Wheel balancing

[techspy]

Well, I took my first "spirited" extended trip in my S4. The new audio/video system was really awsome btw! Anyway, I noticed a bit of a vibration around 65 mph. It was obvious that it was originating from the front wheels as it was really noticable in the steering wheel. So i had the front rebalanced at my destination. All it did was make it vibrate at 60 mph instead. I am thinking that the wheels might need some adjustment, IE: not perfectly round. Does anyone know of a place I can send the wheels and tires to have the wheels "reworked" and high speed balanced? I am going to try to find a place near here with the latest balancing equipment before I do that though. BTW, when my car was being store by my Lotus mechanic, he mentioned that there was a vibration and checked everything under the front end. He said everything seemed fine other than tightening one of the ball joints. He blamed the aftermarket wheels for the vibration.
Any thoughts anyone?

John
94 S4
http://hometown.aol.com/oneshotcop/myhomepage/profile.html

[Dr.Hess]

I would think tires before wheels. If it sat for a long time, they could have flat spotted.

Dr.Hess

[mikelr]

Do the wheels that you are running fit tightly over the front hub spigot? If not that could be your problem. The car's wieght should ride on the hub spigot and not the bolt lugs. BMW has the same arrangement, I had aftermarket wheels on my E31 and they came with hubcentric collars that took up about 1mm of space up. Not a whole lot of space, most people would not even see this as a problem when installing the wheel but leave the spacers out and you would have a shimmy at about 60 mph. So check it out, take a wheel off and with a set of calipiers check the I.D. of your wheels center bore, it should be 58mm.

Mike
94'S4

[techspy]

Well, while in storage it was moved around weekly and driven at least one a month. The wheels came with spacers for the correct offset and they do fit on the hubs as far as I can remember. I will check it again though.

John
94 s4
http://hometown.aol.com/oneshotcop/myhomepage/profile.html

[lotusguy]

Hi,

Check your front wheel bearings for proper tightness. To do this, jack up the front end and try to move the tire in/out, any play indicates the bearings need tightening. Since it's the start of the season, now would be a good time to repack them w/ grease anyway. Hope this helps. Happy Motoring! ...Jim'85TE

[5150neo]

I think Jim's on the rite track. I had the same situation, even had the tire indexed on the wheel and still had the vibration between 60 and 70 MPH.I tightened the bearings to spec and it eliminated the vibration on the left. Right still vibrated. It turned out to be the inner right bearingwas worn. I replaced the inners and outers on both wheels and no more vibration.
Not an expensive fix.
Good luck
John