Land Jet

I'm on my second set of Toyo 888's. The first set produced a bad vibration that turned out to be from too much rear camber that ate the inside edge of both rears. Looked like a 1 inch wide groove taken off the edge. After changing the camber back to -1.5, the tires are wearing evenly but produce a vibration like they are out of balance but all the wheel weights are firmly taped on the wheel..

Do R compounds need to be balanced numerous times during their life because of the softer compound? Is it normal to get these vibrations? Or is it just the Toyos? I must say I find it unnerving at speed.

amondc

we typically get a vibration in the first few laps. I think because of the soft compound the tires develope a flat spot over night and need to get up to temp before them are round again. We also dont bother to balance them becuase they loose and pick up a lot of rubber and makes the process pointless.

Matt Romanowski

Have you picked up a bunch of crap? It's hard to rebalance tires unless they are really clean.

himself

On my old wheels, I had a terrible time with the tires (Hoosiers) clocking on the rim - which sent them out of balance. Aquanet to the rescue.

-td

Land Jet

Tires are clean so not from that. Never had this problem with street tires at the track. The thing that bothers me is how do I distinguish a vibration from a tire failure warning?

Do all R compound tires do this? Do Nitto NT01's do this?

4porsh

The Nitto NT-01s do shake sometimes in the beginning when the car has sat for a long time. Just drive a bit and when they heat up the shake goes away.
As others have said the tire also gets pick up on it that can cause shake.

"Do R compounds need to be balanced numerous times during their life because of the softer compound?" NO.

I have been at track in my other car running R-comps on SSR wheels and felt a shake, just tried to drive through it thinking the tires just needed to warm up. Found out my rim had a crack on one of the spokes which made the rim out of true, so people please check your rims.

Joe

SundayDriver

No, R comps nor slicks inherently do this. Though you said it is not an issue for you, a comment on pick-up. That stuff should come off on the warm up lap. I have never seen it stay when the tires are up to speed and I disagree about not balancing sticky tires. This is as necessary as balancing street tires.

Your camber problem wore the tires, but I doubt that was the vibration. That kind of wear generally keeps the tire in balance, as opposed to toe issues that scallop a tire and can lead to vibrations.

Since you are new with R-Comps, you have greater breaking force on the mounting surface. I would first suspect that the tire is rotating on the rim. Any decent race tire service will mark the tire with the valve-stem position so you will be able to see if there is rotation. This is the first thing to check, as others have said.

BTW - Are the wheels new? Are they chromed? Both would point to clocking. Also new (or even used) wheels could be out of round and shake like mad.

J richard

+1 on the clocking, particularly if you had them mounted at a shop that doesn't do racing tires all the time, they don't worry about too much lube... Also type Rs are much more prone to flatspotting than road tires, you may have inaddvertantly cooked a corner with cold tires, I would jack up the car and spin them and look for flat spots or alot of pickup, most likely the fronts.

Land Jet

We did put chalk marks at the valve stems when mounted, and when i just went out and checked them, the fronts had rotated 1/4 way around the rim, and the rears had moved 3 inches. So do I need to get some aquanet for re-mounting the tires and then re-balance?

Could using spacers cause a vibration like this? Only at higher speed, the steering wheel has no shake so I'm thinking it's coming from the rear. Also the tires the last track event never really came up to temperature due to cool weather conditions.

Bryan Watts

Only if installed improperly.

Land Jet

They are hub-centric H&R spacers with longer lug bolts. I doubted that they were the cause of the problem, just wanted some input from the experts.

rcg412

my r888s, especially as they wore down vibrate between 18-30mph - almost feels like a balancing issue. I recently had them swapped Left to Right, and rebalanced - still do it. I think it is fairly normal. When I get >30mph they are fairly smooth - but LOUD!

Hope this helps - i wouldn't sweat it.

333pg333

Hmm, could it be a rear engined phenom? I've had 888s, NT01s, Hoosiers, RE55s and not had a problem with this. They can gather or gall up the rubber, perhaps this is it?

todinlaw

Its the tire balance, if we are talking about full tread vs. shaved. Shaved tires sometimes do not go round, but I had the clocking problem on my 3, I wish I would have thought of this then, but they have come out with balancing beads. they put beads in the tire they move to the dead spot to balance the tire. Any track tire specialist can do it for you but it takes care of the clocking problem. Before this came out, I would have to rotate the tires from the left to the right and then back again to clock them back to the right position. it was a pain. Try the Beads.