Steering Wheel Shake after new wheels & tires

***Update Edit***

So I took them back to the original shop and had them re-balanced which did nothing for the shake or vibration. I called around to a few different shops and asked about equipment and was referred to a shop which had confirmed to have the Road Force Balancer. Took the truck to them and had them re-balanced for a 3rd time. Got the truck out of the shop and it was much improved, BUT there is still a slight vibration that I’m getting in the steering wheel/seats at highways speeds. I’ve attached the Wheel balance summary, but I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at. If anyone has any insight on this and what these numbers mean, it would be much appreciated. This shows the “before service” which would have been done at the prior shop without Road Force balancing and “after service” which shows the balance at the shop with the Road force balance. Please let me know your thoughts.

**ORIGINAL**

Hello,

Yesterday I had installed some new aftermarket wheels and tires and am now having some steering wheel and seat vibrations at highway speeds. 55mph+. I plan to contact the shop that mounted and balanced the tires, but want to be sure I have all of the right questions to ask before doing so. Truck is on stock suspension currently and had zero vibration issues prior to the swap.

2009 V6 4x4 DCLB

Old wheels & tires that had zero issues- 16” 2021 OEM TRD Off-Road wheels & stock Goodyear Wrangler Tires: 265/70R16

New wheels & tires - 16” FN F(f)x Pro Flow Forge wheels. 106.1 bore +4 offset with Falken Rubitrek 265/75R16 Tires - Standard Load

From what I understand since the bore size on my new wheels is the same as the hub size, these would be hub-centric and there shouldn’t be an issue of the wheels not being mounted properly as the risk would be with lug centric wheels? Is that correct?

Since I did not have the issue before, is it safe to assume it’s balance related or is it possible the new setup is just highlighting some suspension issues?

From what I understand the shop does not use a Road Force Balancing machine, but is that crucial in this instance?

Let me know your thoughts and thank you for the replies in advance.

 

I don't know anything about those tires and wheels, but it sounds like you didn't dramatically change the dimensions of the wheels and tires on the truck... the only change I see is from 70 to 75, before the "R"? What even is that number... like, nanometers? Ha! No need to worry about just 5 nanometers, that's less than a foot, just so long as the wheels are mostly round, with a similar number of wheel-holes.

Lots of folks here buy far-bigger tires, and that only ever causes problems when these idiots buy stupidly oversized tires that don't even fit their trucks. I'm talking tires so big that they can't even turn their steering wheels to one side or the other, before their stupidly monstrous tires crash into some other part of their truck, such as the frame, or the idler pinion gasket. Trust me, if this was your problem, you would still be in the parking lot with these other idiots and their gigantically oversized tires, leaking idler pinion fluid everywhere.

So, given the sudden onset of problems, and the fact that you got out of the parking lot... I would definitely suspect the balance of the new tire/wheel assemblies, and question the workmanship of the shop that installed them. Especially at highway speeds, this is when wheel/tire balance problems will emerge. If you feel it more in your butt, then I would suspect the rear wheels, vs. through the steering wheel for the front wheels. But regardless of whether it's your butt or your steering-wheel hand that is jiggling the most, you should probably get all four wheels rebalanced, because this is honestly not a very good way to determine which wheel is out of balance.

The first and obvious thing to do is to seek remedy from this shop, reporting the symptoms you described here. They will almost certainly rebalance all four wheel assemblies, and might even check your truck extra carefully for emerging issues that could suddenly give rise to this type of problem, such as an idler pinion gasket, and offer to fix that for you too. You should first insist that they properly rebalance your wheels, because that is obviously the whole entire problem in the first place.

The fact is, all shops sometimes do shitty work... maybe it was a hectic day, or the balance machine was on the fritz... or maybe the technician who balanced your wheels was a new hire named like Connor or Blake or something, and he was too high on drugs to balance dirt on the ground much less four 16” FN F(f)x Pro Flow Forge wheels with 106.1 bore and +4 offset after mounting your brand-new Falken Rubitrek 265/75R16 Tires... I bet he got fired later than afternoon for being so high on the drugs! Gosh, I hope that's not your name though, I was just trying to think of a generic name for someone who could screw up something that simple! You know what, maybe Connor and Blake are co-owners of the shop, and they want to stand by their work, and it was Aiden who was high on the drugs. Don't worry, they'll put Skeeter on it -- he's the best -- and they'll get you back on the road in no time.

If this doesn't solve the problem, the sad reality is that you probably inadvertently chose a shitty shop to swap your tires and wheels. (Either that, or your idler pinion gasket is shot!)

I have been in this situation myself, with a shitty shop (not the idler pinion gasket), and no matter who's to blame (it was Connor and I fucking know it!), what you will need to do is find a new shop, and pay them however much they want to fix the first shop's shitty work. You can't do anything about the money you wasted at the first shop, but you can maybe get a discount at the second shop by badmouthing Connor, that no-good drug-addict! (But keep your damn mouth shut about Skeeter.)



Sorry, I guess this one went off the rails right at the start. Hopefully you might get a good laugh, especially if your name isn't "Connor." Sounds like your tire shop botched the wheel balance, should be an easy fix. Good luck, and keep an eye on that idler pinion fluid!

 

Take it back to the shop

 

Shops are filing people through too quickly, especially this time of year, and often overlook a correct balance. I just had some aftermarket wheels mounted with my Michelins for winter. My truck shakes like a dog shitting tacks. It will be going back to Discount Tire to get rebalanced. Bring your rig back and insist they do it correctly. That may even require them to "clock" the tires on the wheels in a different position to achieve optimal balance. Take it for a drive after and go right back if it's not right.

 

That was funny!

 

I’m having the same issue on my new tires. I have a 2020 offroad 2wd. I bought ridge grapplers size 265/75/16 on stock wheels. The vibration in the front left is annoying. As I’m driving, you can look into the side mirrors and see the bed shaking and bouncing. I have an appt next week to get them rebalanced.

 

making new bumpers stickers that say "Keep fucking Conner away from my truck"

that shit was funny, so true, but funny, Im gonna be laughing all day over that one. i need to subscribe to all your posts


i may have to send conner to find some prop wash to rinse off this guys idler pinion fluid

 

Probably a tire issue. Possible bad wheel but doubt that. Yes they should be road forced balanced and the correct Haweka adaptor should be used when they’re balanced. If the shop does not have those capabilities take it somewhere that does.

 

Thank you for this, truly.

 

So I took them back to the original shop and had them re-balanced which did nothing for the shake or vibration. I called around to a few different shops and asked about equipment and was referred to a shop which had confirmed had the Road Force Balancer. Took the truck to them and had them re-balanced for a 3rd time. Got the truck out of the shop and it was much improved, BUT there is still a slight vibration that I’m getting in the steering wheel/seats at highways speeds. I’ve ll attached the Wheel balance summary, but I’m not quite sure what I’m looking at. If anyone has any insight on this and what these numbers mean, it would be much appreciated. This shows the “before service” which would have been done at the prior shop without Road Force balancing and “after service” which shows the balance at the shop with the Road for balance. Please let me know your thoughts.

 

Have you checked the drive shaft center bearing and universal joints?

 

I have not. I’m trying to rule out a balance issue first as I did not have the issue with my old wheels and tires so I’m trying to figure out what all of these numbers mean.

 

Edit: just saw where you say the hub matches. I would verify as most aftermarket wheels don't. Hope you get it figured out as I know how frusrtating that is.

I had a problem several years ago on a VW where I put new wheels and tires. I must have had them rebalanced at least 5 times and tried a different set of tires before having Discount Tire get me new higher end wheels with the exact hub rings. Problem solved. Not sure if that is what you have going on but I would ask the installer about them.

 

okay so the OZ on the sides of the wheel are how much additional weight was needed or recommended. to balance the wheel. a good shop should be able to balance a tire without weights all over the tire. next question, what tires did you use. I've seen some tires not balance well at all. and hell even once pulled a set of tires off and pulled the valve stems and spun them and they were not balanced well in the past.

 

I just returned a set of wheels from Discount Tire after my 3rd attempt at resolving a shake and shimmy. Each time they would "zero" out but got a different MPH shake once mounted. I adamantly insisted that it was due to the wheels being lug-centric. The manager said all Toyota's are lug-centric. I asked if he wanted to bet paychecks that they're not and are hub-centric; he took the wheels back.

The Vision Turbines did not have an adapter for the hub either. I think these trucks are particularly sensitive to not only proper mounting (hub vs lug) but balancing as well. Even with the correct hub bore on yours, I would suspect your wheels are the issue here. It's a lot of monkey dicking around but slap on your new tires to your stock wheels and see if they still shake.

 

So remember OP. Toyota uses two methods of centering the OE wheels, one is the hub and two is the lugs. That’s why they use mag seat lugs. Most aftermarket will have the correct hub diameter and use acorn seat lugs. Which do not center the wheel on lugs the same way the mag seat on the OE wheels do. That’s why it’s imperative the shop use the correct Hawks adapter as it is as close to the Toyota mounting set as you can get. While working for DT I balances thousands of tires and I was the problem tire balance guy. That being said there are some tire/wheel combos that just will not ride well even though the balancer says they’re balanced unfortunately.

 

Try a front end alignment. Fixed my shimmy after new tires. Felt like they were out of balance.