Tyre replaced - now have vibration above 75mph

[R99]

Hi all, I was out in my car yesterday on the way to Manchester and the tyre pressure warning light came on (I was doing 75ish at the time and didn't feel a thing when the tyre went) Checked all pressures and found the drivers side rear to be dead, anyway to cut a very long story short I managed to get a new tyre fitted for £135 ( ) Kwick Fit wanted £190 though so I feel something good was salvaged from the whole escapade!

Now when I go above about 75 / 80 I get a vibration, the guy balanced the wheel once he fitted the new tyre, so is it now a case of getting all 4 wheels re-balanced or what? Just after some ideas about what it might be really!

P.S the jobs worth that sold me the car (non BMW dealer) also neglected to put the locking nut adaptor in the car so the fitter had to hammer an oversize socket on to get the locking nut off, so I now need a new set of 4 locking nuts plus adaptor, anyone know of the cost?

Many thanks

[Fin]

When he was hammering the socket on did he deform the alloy? Even slightly?

I've known an alloy to be damaged from a similar incident.

[R99]

I really hope not!! The guy just hammered it about 4 or 5 times onto the locking nut, the hammer didn't touch the wheel itself. He then put the tyre on the alloy and removed the weights and went away and balanced it. I'm quite worried now!

Like I say I really do hope there is no damage a polished R99 costs a bloody fortune!!

[Fin]

At first when I read the title of the thread my immediate thought was that it was a balancing problem. But if he balanced it then you would think that would be ruled out, unless he was not very good at his job.

The incident I know of happened when a man at Vauxhall removed an alloy from a vectra estate with a hammer instead of a mallet. If the guy who changed your tyre had to hammer the socket on then that would be applying a lot of force through a small area of the alloy. I hope it doesn't turn out to be expensive for you.

[Jammy Dodger]

Quote: Originally Posted by R99 (original)

Hi all, I was out in my car yesterday on the way to Manchester and the tyre pressure warning light came on (I was doing 75ish at the time and didn't feel a thing when the tyre went) Checked all pressures and found the drivers side rear to be dead, anyway to cut a very long story short I managed to get a new tyre fitted for £135 ( ) Kwick Fit wanted £190 though so I feel something good was salvaged from the whole escapade!

Now when I go above about 75 / 80 I get a vibration, the guy balanced the wheel once he fitted the new tyre, so is it now a case of getting all 4 wheels re-balanced or what? Just after some ideas about what it might be really!

For £135, I'm guessing you have run flats. Did you get the same tire type? How is your passenger side rear? If you said 'yes' and 'OK', then it sounds like a balancing issue.

[James]

After i got new alloys i get this problem, it doesn't bother me much as I am now used to it I just assumed it was because the wheels were bigger or something

[R99]

Quote: Originally Posted by Formula_MINI (original)

For £135, I'm guessing you have run flats. Did you get the same tire type? How is your passenger side rear? If you said 'yes' and 'OK', then it sounds like a balancing issue.

Thats a 'yes' and 'ok' to those questions!

I'm going to take it to a BMW dealer and get them to do the locking nuts and look at the balancing. Its not a huge vibration, but you can definably tell its there.

The thing I was thinking is surely both rear tyres would need to be balanced now there is one newer tyre on the rear. (the old one was 7000 miles old) Or doesit not work like this?

[grantw]

another thing to check would be if the wheel was damaged before the tyre change.. i had a simliar thing on my last mcs.. my girlfriend hit a pothole about 2-300 miles before i changed my front tyres, I got them rotated at that stage, and only when i returned to my local tyre speciatlist complaining that he obviously didnt balance the wheel, that he spotted the interior part of the rim of the wheel that took the pothole crash, was indeed slightly damaged and flattend slightly, I replaced the wheel and that helped solve the problem... a new tyre will exacerbate the damage to the wheel.

[R99]

I'm getting more worried now!!

I'm going back to uni tommorow so I think I'm going to ask my Dad to take it to get looked at while I am away....

[R99]

Just to follow this up, took it back to the tyre place and they removed one 15g weight. The vibration has now been cured, was very suprised that 15g could cause such a vibration. Just glad to have it sorted now. Not having much luck on the wheelnut front though, went to the local dealer today and the guy showed me where the adaptor was kept (under the boot lining) So now have to find out whether the dealer can order just ONE nut rather than a complete set of 4.....

James.

[R99]

Just to let you all know, sorted out the wheel nut issue this weekend. To my surprise MINI have managed to order just one nut, at a grand total of £3.50 Result!

All I had to do was give the reg number over the phone so they could find out which set of nuts had been put on the car, apparently there are 50 different patterns of nut to choose from!

Been put on the car on Tues, left my Dad in charge as I'm back at uni now, hoping they don’t charge to put the bloody thing on!

That’s all folks,
James.

[TimCrighton]

Sounds like a balancing issue to me.

Other thing it could be would be the inner tri-pod joint on one of the front wishbones which can cause a vibration and noise at motorway speeds. You can usually pick this up as its inconsistent, sometimes it will appear at 70, the next time at 85, the next time at 65.

I'd suggest balancing first, just because a kwik fit monkey balanced it doesn't mean its balanced of that I can assure you. Mel had her run flats fitted at Kwik Fit as she got a flat and we had to re-do them as they used hammer on weights which of course you can't use on run flats...

[rec]

dont assume that because someone said they balanced the wheels they actually did... 3 times i got told that by various garages on my old car, but none of them actually did !