Balanced multiple times, still vibrating?

[A_User55555]

When I first bought my 2011 DTS and was driving it back home, I noticed a vibration at around 60-62mph. The vibration felt like it was coming from the front passenger side. It didn't bother me much and I figured I'd get it re-balanced at some point.

A few months later I went to a tire shop and had them do a road force balance on that rim. After getting the car back, I still had the vibration but maybe it was slightly reduced.

Half a year later, I bought 4 new tires for my car. All of them were road force balanced. When I went on the highway for a test drive, I still felt that vibration.

I figured it was something suspension related or a worn engine mount after reading posts on cadillacforums.

Last week, I had my rear brakes changed and my tires rotated. When I went on the highway after, I got the impression that the vibration wasn't as bad as it was before. The vibration also seemed to be coming from the left rear of the car.


If that rim is slightly bent or out of round, could that have been undetected by two different road force balance machines?

 

[dubber09]

Bad brake rotors can cause that.

 

[mclasser]

I've had shops not catch a bent rim before. It depends on the tire tech actually caring rather than day dreaming about some girl or what they're going to have for lunch.

I've also had shops not use the Road Force feature even though I paid for a RF balance.

 

[rubberchicken]

Originally Posted by mclasser
I've had shops not catch a bent rim before. It depends on the tire tech actually caring rather than day dreaming about some girl or what they're going to have for lunch.

I've also had shops not use the Road Force feature even though I paid for a RF balance.


+1, same experience. I caught Mr Tire giving me a false road force balance report.

 

[Panos]

Had my new set of tires balanced 3 times in 3000kms because of vibration on the highway.strangely the vibrations where obvious after covering some distance and getting up to temperature. Every time the balancing machine returned different weights and spots on the rim. He responded that this is normal and the balancing result becomes invalid if you remove the wheel from the machine install it back and measure it again and everytime gives a different result, that's the way these machines work

.I am almost sure the machine was set to 6,5"wide wheels while mine are 7". Paid another installer in another place to balance them . All good now.

 

[Gasbuggy]

You can balance an egg but you can't make it round, did they tell what the readout from the RF balancer was? I've heard of issues with off halfshafts causing problems like that. You can try adding some weight to them, i've done it with lead tape. Wrap a long piece around and around.


Assuming you did the obvious and moved the wheel around?

 

[joekingcorvette]

I know it sounds like a PITA but if you could find another car just like yours and swap the wheels and tires and go for a test drive it would tell you if it's the tire and wheel combination. I am thinking you probably have a tire or wheel that isn't quite right but it would be hard to diagnose. You may even have a couple wheels and tires that are not quite right. A brand new tire and wheel combination would be sweet but that costs a lot of money. Maybe you could just try one good wheel and tire combo and use it on each corner and maybe it would make a difference? I have not had any vehicles that required suspension or drive shaft parts and that is why I think it is most likely in your wheel and tire combination that is making the vibrations.

 

[Trav]

Try cleaning the back of the wheel where it mounts on the hub with a Roloc disc or white brush in a drill. I see this quite often in the salt belt especially with aluminum wheels.

 

[DuckRyder]

I've heard that chassis is particularly sensitive to balance and uniformity...

A properly done road force "OEM match" will catch a bent wheel.

Need to find a shop willing to do the road force and get the RF as low as possible instead of just "in spec". Once you have assurance the balance is done properly, if the vibration remains it is not the tires.

IME anything over 15-18 LBS is likely to be felt and my guy regularly gets them under 10.

 

[CapriRacer]

2nd vote for problematic chassis.

 

[sasilverbullet]

Do you have the RF numbers? Post them if you do. My experience has been anything over 15 WILL give you problems, if not now then down the road.

Agree with the consensus to have them RF'd again. Making sure the tech checks for a bent rim and making sure they get it as low as possible.

One other possibility, you never mentioned what brand/type of tires you're running. Some tires are just garbage.

 

[mclasser]

Originally Posted by rubberchicken
Originally Posted by mclasser
I've had shops not catch a bent rim before. It depends on the tire tech actually caring rather than day dreaming about some girl or what they're going to have for lunch.

I've also had shops not use the Road Force feature even though I paid for a RF balance.


+1, same experience. I caught Mr Tire giving me a false road force balance report.

That's the same shop I had with problems with!!

 

[khittner]

Are the wheels OEM? If they're aftermarket, they may need correct hub-centric rings added to make sure that the entire wheel isn't a tad off-center on the studs.

 

[zorobabel]

Originally Posted by Panos
am almost sure the machine was set to 6,5"wide wheels while mine are 7"

I didn't know about this. It explains why the tires on my 6" wide rims don't get balanced properly 50% of the time.

 

[Bebop367]

I had similar that turn out to be Out of Round Tires.
Nothing but new tire will fix out of round to my knowledge.

 

[Traction]

Originally Posted by sasilverbullet
Do you have the RF numbers? Post them if you do. My experience has been anything over 15 WILL give you problems, if not now then down the road.

Agree with the consensus to have them RF'd again. Making sure the tech checks for a bent rim and making sure they get it as low as possible.

One other possibility, you never mentioned what brand/type of tires you're running. Some tires are just garbage.

Sometimes I think road force balancing is over-hyped. When I installed the 265-40-17 tires on the front of my C5 Corvette 5 years ago, I didn't have a road force balancer. So now that I do I wanted to check them before going on a 500 mile trip last weekend. I was shocked to find out that one was 46lbs, and the other at 38lbs of RF. One I rotated 180 and got it down to the limit of 28lbs. The other one I clocked it to 4 different positions, and it was 46lbs every time. I gave up and decided I would just have to deal with it and just balance them to the lowest limits. Didn't see any run-out in the wheel, or tire. If a tire isn't checked for residual static imbalance in the fine mode, it can be over 1/2oz out of balance even if the machine displays all zeros in normal dynamic mode. I always try to get the residual static, which creates hop down to 5/100ths of an ounce, or lower. Less than a rock pebble . The car ran perfectly smooth up to 80mph for the whole trip.
The roller on the road force balancer is far from a flat road. It is like 10 inches in diameter, compared to the earth at almost 8000 miles. And no, the earth isn't flat either.

 

[zzyzzx]

Oversized rims is probably the culpret.

 

[Traction]

Originally Posted by zzyzzx
Oversized rims is probably the culpret.


Please explain?

 

[rubberchicken]

If you run into a situation where the wheel / tire repeatedly fails to balance and keeps changing readings, then suspect a foreign object inside the tire. This happened to me twice: one time it was a 3 oz wheel weight tossed into the tire (mistake, sabotage ? could not determine) , the other time was about 6-8 oz of water. Poorly maintained compressors fill up with water, which may get forced into your tire.

 

[Ws6]

Originally Posted by A_User55555
When I first bought my 2011 DTS and was driving it back home, I noticed a vibration at around 60-62mph. The vibration felt like it was coming from the front passenger side. It didn't bother me much and I figured I'd get it re-balanced at some point.

A few months later I went to a tire shop and had them do a road force balance on that rim. After getting the car back, I still had the vibration but maybe it was slightly reduced.

Half a year later, I bought 4 new tires for my car. All of them were road force balanced. When I went on the highway for a test drive, I still felt that vibration.

I figured it was something suspension related or a worn engine mount after reading posts on cadillacforums.

Last week, I had my rear brakes changed and my tires rotated. When I went on the highway after, I got the impression that the vibration wasn't as bad as it was before. The vibration also seemed to be coming from the left rear of the car.


If that rim is slightly bent or out of round, could that have been undetected by two different road force balance machines?



My Nokians were like this. They just couldn't be fixed. Luckily, they were trash by 20K miles and I bought Altimax RT43's and life was b etter.