Vibration

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jjcool00

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I wasn't going to create a thread about this but it seems like we all don't have much to talk about lately so I might as well. I have the volvo 19's with dunlop direzza tires. I have HCR rings and all four wheels are balanced, no bends etc. When I drive over 60-70mph there is a serioussss vibration up front - OCCASIONALLY.... sometimes its fine... sometimes it feels as if the wheels are going to fall off... hurts my hands that bad. The only thing I can think of is it's the crappy dunlop direzzas? Any other ideas you guys can think of that would cause vibration like this? Could it also be over/under inflation of the tires? I haven't checked the PSI in a while but last time I did all 4 were around 38-40 PSI. Could it also be the lug nuts? Lugs I got were from pep boys, and the dude there told me they were the right ones. They went on pretty well.

Some side information -

tires have only about 5k miles on all 4.
alignment was done about a month ago.
balancing was done about a month ago.
hcr are 63mm (the correct size).

Also, when I had the stock wheels on prior to this - about 3-4 months ago there was no vibration.
 
check all hubs, balljoints, bushings etc... You may also want to find somewhere that can road force balance your wheels... as the video the other day said... you can balance a square wheel... doesn't mean its round!...
 
G-RELL said:
check all hubs, balljoints, bushings etc... You may also want to find somewhere that can road force balance your wheels... as the video the other day said... you can balance a square wheel... doesn't mean its round!...
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Cool I'll check everything this weekend to see if there's any play anywhere... Maybe I'll take it somewhere else and have them verify the balancing of the wheels as well. I know the hubs should be good I replaced them last year myself.
 
I am guessing you have already tried remounting them? Or rotate fronts to backs etc.
 
I haven't put the rear in the front, but they were remounted by the tire balancing place and I made sure they put the HCR back on. Funny think is AFTER balancing the wheels, the vibration got a little worse. I've been going to that place for years but maybe they didn't do something right? I dunno.
 
Wow much more common than I expected... Lots of local shops have it including a Firestone near me. I'll take it there since I have the lifetime alignment from them.
 
Update: got the road force balancing... dude at firestone said a few things to me: he said that the wheels have a really high road force - dunno what that means. He said he balanced them, said two tires were on with the wrong rotation so he remounted them and rotated the fronts to the rear. He also said I should get rid of the tires I have as Direzzas are awful and will ruin my wheels. I asked him to check out the suspension to make sure the hubs, links, rods were all good and he said there was no play or issues.

So I drove the car, yesterday it felt better was driving over 60 MPH with little to no vibration so I thought, hey it worked! Today as I was driving to work, not so much... it still vibrates heavily so I don't know. I think my only option now is to just change the tires... Weirdest thing... I hate it. I can be driving on the same road at the same speed and it will have zero vibration, then 5 seconds later it will vibrate to hell then go back to no vibration. Never experienced this before on any car. Guess I will have to live with it until I get new tires.
 
What is the tire size? There is an EXCELLENT chance the tires are flat-spotting. After parking for an extended time (like overnight) they will develop flat spots which will feel like a vibration until they heat-up. Anything less than a 60 sidewall number is prone to flat-spotting. IIRC, when I looked at tires a year or so ago the Direzza's got horrible reviews.
 
LS4me said:
What is the tire size? There is an EXCELLENT chance the tires are flat-spotting. After parking for an extended time (like overnight) they will develop flat spots which will feel like a vibration until they heat-up. Anything less than a 60 sidewall number is prone to flat-spotting. IIRC, when I looked at tires a year or so ago the Direzza's got horrible reviews.
Click to expand...

They are 35's so very low profile. Yeah, I also saw the same reviews and I would've never purchased the Direzza's on my own, however when I bought the wheels they came with brand new Direzza's so I figured, hey use em while they're free. I wouldn't recommend anyone buy them either...The tires may have approx 5,000 miles on them and occasionally when I slam on the gas I can feel them kick out a bit in the rear, something that NEVER happened with the old tires I had - even after 50,000 miles on those.

I don't know how long the tires would take to "warm up" but my work commute is approx 20 miles and its been hotter than Africa here... over 100 and humid daily so I'm sure the roads are hot.
 
But it being hotter outside will make them flat spot faster while sitting.

It's the tires all the way.
 
purevilpleasure said:
But it being hotter outside will make them flat spot faster while sitting.

It's the tires all the way.
Click to expand...

Yeah that's what I'm thinking as well... POS direzzas :( lol. Gonna drive em until they can't be driven anymore then get some Goodyear F1's or something similar.
 
I know how you can get rid of them more quickly:

hqdefault.jpg
 
jjcool00 said:
Yeah that's what I'm thinking as well... POS direzzas :( lol. Gonna drive em until they can't be driven anymore then get some Goodyear F1's or something similar.
Click to expand...

I have to think that they will be adding more wear to your wheel bearings and some of the rest of the suspension. You may not save much by keeping them.
 
Would a suspension issue cause what I'm describing? Possibly the shocks? Reason I say this is it only does what I'm describing from 55-70 MPH and occasionally I can feel only what I can describe as a bouncing up front? Also, sometimes when I hit small bumps I can feel the wheel slightly tilt left. Now that I've been paying close attention to this since it's bothering me more and more each day I'm starting to notice these things. It also feels weird when I accelerate from 60 MPH to 70 MPH... like a bouncing. Sorry if I'm not using the right word here, but I'm sure you guys can understand. I'm going to have the shocks looked at since they've probably never been replaced.
 
Instead of being all paranoid about this - I'm just going to put my winter wheels on and see what difference it makes, if any. I'll do that this weekend and let you guys know.
 
jjcool00 said:
Instead of being all paranoid about this - I'm just going to put my winter wheels on and see what difference it makes, if any. I'll do that this weekend and let you guys know.
Click to expand...

Good quick test. Good idea
 
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