I own a 2003 Chevy Venture minivan that had the front left tire go flat yesterday. I backed out of the parking space and drove a few feet before realizing we had a flat and then immediately re-parked. The spare was bad (rusty and flat) so I had someone take me to Goodyear to replace the tire (it had a hole on the inside sidewall and was not repairable). We got the tire on and drove the 30 miles home - as I was driving, I noticed that there was a slight vibration and a buzzing/humming sound coming from the front of the car. It definitely changed pitch/feel as the car sped up or slowed down.
I’m going to take the tire back off today and inspect everything to make sure everything is in place, but any suggestions as to what might be going on? Bent rim? Tire balance?
try two things. you may have been rushing and didn’t reinstall smoothly. take off, and reinstall and ensure that you tighten and torque the lugnuts, alternating nuts.
drive and see if problem still exists. if yes, then likely they didn’t do a good job balancing the tire. so have them rebalance.
very unlikely that you damaged the rim, as the tire guy probably would have told you.
If you’re thinking you bent the rim, probably not if you only drove a few feet. (This of course does not mean that the rim was not bent by something else beforehand). Balance is the usual cause of such vibrations.
Well, it turned out to be bad wheel bearings on the other side (the right front). Not sure if it was completely unrelated or if driving on the flat to re-park was enough to throw something off on the other side - it was definitely a painful sound as I was pulling into a space.