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[phattey]

Needed new tires so decided to get a new set of Privat Akzent wheels with Hankook tires. 18x8.5/18x9.5 35 offset, 225/40 & 255/35.

Came home and saw UPS had dropped them off...so I was pretty happy. Put them on and was really disappointed in the ridiculous amout of vibration at ALL speeds above 40.

Took them to my wrench who has a Hunter RoadForce balancer and we discovered they hadnt been balanced or were poorly balanced. Also discovered passenger front was so bad it wouldnt balance at all and had to be replaced. New tire on the way... mounted it up and presto...still shakes like a leaf.

Ordered a new set of hub rings and cleaned the hubs really well removing as much rust as I could. New rings in and bolts TQ'd at 90 all around and the vibration is MUCH less, but still there slightly. Instead of mouinting rings on hub and then pressing the wheels on, I put the rings in the wheel first...did it make a difference..? Not sure it really matters but I was trying everything I could.

So this I can live with, but man what a PITA trying to get this right after getting them dropped off.

Ron...AKA...Phattey

[abhishriv]

3 musts when getting new tires/rims

1) Hub centric rings (unless the rims are BMW OEM)
2) Balancing
3) Correct Torque on the lugs

if all three are done correctly you shouldn't have any problems with vibration. make sure all 4 tires are inflated properly. or go back to get them re-balanced.. I had the same problem with my winter setup, still felt vibration after the initial test, got it redone and the vibration was gone...

[phattey]

Agreed...

Hub rings - Check
Balanced - Check
TQ'd - Check

[Velocity26]

All that has been said is true. I will add that tires that require more weight to balance, will go out of balance more often and, therefore, need to be balanced more often. While few tires are perfectly round, you want to get as close as possible. Some cars tolerate more imperfection than others.

I had a car with a great set of tires, I never had to rebalance them and got over 40,000 miles of good service with NO vibration from 0-100mph. Replaced them with a new set of Hankooks and the problems started. In the end, the dealer gave me the best 4, out of 8 tires, and I still had vibrations. They blamed everything from my wheels to my suspension. I had them road-force balanced at another dealer and they found some degree of "force imbalance" in the tires and made it better, but never perfect. I suffered for about 20,000 miles and then just got a new set of the cheapest tires I could find. They were Goodyear's from Sam's club. The car was like new again. Just an ordinary balance job and they have been perfect ever since, with no vibration at all.

Not trying to put this on Hankook, but I have seen this more than once with their tires. My dealer service adviser saw them on the car during an oil change and asked how the vibration was. The dealer had started selling them and then dropped the line when the complaints started coming in. You can draw your own conclusion from that.

[phattey]

yup....I'm close to just getting a refund and putting something different on there. Cold/flat spots are bad, even though most tires that sit get those till they warm up a little.

We'll see how they do over the next couple of weeks.

[Velocity26]

just get out of them before the irregular wear starts and they start playing games with you. They will blame your suspension, shocks, alignment, etc. The same vibration that you feel, sill show up in the tire wear too. If they cannot make the vibration go away, get rid of them ASAP.