Ok.. I did the stud conversion and got conical lug nuts and hubcentric rings. I have 17x7 MSR wheels with 205/40/17 tires. I drove it about 20 miles down the interstate before taking it to a wheel shop and having them rebalanced. When I did they showed me that the front tires were actually pointing the wrong direction and said it was really bad.. Anyway, they swapped the front left & right and balanced all four. The car pulled right. I came back and they swapped the back two with the front two. It pulls less but, it still seems to be pulling a little. It also feels like there is some torque steer (i.e. when I gas it, it pulls right harder). I'll also say that the tires still don't feel 100% balanced even though the shop who just balanced them is a good place with new equip.

So.. What do you guys think?
Is it the Rims?
Tires?
Would running directional tires in the wrong direction 20 miles @ 80 actually damage it and do this?

Help?

 

Sounds like you need an alignment. It's not "really bad" though.

_________________

SE Regional, BAMA Club Moderator: PM me

 

Put your stock stuff back on to rule out the chassis being tweaked.

also, which tires did you put on? notice that you're using a smaller-diameter-than-stock tire. This may indicate you're picking up more tramlining than previously experienced with stock 17's (if that's what you had) due to the shorter sidewall.

 

Could it be that the wheels are totally out of balance?

 

If the wheels are out of balance you would get a vibration.

I saw this all the time when I worked at a tire shop. As a FWD car gradually goes out of alignment it wears out the tires more on one side than the other. When you put new, unworn, tires on it you can suddenly feel the alignment problem big time, where it was un-noticable before.

Problems with suspension were almost always to blame for a car pulling. Wheel and tire problems almost always caused vibrations.

Oh yeah, and running directional tires the wrong way will only hurt your traction while they are on wrong, no effect on anything else.

_________________
-=acetonic=-
<IMG SRC="http://www.megapop.us/images/minihel...er01.jpg" ALT="[MC 31337]">

 

If your particular rim is available in more than one offset, make sure that all of your rims are identical and the same offset. It won't be the first time that someone has wound up with an odd rim in the set of four.

 

The wheels are balanced. I feel comfortable that they are balanced properly. The tires are what bothers me. They basically came on the wheels at no charge. Nankag? Anyway, has anyone had luck with these tires? I found the wheels that I liked and they came with these tires. I would like to think it was the tires but, I've never heard of the tires causing an alignment issue.

-Donut

 

donut- even dirt in tires can cause vibrations and make a car veer towards
that direction in some cases. Tires will cause a car to veer if it was poorly
manufactured.

best bet in your case is to try the factory wheels on and make sure its not
the car. Process of elimination starts there. Next up, change tires...205/40
is under the load weight anyway. Try some 205/45's or 215/45's.

 

Ok.. I went and had the wheels/tires road force balanced and one tire was bad. It was causing the vibration. From what the tire place said 0-5 was normal, 5-10 was a little high, 10-15 might be salvagable, and above 20 was a bad tire... My nankang was a 43. WOo WoO The mechanics comment was "I can balance a brick, that doesn't mean it will roll.".

Pulling to the right seems to be a tracking issue. On highways etc it always pulls slightly right and on city streets it seems to vary a little. I guess it's just REALLY sensitive to the angle of the road. I got the bad tire put on the back so vibration is at least minimized until I get a replacement.

-donut