I drive a 2005 Toyota Celica GT. It only has 50k miles on it. I recently got some new tires and soon after, my car started shaking at 70 or 75 mph like the wheels are out of balance. So I took my car back and the guys said that my wheels are good, my rims were good, and it was already in good balance. Any ideas?
Get another shop to check the tires and rims. It’s possible they looked good on a simple balance machine even though a rim is bent. There are testers that run the tire against a roller, a more valid check.
Circuitsmith is referring to a “road force balance” machine. The provide a simulated road force by pressing a spining drum against the tread while the tire spins. And I agree with him. They can detect irregularities that regular balancing machines cannot.
Years ago I bought a set of 4 Continentals for my Toyota pickuup, which always rode smooth. The car vibrated at highway speed. They checked the balnace and they were good. I took my full service spare off and replaced one tire at a time to find the worst, then made them change it for a BF Goody. The ride improved, but it still wasn’t smooth. I did it again and found the next worst tire and made them change it for another BF Goody. Again, the ride improved. They started claiming my rims were bent…but they could not show me. I eventually ended up with four BF Goodys. They paid for two and I paid for two. But teh truck ran smooth for another few hundred thousand miles.
Some tires are just junk. The Continentals I bought were. Out of curiosity, what kind did you buy?
Thanks to the both of you for replying back to my post so quickly. I actually bought the tires pairs at a time. The newest pair going on the back. I got Barum tires. I think that’s it.
I also read that it could be wheel struts or wheel bearings. I hate to sound like I’m using “female” logic when it comes to cars, but isn’t it too early in my car’s life to be going through such wear and tear? Shoot, I’ve ran other cars I’ve had into the ground a lot harder and had them a lot longer and never had such a problem.
I’ll take it to the shop that I go to for my oil changes and stuff and have them take a look at it. They’re family owned and on are pretty on point. And guarantee their work. Maybe discount tires is mad because I got a warranty for my tires and I’ve been using it because they’ve had to patch one tire since I got it.
I also had some bad Continental tires, now I stay away from that brand. Tires can be balanced but still cause vibration if they are not perfectly round or the belts are poorly made. You may have bad tire(s). Some techs do a better job balancing tires than others, so while they say the tires are balanced another tech at a different shop might be able to balance them and do away with the vibration.
Are the wheels “aftermarket” or do they come from Toyota? Aftermarket wheels need “centering discs” to make sure the wheels are centered properly on the hubs when mounted on the car. Aftermarket wheels fit different cars from different mfger’s and therefore they use centering discs to match the wheels to your vehicle. If the wheels are not “Toyota” brand wheels then your problem could be in the aftermarket wheels.
yeah, they’re after market tires. but for a long time, i didn’t have any problems. i think the problem came after my tire was patched. i’m going to take them to the other shop that i go to and try to see if they can fix the problem by re-balancing them and i will also ask about the centering disc.
I explain this whole thing here:
Short version: You can have a perfectly balanced assembly and have either the tire or the rim not uniform. If you think “out of round”, you won’t be far off the mark. Just recognize that it is a bit more complex than that.
But to be sure you aren’t chasing a red herring - you need to find someone with a Hunter GSP9700.
Notice in the upper right hand corner there is a “Locate a GSP9700” button.
What you should do is go back to the dealer that sold you the tires. If they have a GSP9700, then find out what the values are, and see - based on those values what they are willing to do.
If they don’t have a GSP9700, ask them if they are willing to send you to a dealer that has one and would accept the results.
Your logic is OK, but the conclusion doesn’t necessarily follow. Wheel bearings are intended to last the life of the car and usually do (likewise tie rod ends, and ball joints). Struts are wear items, but the part that fails from wear is the stuff that damps the bouncing after hitting a bump and keeps the car from riding like a buckboard. The parts of struts that keep the wheels from shaking aren’t supposed to be wear items. However, all those parts are subject to a lot of stress and occasionally one breaks or starts to wear rapidly. If that happens, it needs to be fixed as it really is, or can become, dangerous.
But given the situation, a tire seems more likely. And I reckon the tire people – who’d like for you to go away both soon and happy – probably checked everything in the front end except maybe the ball joints for major problems before they even took the wheels off.