Serious Wheel Wobble

[Patrick Gray]

bit of a long one so be patient guys.When i bought the car i put the new wheels on and lowered it.I immediately noticed a wobble in the wheel at 70mph that went again over 80mph and if you accelerated hard through the gears you barely noitced it.Also while braking hard the steering wheel would wobble quite violently.I got the four wheel alignment done twice and got the new wheels balanced twice,problem still existed.Changed the front discs as i thought this was causing the harsh wobble under braking.I had been driving the car for the last 2 months with the wheels that came on it with absolutley no problems.Last weekend i changed back to the new wheels and the wobble problem has returned.Please can someone help me.Could there be a defect in the wheel or tyre that wont show up on the balance machine.Any help would be greatly appreciated guys,this is really bugging me.

[Ed]

Are these aftermarket wheels. If so you should have got and fitted a set of spigot rings. Without the spigot rings the weight of the car is most likely being transferred to the wheel nuts instead of the hubs. Wheel wobble is one of the symptoms in this instance. Get it checked out immediately because you ruin the risk of shearing the wheel nuts and a wheel coming off at speed.

HTH Ed

[Patrick Gray]

yes they are aftermarket 17" wheels in toyota lexus fitment.But the other alloys i had on the car are also aftermarket with the exact same tyre combo and there are no problems from them.

[Ed]

yes they are aftermarket 17" wheels in toyota lexus fitment.But the other alloys i had on the car are also aftermarket with the exact same tyre combo and there are no problems from them.

Wheel size and tyre combo don't have anything to do with it. It's all to do with the centre bore. If I remember correctly the centre bore on an MR2 is 60mm. If the centre bore of the wheels is larger than this then you need top use spigot rings with them to get them to fit correctly.

Cheers Ed

[Andy Jones]

I'll second what Ed has mentioned, It's usually down to spigot rings as most after market wheels aren't pre-set to a certain vehicle.

Hi-Octane/Hi-Join have a centre bore of 73.1mm so if you take your wheels off and there isn't a plastic ring sitting in the centre then that's causing your wobble. You just need a set of 73.1-60.1mm rings.

The wheels probably aren't damaged as if they were buckled quite badly then this should have been pointed out to you when you took them for a re-balance.

HTH

[Patrick Gray]

thanks very much guys.I take it by spiggot rings you mean spacers.Thanks again i knew you lot would come to the rescue.I will let you know the outcome.

[Andy Jones]

Noooo. Spacers go between the hub and wheel to make the wheel sit out more/increase off-set. Spigot rings actually sit flush inside the back of an aftermarket alloy wheel to reduce the bore size to match the vehicles hub.

Don't make me load up MS Paint, I'm crap at drawing

[Patrick Gray]

Cheers Andy you have been most helpful and very patient .I honestly had never heard of spiggot rings.The guys i got the wheels from (Leigh Tyres in London) told me the wheels would fit on to an MR2 turbo with no problems although they had been advertised as being for a Lexus.I have the car booked in to get sorted on Saturday so i will let you know how things go,cheers again mate.

[SFLee]

yep andy sort outmy spiogt ring for me cheer for that !! andy do the company u work sale wheel cap for volks racing ?? or do you know where i can get some? soory for the hi-jack

[Joey]

Cheers Andy you have been most helpful and very patient .I honestly had never heard of spiggot rings.The guys i got the wheels from (Leigh Tyres in London) told me the wheels would fit on to an MR2 turbo with no problems although they had been advertised as being for a Lexus.I have the car booked in to get sorted on Saturday so i will let you know how things go,cheers again mate.

I've the same problem with my 17"s, anything over 60mph steering wheel shakes like bu88ery, had them re-balanced twice no difference. The spiggot rings are the right size, in the end i've just put my old 16"'s back on no more shaky steering wheel Though this might be worth a try, new tyres should have a red or yellow dot somewhere on the sidewall, this marks the spot where the tyre was joined together, this dot should be aligned with the valve on your rim. Apparently this makes a big difference on motorbikes (so i'm told) so it should hold true for cars as well.

[ANDY FINDLAY]

I GET IT AS WELL AND I HAVE ONLY 15'' ALLOYS ON MINE

[Patrick Gray]

Cheers Andy you have been most helpful and very patient .I honestly had never heard of spiggot rings.The guys i got the wheels from (Leigh Tyres in London) told me the wheels would fit on to an MR2 turbo with no problems although they had been advertised as being for a Lexus.I have the car booked in to get sorted on Saturday so i will let you know how things go,cheers again mate.

I've the same problem with my 17"s, anything over 60mph steering wheel shakes like bu88ery, had them re-balanced twice no difference. The spiggot rings are the right size, in the end i've just put my old 16"'s back on no more shaky steering wheel Though this might be worth a try, new tyres should have a red or yellow dot somewhere on the sidewall, this marks the spot where the tyre was joined together, this dot should be aligned with the valve on your rim. Apparently this makes a big difference on motorbikes (so i'm told) so it should hold true for cars as well.

sorry to hear that Keith.I am booked in for the Tyre Safety Centre in Cookstown on Saturday so i will mail you and let you know the outcome.Really hope this solves the problem.

[Joey]

Cookstown that's a bit of drive for you is it not ? Why go there ?

[Patrick Gray]

Cookstown that's a bit of drive for you is it not ? Why go there ?

I know one of the guys in there and he said he will keep me right

[Andy Jones]

Cheers Andy you have been most helpful and very patient .I honestly had never heard of spiggot rings.The guys i got the wheels from (Leigh Tyres in London) told me the wheels would fit on to an MR2 turbo with no problems although they had been advertised as being for a Lexus.I have the car booked in to get sorted on Saturday so i will let you know how things go,cheers again mate.

No prob Patrick, Hope you get it sorted.

I never knew about spigot rings either till i started this job, We get customers in all the time who have bought wheels off mates/ebay etc and ask to have them balanced cause they're getting vibration through the steering. We just take one of the front wheels of and 9/10 times they have no rings in and it's down to that.

[Andy Jones]

yep andy sort outmy spiogt ring for me cheer for that !! andy do the company u work sale wheel cap for volks racing ?? or do you know where i can get some? soory for the hi-jack

We don't i'm afraid, If you know the name/model of volk wheel i can make some enquiries to see if its still in production and if you can buy caps seperate.

I'd give http://www.envyperformance.com/ a try first though, They seem to import/stock a lot of wheels from Japan/USA. I spoke to them yesterday about some 17" Enkei's for mine

[1000 PR]

I'm amazed that the spigot to hub size could make any difference. Surely the wheel nuts once tightened up can only hold the wheel in 1 precise place? It's not as if you fit the wheel to the hub and then fit the nuts.

[Joey]

I'm amazed that the spigot to hub size could make any difference. Surely the wheel nuts once tightened up can only hold the wheel in 1 precise place? It's not as if you fit the wheel to the hub and then fit the nuts.

Errr you do fit the wheel to the hub how else do you propose to line the nuts up ? The weight of the car is on the hubs, the nuts only attach the wheel to the hub therefore if you've no spigot rings you're gonna get shaky steering

[Patrick Gray]

New spiggot rings fitted and all four wheels balanced.The car now drives perfectly and i am a happy man again,thanks to everyone who offered advice.

[tazza]

Hi, do you have to get spigot rings specially made for your wheels or is thier a standard size just for the MR2 that ill fit each size wheel??