Freddie Two Bs

I just had the winter wheels installed on the car, and now the car runs like shyte. It feels similar to last year when I had a bad wheel bearing, which also happened while i had the winter setup on the car. Please excuse the probably stupid question, but can there be any relation between swapping wheels, or running winter tires, and wheel bearings going bad?

jeanmarcboilard

Can you describe more what “runs like shyte” is. What’s it doing? There shouldn’t be a relation with running the right size winter rims and tires and wheel bearing issue. Are the new wheels properly balanced? Are the tires in good shape? If it happened right after changing wheels, it’s likely the wheels.

Freddie Two Bs

It makes an ugly rotational noise, mostly. Haven't checked the pressure but it would be egregious if the Porsche dealer had mounted the wheels without making the pressure right, but I guess you can never be sure. I'll check first thing tomorrow.

The wheels are the same I mounted last two winters. Solid turbo twists with dunlop snow tires. A hair taller in the back but less than 2% which by all accounts shouldn't be a problem. Anyhow I have a good feel for how the car should run if all were ok, that doesn't feel like it.

jeanmarcboilard

Maybe have the wheels balance checked?

Carlo_Carrera

Could it be just tire noise? The all-season tires I run on mine make one hell of drone on certain road surfaces.

Macster

No relationship between swapping wheels/tires or running winter tires and bad wheel bearings.

Couple of things that can account for the noise.

1) Carlos_Carrera does bring up the issue of tire noise with all season tires. Winter tires might be noisy like all season tires. While i have no winter tire experience with my Porsche cars I have plenty of summer tire expeirence and know with summer tires tire noise gets pretty bad as the tires wear. It would not surprise me in the least that this was also the case with winter tires. If the Dunlop tires are worn down they can just be noisy.

2) Double check the air pressures. Tire pressures may have been set to the tire pressures for a fullly loaded car. If the tires are inflated to a pressure much different from what the were inflated to when they were used the tire's shape can be a bit different and this can account for noise and even how the car feels.

3) If the tires are new (or even if they are not) check that if the tires are unidirectional that they have been installed in the right direction.

4) If the tires are used and if the car's alignment has changed since you last ran these tires the tires can be noisy as they wear in and adapt to the new/different alignment.

Freddie Two Bs

It was 2). Four to five pounds off on all corners. Now it feels like a different car and runs nicely.

Macster

That's good news.

You have winter tires installed now. Is the rest of the car ready for winter? I assume the coolant's good? The cooling system has no leaks? The wiper blades are good? You have the windshield washer tank filled with washer fluid that won't slush/freeze up in real cold weather?

You want to be sure you go into winter with no lingering issues. And summer too...

Freddie Two Bs

Good call on the windshield washer! The rest is pretty good I think. I won't drive it more than a few hundred miles probably anyway, over the winter.