LW Vibration Problem

rpps · 19-08-2012, 10:09 AM

My Focus is 12 months old now but one annoying thing about the car is I get a vibration through the steering and also you can feel it through the car.
I have continental tyres on my focus and I have had them re-balanced and also one tyre was out of round and that was replaced under warranty but I still get this annoying murmour throughout the car when travelling on highways above 80kph.
It's not enough to make the steering wheel shake madly but I feel it all the time and it's driving me mad.
I'm starting to think it's the tyres and I'm even tempted in changing the front tyres to see if there is any improvement, also having a 4 wheel wheel alignment done.
i was wondering if anyone has experienced this

Franco Cozzo · 19-08-2012, 11:56 AM

Tried rotating rear tyres to the front? My first LV Focus had this shaking thing going on at around 80-100km/h, wheel would shake left/right.

Then when I got the new LV Focus it didn't do it, so I assume out of round tyres.

Foconatic · 19-08-2012, 06:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rpps

My Focus is 12 months old now but one annoying thing about the car is I get a vibration through the steering and also you can feel it through the car.
I have continental tyres on my focus and I have had them re-balanced and also one tyre was out of round and that was replaced under warranty but I still get this annoying murmour throughout the car when travelling on highways above 80kph.
It's not enough to make the steering wheel shake madly but I feel it all the time and it's driving me mad.
I'm starting to think it's the tyres and I'm even tempted in changing the front tyres to see if there is any improvement, also having a 4 wheel wheel alignment done.
i was wondering if anyone has experienced this

Just a silly question. Are those wheels aftermarket? And do you have hub rings to centre the wheels onto the hub??

kevino · 19-08-2012, 06:27 PM

Damos trick is a good tip. My LT fronts wobble when I brake at 80k/hr plus but if they are rotated to rear no wobble.
Suggest you have a wheel issue like mine.

rpps · 19-08-2012, 07:55 PM

Yeah I have roated the tyres around no difference, also I have hub centering rings on the after market rims. I'm going to try a wheel alignment this week on the front and back and failing that I will gradually change the tyres starting with the front ones.

Russ · 19-08-2012, 10:29 PM

Don't be surprised if it's to do with the rims, I had the same issue with a VW Golf I owned a while back, had it in for wheel alignment, wheel balancing, had hubcentric rings installed, tried everything to get rid of the rumbling / murmur but ended up putting the OEM wheels back on it and the problem was solved

The rims I had fitted were APEC mesh and I had good quality KUMHO tyres fitted, I have vowed not to bother with aftermarket rims again especially on front wheel drive cars, I think that may be half the problem :(

rpps · 20-08-2012, 06:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ

Don't be surprised if it's to do with the rims, I had the same issue with a VW Golf I owned a while back, had it in for wheel alignment, wheel balancing, had hubcentric rings installed, tried everything to get rid of the rumbling / murmur but ended up putting the OEM wheels back on it and the problem was solved

The rims I had fitted were APEC mesh and I had good quality KUMHO tyres fitted, I have vowed not to bother with aftermarket rims again especially on front wheel drive cars, I think that may be half the problem :(

I hope it's not the rims but thinking back I did remember having this murmur prior to getting the new rims. I will try getting a a full wheel alignment on the back and front and go from there. What makes me think it's the tyre's is when they replaced the out of round tyre it made a big improvement, maybe the other 3 tyres are slightly out of round to. Here's a photo of the new rims.

Russ · 20-08-2012, 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rpps

I hope it's not the rims but thinking back I did remember having this murmur prior to getting the new rims. I will try getting a a full wheel alignment on the back and front and go from there. What makes me think it's the tyre's is when they replaced the out of round tyre it made a big improvement, maybe the other 3 tyres are slightly out of round to. Here's a photo of the new rims.
image

I hope you didn't buy them from the fruit place in the picture otherwise you may have been sold lemons

Just out of interest, what brand of tyre was fitted to the new rims ?

rpps · 20-08-2012, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ

I hope you didn't buy them from the fruit place in the picture otherwise you may have been sold lemons

Just out of interest, what brand of tyre was fitted to the new rims ?

LOL ... They Continental Contact 2 tyres, just been talking to Bob Jane Tyres they are going to take the tyres off the rim and look for high spots on the rims if any and the tyre and try and match them up better before rebalancing them fingers crossed.

Foconatic · 20-08-2012, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rpps

LOL ... They Continental Contact 2 tyres, just been talking to Bob Jane Tyres they are going to take the tyres off the rim and look for high spots on the rims if any and the tyre and try and match them up better before rebalancing them fingers crossed.

Thats why tyres have a red spot on them to match the spot on the rims.
Most OEM rims/wheels have the high spot marked and the red spot on the tyre indicatecs the tyres lowest spot.Matching them up gives you the best
rounded tyre/wheel match. (Or is the other way round??) Anyway thats what the spots are there for.

rpps · 20-08-2012, 07:57 PM

Well I got my car back and it's remarkably better, the guy at Bob Jane said the rims were OK but the tyres had high and low patches everywhere, suppose out of round. They matched the tyres to the rims and I think the problem solved, I know my next set of tyres won't be Continental.

Russ · 20-08-2012, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foconatic

Thats why tyres have a red spot on them to match the spot on the rims.
Most OEM rims/wheels have the high spot marked and the red spot on the tyre indicatecs the tyres lowest spot.Matching them up gives you the best
rounded tyre/wheel match. (Or is the other way round??) Anyway thats what the spots are there for.

So we should look out for Red Spot specials when buying tyres then, hmmmm maybe that fruit place might have some after all

Foconatic · 20-08-2012, 10:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ

So we should look out for Red Spot specials when buying tyres then, hmmmm maybe that fruit place might have some after all

Everybody wants to be a comedian!

fonfe · 20-08-2012, 10:27 PM

Coloured spot on tyres is to indicate where the true should be mounted inrelation to the valve location on the rim.
Wheels don't get high spots either they get low spots...aka they buckle. Is very common on OEM ford rims. I've replaced several over the years including ne from a focus rs that had done less than 5000km.

Vibration is purely because your wheels have become unbalanced by the tyres wearing and or stick on weights have come off as they rim probably wasn't cleaned properly before they were stuck on. From my experience with tyre places since I've moved to Australia they aren't very good so far. Just had 4 mud tyres fitted to my range rover last week and asked for tyre pressures to be 32psi front 36 rear..I got 35 front 41 rear. and they didn't bother to torque the wheel nuts either. -not saying that all tyre places are like this over here but first impressions....I was impressed at all so do stay and watch whilst it's being done.

Reason why vibrations usually go away if your swap wheels front to back is purely because front tyres wear quicker on a fwd car so become out of balance before the rears and an unbalanced wheel can hardly be felt on the rear of the vehicle. This is why is a common problem for fwd cars as rwd just wear the rears out quickly.

Your uneven wear is very unlikely to be because of the brand. Continental are a very good brand that do wear quickly but provide rather good grip. Chances are you just had a bad batch. Good value for money tyres I've had experience with are toyo proxies, use them on my track car, road car and several mates use them for road legal race cosworths back in the uk. Not sure how much they are here over in OZ but I used to pay around $160 per tyre via mail order and have them fitted locally.

Russ · 21-08-2012, 08:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Foconatic

Everybody wants to be a comedian!

I guess when I SPOT an opportunity I just go for it

fonfe · 21-08-2012, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russ

I guess when I SPOT an opportunity I just go for it

Foconatic · 21-08-2012, 01:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fonfe

Coloured spot on tyres is to indicate where the true should be mounted inrelation to the valve location on the rim.
Wheels don't get high spots either they get low spots...aka they buckle. Is very common on OEM ford rims. I've replaced several over the years including ne from a focus rs that had done less than 5000km.

Vibration is purely because your wheels have become unbalanced by the tyres wearing and or stick on weights have come off as they rim probably wasn't cleaned properly before they were stuck on. From my experience with tyre places since I've moved to Australia they aren't very good so far. Just had 4 mud tyres fitted to my range rover last week and asked for tyre pressures to be 32psi front 36 rear..I got 35 front 41 rear. and they didn't bother to torque the wheel nuts either. -not saying that all tyre places are like this over here but first impressions....I was impressed at all so do stay and watch whilst it's being done.

Reason why vibrations usually go away if your swap wheels front to back is purely because front tyres wear quicker on a fwd car so become out of balance before the rears and an unbalanced wheel can hardly be felt on the rear of the vehicle. This is why is a common problem for fwd cars as rwd just wear the rears out quickly.

Your uneven wear is very unlikely to be because of the brand. Continental are a very good brand that do wear quickly but provide rather good grip. Chances are you just had a bad batch. Good value for money tyres I've had experience with are toyo proxies, use them on my track car, road car and several mates use them for road legal race cosworths back in the uk. Not sure how much they are here over in OZ but I used to pay around $160 per tyre via mail order and have them fitted locally.

The yellow spot is for the valve location. the red spot is for like I mentioned before.
Your SPOT on about the rest.