Keaton944

howdy folks. recently got 4 new tires put on. i now have a slight wobble in the steering wheel, side to side. I have seared and read a few threads about this. Seems it could be bad balance or wheel bearings. the car did not do this before even on the worn down old tires, so im guessing they didnt do the balance right?

any suggestions? take to different tire place and have them re-balance?

about 6 months ago the car got new control arms and alignment.

theykallmekem

I'd say its needs to be rebalanced properly or the lug nuts need to be retorqued properly. take the wheels off and put them on again.

pcarfan944

Check tire pressure first, otherwise the car threw a weight or they just didnt balance one of the tires properly. Just bring it back and explain the problem and they should correct it no questions asked.

Keaton944

psi is all good all around, lug nuts all done @ 96ft-lbs

gonna take it back by the shop after work and re-balance.

Keaton944

well i had them rebalance the two front tires just to be sure. The tech said they were balanced, we also checked the wheel bearings and they seemed good, no play. I'm running ~30psi on all 4 tires.

the "wobble" is like like the tires are creeping left and right left and right. the car doesnt pull to the left or right, actually it drives just straight and fine even when this is going on. but like if you let go of the steering wheel, you can see it moving side to side back and forth a bit, but if you grab the wheel with both hands it stops, although you can still kinda feel it in the wheel. However i mostly drive with 1 hand on the wheel and 1 hand on the stick, so i would like to calm it down if i can.

starts around 40-45mph and continues until around 80mph, it gets less and less severe the faster you go above its initial starting point around 40mph, although it's not really even that severe to begin with.

Any ideas? am i just being overly paranoid? Is it just this way with brand new aggressive tread tires? It didnt do it before and all i changed was tires so just grasping here. Thanks for the input everyone.

pcarfan944

I know the feeling you describe, and the steering should be smooth. You could have a bent rim, also check the new tires for flaws such as tire belt separation or bulging. You didn't have this problem before you took it to the shop, so keep working with them on getting it resolved, a good shop will stand behind their work.

Yarf

Swap the back tires with the front tires then go for a test drive.

Keaton944

could the rim have been bent when they were changing the tires? although it could have been bent all along and i just didnt notice it b/c the tires were nearing bald.

I will try rotating the back to front this weekend and see how that goes. Thanks for the input everyone.

theykallmekem

Even with a bent wheel, the guys who mounted the tires should have caught it?? When I went to get some D90s mounted and balanced, the tech noticed the wheel bent when installing the tire ....

Keaton944

well an update. went to different shop, they took at look at my front wheels and confirmed they were out of balance and re-balanced them, however they also pointed out to me that my driver side rim was bent, he was able to balance it though. he suggested i swap it with the one of the rear. so we took it off, checked it on balance, it was good, wasnt bent. so after the re-balance the changing the driver side tires rear to front, its night and day. no more shimmy in my steering wheel. the car feels glued to the road again.

have a few questions pertaining the bent wheel thats now on the rear. Obviously i will be looking for a replacement one. Which brings me to my 1st question does anyone in or near Arkansas have any 15" phones for an 86 for sale? Until i can locate/afford a replacement one, what kind of harm or problems with using that bent wheel on the rear?

IGROWL

Keaton,

When I bought my Red 944 two years ago b4 I paid the PO I took it to have it inspected and it did not pass. It had a bent rim. When I told the person who was selling me the car that the rim was bent they said that rim was bent about 15 years ago and stayed on the car all that time with no problem. I had new tires put on and the shop said you should keep that rim on the back of the car it is safer. I just pulled a rim from my black 944 and passed inspection and put it back afterwards. I have since bought new rims and the phonedials are the spare set.

The fact that it did not pass inspection was the bead on the tire should come in constant contact with the rim.

Keaton944

thanks for the info Sands. If the bead on the tire was not in constant contact, the tire would not hold air pressure very well correct?

IGROWL

I don't know that air loss was the reason. The shop mentioned less likely to have a blow out on the back of the car.

Here is a picture of my bent rim.

Keaton944

hmm mine isn't bent like that, more like its not straight? or true maybe is the word? when you looked at it spinning on the balancer you could see from the inside view of the wheel that it had a wobble to it. not like an out of balance wobble but like when you bent your bicycle rim from jumping it off the front porch too many times and wasn't straight anymore. similar to that. it isn't something you could see from just looking at the wheel, at least i cant, but it was visible when on the balancer.

944Ross

Generally it is recommended to put a bad tire on the front, because a blow-out on the rear is much harder to control. In this case I don't think that is the concern so much as tearing up the steering from wobble.

Keaton, I have a couple of the 15" phonies that need refinishing, I'd let one go cheap, but I'd want to have it checked for straight before going to the trouble.