Vibration after tyres fitted, ideas?
Discussion
Hi All,
Just wondering if anyone has any other things I can try before I give the tyre fitters a shout.
Car is the Wife's 2016 Mini Cooper S. Had the original Dunlop run flat tyres on it but they were really badly cracked after 6 years so had them replaced.
The run flats were a bit harsh with bumps and not particularly grippy so swapped them out for some Michelin PS5s.
Since then I've noticed a vibration, easily noticeable at higher speed but also seems to be quite variable dependent on the road surface as well as the speed. Which is odd, my previous experience of badly balanced tyres being that it just gets worse with speed regardless of road surface.
It isn't coming through the steering wheel so presumably not a problem at the front but you really feel it in your bum and back.
We drove the car on a 200 mile motorway round trip a week before having the tyres fitted and it was fine so don't think it is a wheel bearing or anything mechanical?
I've tried playing with pressures. The fitter set them to 36psi all round, I first tried setting them to the numbers on the car 42/39 F/R and have dropped them down twice since in case a lower pressure needs to be used on non run flats. They currently sit at 34/32 but none of the pressure changes have made any difference.
I have checked the wheels and they all have new weights on so it isn't that the fitters have not attempted to balance them, though no idea if they had more weight on but fallen off.
Checked wheel bolt torque and all fine.
Been using the same fitters for years now on a variety of stuff and never had a problem.
Of course it may be unrelated to the tyres completely and just a massive coincidence.
Any diagnostics I can try myself before I give in and ring the fitter to see if they can double check the balancing? Otherwise it will have to go off to a garage to look at as we can't keep driving it like this.
Just wondering if anyone has any other things I can try before I give the tyre fitters a shout.
Car is the Wife's 2016 Mini Cooper S. Had the original Dunlop run flat tyres on it but they were really badly cracked after 6 years so had them replaced.
The run flats were a bit harsh with bumps and not particularly grippy so swapped them out for some Michelin PS5s.
Since then I've noticed a vibration, easily noticeable at higher speed but also seems to be quite variable dependent on the road surface as well as the speed. Which is odd, my previous experience of badly balanced tyres being that it just gets worse with speed regardless of road surface.
It isn't coming through the steering wheel so presumably not a problem at the front but you really feel it in your bum and back.
We drove the car on a 200 mile motorway round trip a week before having the tyres fitted and it was fine so don't think it is a wheel bearing or anything mechanical?
I've tried playing with pressures. The fitter set them to 36psi all round, I first tried setting them to the numbers on the car 42/39 F/R and have dropped them down twice since in case a lower pressure needs to be used on non run flats. They currently sit at 34/32 but none of the pressure changes have made any difference.
I have checked the wheels and they all have new weights on so it isn't that the fitters have not attempted to balance them, though no idea if they had more weight on but fallen off.
Checked wheel bolt torque and all fine.
Been using the same fitters for years now on a variety of stuff and never had a problem.
Of course it may be unrelated to the tyres completely and just a massive coincidence.
Any diagnostics I can try myself before I give in and ring the fitter to see if they can double check the balancing? Otherwise it will have to go off to a garage to look at as we can't keep driving it like this.
The obvious is balancing for me. I assume they have direction markers on the tyres and they've all been fitted correctly.
You've tinkered with pressures, but is there anything on-line regarding this particular fitment and car?
If you've got the tools you could always swap them front to back (assuming they're all the same size) and see if the problem affects the steering rather than the rear as you state. Admittedly that's a faff so probably just take back to the garage.
You've tinkered with pressures, but is there anything on-line regarding this particular fitment and car?
If you've got the tools you could always swap them front to back (assuming they're all the same size) and see if the problem affects the steering rather than the rear as you state. Admittedly that's a faff so probably just take back to the garage.
Balancing does sound likely and in fairness sometimes can be a ballache especially for someone inexperienced.
I would deffo get them to have another look.
The only other thing is as another poster said it could be the whole front to back thing. I have a slightly bent alloy on our 17 year old volvo which when on the back causes no issues whatsoever. On the front however it does cause a shimmy at speed.
I would deffo get them to have another look.
The only other thing is as another poster said it could be the whole front to back thing. I have a slightly bent alloy on our 17 year old volvo which when on the back causes no issues whatsoever. On the front however it does cause a shimmy at speed.
smn159 said:
Check the wheel nuts for tightness!
If OK, take it back to the fitters...
Chances are they will be way too tight.If OK, take it back to the fitters...
I would back them off and then tighten to the correct torque.
You could also try fitting fronts to the back keeping in mind the required rotation direction and see if that changes anything.
RB Will said:
Any diagnostics I can try myself before I give in and ring the fitter to see if they can double check the balancing? Otherwise it will have to go off to a garage to look at as we can't keep driving it like this.
If you've got the tools and don't mind the effort you could try swapping front and rears.Seems like it might only be one tyre (currently at the rear) that's badly balanced. You'll also catch any improper fitting or torqueing of the wheels.
As an anecdote I have a cheap Dacia van on which the original (steel) wheels could never be perfectly balanced out. I bought it new from the factory so unlikely to have a bent rim. My winter set of identical looking steelies (bought through the tire shop) never had a problem.
trickywoo said:
smn159 said:
Check the wheel nuts for tightness!
If OK, take it back to the fitters...
Chances are they will be way too tight.If OK, take it back to the fitters...
I would back them off and then tighten to the correct torque.
You could also try fitting fronts to the back keeping in mind the required rotation direction and see if that changes anything.
ked the nuts up to 300nm! Thread resurrection.
Never did resolve the problem in December. Swapped wheels front to back, made no difference. Keep forgetting about it as the car doesn't do many miles. It went for MOT last week and while doing that the garage measured the tread depths and have recorded that the rear right has lost about 1mm already, car has only done a few hundred miles since fitting. So I thought hmm maybe the rear right is well out of alignment and causing the wobble. MOT didn't note any advisories so guess no obvious borkage with wheel bearings etc.
So today I have had a full wheel alignment, nothing was particularly far out, just a bit too much toe on the front right. They took a fair bit of camber out of both rears, put them in the middle of the tolerance window rather then the upper limit.
Asked them to check the balancing on all the wheels while they were at it. All of them were out, the fronts quite a lot.
Driving back from that it possibly feels even worse at low speed now, and high speed maybe slightly better or no different.
Might have to try and see if I can find someone with a similar Mini who will let me borrow their wheels and see if it does the same on theirs.
Any other ideas welcome.
Never did resolve the problem in December. Swapped wheels front to back, made no difference. Keep forgetting about it as the car doesn't do many miles. It went for MOT last week and while doing that the garage measured the tread depths and have recorded that the rear right has lost about 1mm already, car has only done a few hundred miles since fitting. So I thought hmm maybe the rear right is well out of alignment and causing the wobble. MOT didn't note any advisories so guess no obvious borkage with wheel bearings etc.
So today I have had a full wheel alignment, nothing was particularly far out, just a bit too much toe on the front right. They took a fair bit of camber out of both rears, put them in the middle of the tolerance window rather then the upper limit.
Asked them to check the balancing on all the wheels while they were at it. All of them were out, the fronts quite a lot.
Driving back from that it possibly feels even worse at low speed now, and high speed maybe slightly better or no different.
Might have to try and see if I can find someone with a similar Mini who will let me borrow their wheels and see if it does the same on theirs.
Any other ideas welcome.
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