Tire balance magic?

[M3Octane]

Is there some magic to balancing a tire properly for a WRX?

I ordered a set of snow tires and wheels from Tire Rack and they shake between 60 and 70 mph. I figured the balance was off so I called Customer Support and they told me to take them to a shop to be balanced then fax Tire Rack my receipt for reimbursement.

So I took my Subie to NTB yesterday to have them balanced. 3 of the wheels were off by at least 1oz according to their equipment, so they adjusted them and sent me on my way. Driving home on the interstate I get the same shake effect in my steering wheel. WTF

I'm scheduled to go back to NTB to have them re-evaluate the balance job and possibly check to see if I got a bad tire. But I want to know if I'm a victim of circumstance or if any of my fellow Subie owners have experienced something similar.


BTW, the tires and wheels I received are:

16x7.5 Sport Edition CE SATML wheels
215/55R-16 Dunlop SP Winter Sport 3D XL

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[Snow Drift]

I get a vibrating steering wheel. It tends to be road dependent. If I drive on older roads its a lot worse than on freshly paved.

Also, snow tires are knobby which means you get more feedback.

Make sure your weights are still on the rims (I had some fall off) since the install shop didn't clean off brake dust before applying the sticky weights.

[Leadsled124]

It is possible to get a tire thats "out of round", basically a defect tire. Ive got some that no matter what would not balance on another vehicle. Hard to say over the internet. Depends on how bad the vibration is or if they were properly balanced

[prometheusecks]

Originally Posted by Leadsled124

It is possible to get a tire thats "out of round", basically a defect tire. Ive got some that no matter what would not balance on another vehicle. Hard to say over the internet. Depends on how bad the vibration is or if they were properly balanced

This ^^

Any good tire shop should have a balancer that can determine the runout of tyre wheel combo as well as the runout on the wheel by itself (unless you don't have a proper lip on the wheel then it gets tricky )

[DrDanimalSize]

I have some shake at around the same speeds, and mine are freshly balanced too. I thought it was just 'cause I'm on shotty no-name tires.

[M3Octane]

Ok, so here's the verdict. I failed at putting the wheels on correctly. The wheels I got from Tire Rack have a metal centering ring. I was aware of this and thought I had the rims properly seated against the hub, but I did not. The folks at NTB didn't catch my mistake until I went back to have them recheck it.

Quote from: http://www.tirerack.com/installer/package_install.jsp

Step 3: Check the fit of the wheel onto the hub of the vehicle. (Some wheel applications may require the use of a centering ring to create the proper fit onto the hub.)

These rings are very thin and I simply couldn't feel that it wasn't properly centered.