 Ford Factory Lugs just in case the conical seat of the Auto Zone ones I am using is incorrect in its shape. The weird thing of all of this is that everyonce in a while the wobble goes away at any and all speeds...I took a 70 mile highway trip this morning and barely notice and wobble of any kind. I am going to do a rim runout test this week with the GSP 9700 and see what results I get...If any of them are warped MT better replace them because they have not seen one pot hole or curb since I got them...it would have to be a manufacturing error.

Ok, no one is gonna believe this but here it is...PROBLEM SOLVED!!! I got 20 Ford factory lug nuts and installed them at work today and the steering wheel wobble is GONE!!! I thought that the conical seat of the Auto Zone lugs were quite small and not shaped correctly..I WAS CORRECT!!! YEAH FOR ME!!! LOL

laf. now that's funny. Good work.