I just got my front wheels balanced because I had slight vibs around 85ish. It was muchg worse after balancing with real steering shake like buckled wheels at 65. Figured it was done wrong.

 

So then I went to my local big wheels people to get it re done right with diagonals balanced accross the rim as well. Once again shakes and vibration on braking which was never there before. Figured that maybe it had to do with air wrench tightening of wheel nuts and all the copaslip the guy painted the threads with.

 

Half way into a long journey cruising fast I stopped, slackened off the nuts, and re tightened them by hand evenly doing it opposite nut next kind of thing. The brake vib disappeared, the shake on the steering wheel immediately disappeared - only still a slight feel of vibration at highish speeds.

 

Conclusion is that either the hub and disc or the wheel is distorting if unevenly tightened. I am thinking of trying even less torque on the nuts to check the effect. Even wondered if the lock nut can throw off the balance as it is lighter than the other ones.

 

I have BBS 18" X 8.5 on the front (Also with poly bushes on tension rods)

 

Next thing to look at will be the top links because I did have slight play on one.

 

Anybody else see this effect?

All wheels should be tightened with a torque wrench, as u did diagonally apposed. If not this will cause the wheel to be tight on 1 stud and loose on the opposite, causing an out of balance/ buckled wheel effect. Air tools torque setting depends on the supply of air pressure. Lucky they didn`t crack your wheels. seen this done before and not much wheel left after it explodes at 85mph, or car for that matter.:(

Originally posted by WillieO . Even wondered if the lock nut can throw off the balance as it is lighter than the other ones.

 

Anybody else see this effect? [/b]

 

It does make a difference sometimes.Usuall with small wheels tho. Check the weight of your locking nut with one of the ordinary ones

If you still get a little vibration at high speed could be worth getting wheels balanced while there on the car,in fact all of them,that way it will sort out any vibration and imbalance caused by suspension/wheels etc,after of course tightening to correct torque;)

Think I'm gonna do my top link bushes as there is a little play on one side. According to the history they were changed only 30k miles ago but I hear they go every 3 years or so and maybe the big wheels put more load on them.

I always loosen and correctly retorque my wheel nuts whenever ANY garage has been near them. Call me distrusting or just plain pedantic, but it leaves me with peace of mind and no warped discs.

 

When I first test drove my car it clearly had warped discs, the importer agreed to fix them and it was duly delivered with new Nissan discs and pads. Two weeks later they were warped, I had them skimmed and have always torqued the nuts properly ever since with no more problems on the next two pairs of discs.