Hey guys,

So shortly after I picked up my evo, I noticed some slight steering wheel vibrations between 68 and 80 mph. It almost felt like it got worse over about a weeks time, but maybe that was also just because I was paying more and more attention to it. Anywho, I adjusted my front coilovers, and brought the vehicle up about 3/4 inch, then took it to my mechanic to have it aligned. I figured the wheel shake was from miss-balanced tires though, so today I took it to Discount Tire to have them balanced. They got done and told me the tires were pretty out of balance, especially the rear ones. I got on the freeway after work today and noticed I still have the wheel shake at those speeds, especially at 70 mph. It's not as bad as it was before the balance, but it's still very much there. My tires are basically new, and are good tires, not cheapy ones by any means. Size is 265/ 35 R18.

any ideas?

 

Have u check ur tire pressure? If the tire pressure is set too high, steering wheel can be very sensitive and the car can be very rough or stiff.

 

I will check tire pressure for sure, make sure I'm good there. I looked at my rotors and noticed they are pretty worn, and are making some considerable noise stopping a low speeds. I can feel a lip on the edge of the rotor, and I'm getting a ton of dust on my rims, quickly. Definitely going to get new rotors. Who knows, maybe that's my issue.

 

I'm guessing that you are running an aftermarket rim with that tire size...could it be bad spigot rings (hub-centric rings) or total lack thereof?

 

Yes, aftermarket wheels. I'm also considering the issue being that my springs are super compressed on the front coilovers? Since I brought it up a bit, I guess I could relief some of that spring compression. How can I tell if I have bad spigot rings? Just take the wheel off and inspect them? What am I looking for in particular?

 

You need hubcentric rings to prevent steering wheel vibration.
Some after market wheels will ride rough ( high speed steering wheel vibration) without the hubcentric rings. Luckily, my volk te37sl, is tolarable with just a wheel balance and no hubcentric rings.

 

So what you're saying is because my SL's don't come with these (or any SL's for that matter) this would be a common issue without hubcentric rings for anyone with these wheels?

 

And would anyone maybe know the size I would need?

 

I had identical problem with my SLs.
Discount tire had the HC rings I needed, so that helped somewhat, but in the end, they had to rebalance them on a better machine (roadforce or something like that?). That finally did the trick.

 

I just ordered rings off Amazon. Once they come in I'll have them put them on and re balance. Thanks for all the help guys, I hope this is the fix!

 

Just for completeness' sake, the only way for the springs to be more or less compressed after changing the height is that the shock was at one extreme of travel either before or after. This would be very noticeable, as the ride would be that of a go-kart.

 

An update on my vibration issue. I took my evo into Big Two Mitsubishi to have recall work done (minus the ECU retune of course) and had them look into this issue for me, since I had my doubts about Discount Tire's work. They ended up balancing the tires, and said that two of the tires were over 2 ounces out of balance, and the other two 1 ounce out of balance! Insane considering Discount balanced them last week. I plan to call them and complain, maybe get a credit toward my next tire purchase. They also stripped one of my wheel lugs, and Mitsu had to put a new one in. I'm happy to report I have ALMOST no vibration in my wheels now. I did put hub centric rings on recently too, but I didn't see them help much. I'm okay with what vibration comes out of it now. Maybe even chalk what little bit is left up to my rotors being worn. They are making a ton of noise at low stops, its driving me nuts.

Anyhoo, thanks for all the help people.

 

No,

i think hub-rings are snake oil B.S. If you have lug-centiric wheels with properly matched lug-nuts you don't need hub-rings. just make sure you tighten them in the proper order and to the proper torque spec per the lug nuts.

I've been running SLs for years now with no issue and no hub-rings. Daily driven and auto-x and road courses on the wheels without any issues ever.

have you checked to make sure your rotors aren't warped? Edit: nvm, just read your last post. Glad it got resolved.

 

sadly, it's not resolved. I thought it was, compared to what it was before the latest balance, but now its back. The wobble/ vibration flared up especially after I took an hour drive up some passes at a pretty high speed, above 100 for most the drive. The shaking was pretty bad on this trip. Then, when I'm on the freeways on a daily commute, its still there, but not as bad. It comes on for about 30 seconds, then tapers off, then comes back, and so on. This is becoming so frustrating. The only thing left i can think of is rotors at this point. They are worn down, but I'm not sure they are actually warped.

 

I'm not sure why out-of-balance rotors would cause a problem that comes and goes, unless you're changing speeds, in which case that does make sense and was going to be my suggestion. The other question is whether the problem depends on power ... as in accelerating, maintaining speed, or coasting down. That would point to the drivetrain, such as CV joints or, gasp, transfer case.