CinFulxgs

Well for those of you that didn't know I bought some wheels both fronts were bent...

So I sent them for repair last week and put them back on Sat.

They feel better although I was told they will never be perfect (does anyone know how to read these hunter 9700 readouts?) ... Too bad I can't just pick up some Salina front wheels as easily as rears... (Thanks Again Flossn)

Anyway, after driving to Disney last night and seeing if I can get used to the slight vibration (I don't think I ever owned a car that didn't have at least a little and since this is my first car riding on 18" I guess maybe the ride isn't that bad) I wake this morning to put on my clear bumper sides and when I go to do the left side the tire looks almost flat (25lbs)... of course I initially fear the worst that when the shop repaired the bend it cause some other problem...

So I take off the wheel and find a nail in the tire... 1 day from a fixed bend and a hunter roadforce balance and I already have a nail!

So now I take it up the street to get it patched and rebalanced (losing my hunter balance, that shop is close to an hour away) and have to pick it up tomorrow.

Anyway... Question since these are my first 18's...

Is it normal running the staggered setup for the car to feel a little more squirlly around 100 than my non staggered 17's setup... essentially, will the increase in tire width make that much difference tracking groves on the freeway and such or is it possible it is from the wheels still being slightly out of round?

I am thinking about running my 17's up front just to see if there is a big difference in just the front wheels leaving the 18's on the rear... just to test to see.... won't hurt anything doing that would I?

lexusondubs

iTrader: (9)

john yes it will pick up more groves in the road due to the larger wheels/tires that is normal also you can have the steering wheel pretensioner tightned that might make up the difference of the vibration i had mine done and man its like adding the LTuned steering ecu !!!

CinFulxgs

Any DIY on the steering wheel pre thingy...

rominl

iTrader: (4)

sorry to hear what you are going through man, but things happen, that's what i tell myself and try to move on....

and about the car being squirly, i don't know. maybe coz' ihave too much stuff on my car, at 100mph i think my car is actually more stable than it was when stock

lexforlife

iTrader: (7)

john man i am sorry for your troubles bro

the squirly feeling , your tires are brand new right , with new tires you have to scrub them in , right now you are getting treadblock squirm.. after about 2-300 hundred miles the tread will settle in

i am getting that right now at speeds about 100+ , my back end feels like its a second part of my car almost as if something is loose or broken back there but i know from past exp its the tread blocks squirming around


with 18in and up dont confuse road surface feedback with actual shimmy or wheel vibrations for with 18in and up you will get more feedback through the susp then with 17in and down

lexforlife

iTrader: (7)

almost forgot to answer about the hunter machine , you want to have 10lbs or less to insure against abnormal vibrations and possible shimmy , 15lbs is pushing it but ideally no more then 10lbs of road force . make sure they are measuring the runout of both rim and tire to make sure it is indexed correctly.

right now one of my pass side tires were out of round when i had them installed a few days ago , lucky for me i have a great relationship with my tech guy at good roads here in ft lauderdale , he re indexed them 3 times to get the best balance or road force which arrived at 24lbs , way to high so right now around 65-80 i get steering wheel vibration , the tire dealer i bought from out in cali already sent me a replacement tire to cure this so bottom line stand there , watch them do it and make sure road force is 10 or under , dont take no for a answer , let them break down the assembly 2,3 or 4t imes until they are indexed or match mated perfectly , i mean afterall thats why i tip my guy 15 each time he does mine so he could care less if it takes him a hour with one assembly

chuckb

hey John-sorry to hear about your luck. as you probably know, I just went from stock 16s to oem 18s. I notice alot more road feel with the 18s. I have confused it for balance issues more than once. I even called the tire shop and they said they'd recheck them for free but if it's not at the same exact speed every time, it's not the balance. After he said that I paid more attention and sure enough, sometimes at 55mph it'd be smooth as silk and sometimes I would get road feel that felt like vibration almost.It's just feels like you feel the harmonics in the road more. I'm getting used to it and my car rides real smooth at high speeds. It almost feels smoother from 80+.

I have Tein CS on order and I'm curious to see how it feels after that.

if it is the wheels and you can't get them right, maybe you should buy some brand new oem Spiders from Darrel or something.

good luck.
chuck

lexusondubs

iTrader: (9)

sorry i dont i had my lexus master tech do mine

CinFulxgs

Ed, Thanks for all the good info!

Never heard of the tread thing and that may definately be one of the factors right now. Thanks for all the info on the brakes, I finished the job and no vibration or sound from them...

I have no clue what you are refering too with the RoadForce... I get the indexing but not the lbs??? Do you know how to read the printouts?

I think the bends are better because I am getting very little... I mean little, steering wheel vibration... more of what I am feeling is seat of the pants so probably a combination of the tread breaking in, tracking grooves, and less sidewall... I may still RoadForce balance the rear wheels too.

Chuck, I really love the look of the Salina's... if you have never seen them in person you are missing out... they are like a work of art... so I don't really want to get rid of them... My 17 Superturismos are very smooth 80+... maybe too smooth... maybe this way I won't speed as much... at least not in a straight line... onramps are fun as hell with the staggered setup.

I guess in the end I may like the feel of the 17's more than the 18's... I am going to give it a couple of weeks and switch back and forth between the 2 and then decide which to keep and then sell the other set.

bluelex

Geez man, Its almost like you weren't meant to have these..lol I hope you get it resolved and we don't see a part III.

Indio

iTrader: (1)

Hate to bring this up but you say seat of the pants, that usually involves the rear wheels, if this problem does not clear up have them checked for bends as well, if you hit a pothole deep enough to bend a front wheel you are going to hit with the rear as well and most likely bend it, good luck.

CinFulxgs

Well, this stinks!

They checked the wheel and found that the small nail did not penetrate the tire so the leak must be coming from somewhere else.

They say that they can't get the tire to leak after remounting the tire so maybe it was the valve stem? If not and it keeps leaking once back on the car I will have to assume it is the fixed bend and will have to take it back to transwheel for another try I guess.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

can't they just stick the tire in water and see where the bubbles come from?

CinFulxgs

So far so good today, the wheel has held air. Don't really know why it was leaking air but I have a feeling it may have been at one particular weight they put on the inside of the wheel clip on instead of flat.

Anyway, hopefully I can get used to the way they feel since I really want to keep the staggered setup and 18" size.

CinFulxgs

This sucks, wheel definately has slow leak... Taking back to Transwheel tomorrow.