jimfed

I have a 1986 Pace Car with 12K original miles. I purchased an after market zr1 chrome wheels and tires package. It's been about 10 years since I have owned them and just recently put them and they have about 1000 miles on them. My car rides fine till about 50 mph and when I hit the highway the steering wheel shakes uncontrollably. I noticed also that the steering wheel had a slight shake in it with another set of identical tires and wheels. Is it possible that the wheels and tires were never balanced properly or is there a problem with my front end ?

charliet615

Tire Balance.......You might have Tires with flat spots in them from being stored for so long.

gerardvg

Get them to re ballance them, pay particular attention to the tire.
Sometimes you can see the tire tread has high spots, if that is the case you need them replaced.

Average quality tires may have manufacturing defects, on an average amooth suspension road car you may never notice. on a corvette it really shakes you around.

The wheels and tires are easy enough to ballance however i come across clowns in the industry that have no idea how to ballance tires, or know where to install the weights (which the ballancing machine indicates).

Go elsewhere to check the ballance and tires are actually round, dont put up with it as things will wear quite rapidly.

good luck.

jimfed

I thought there would be flat spots because the car sat for long periods of time, I am now using the car on a regular basis.

cv67

If its flat spotting which I doubt with a radial tire it wont bounce like that
Bad tire or wheel with too much runout. Need to have it checked on both the wheel and tire, went through this recently. At a point no matter what the machine says all the weights in the world wont keep it from bouncing. Had 1 where the side/side runout wasnt too bad but wasnt even in round, about 50mph thought the car was coming apart....killed the tires in short time

If it did it before but only slightly your rack and pinion could be on its way out. May have more than 1 issue

Blows my mind how even the cheapest factory car can have perfect wheels on them but expensive aftermarkets are horrible.

jimfed

I am going to have them road force balanced for $25/tire and they can tell if there are flat spots which they told me will not go away simply by driving on them. My steering is perfect at speeds below 50 so I don't think that the rack is defective with only 12K miles on it !

cv67

Hope Im wrong, maybe they can correct it with a better balance
Personally id watch them spin the tire up close, if it looks real bad no matter what weights they put on there youll have the same issue.
Some runout is Ok not every wheel and tire are perfect.

Went through 2 sets of new rallyes, which in 200 mi destroyed all 4 tires, tread was separating. Bought some welds with alll new rubber and had to send 2 wheels and 1 bad tire back. Tire guys laughed when it was on the machine pointing at the "made in usa" sticker.....brand new kia rim they had was perfect.
Things aint what they used to be.

Mine go away in about 10 min, bias ply are notorious for that
Radials, I let sit for months they drive fine.

Hope you find your problem

jimfed

The tires had such flat spots that they could not be balanced. They did a road force balance and the machine was bouncing so bad because the tires had severe flat spots in them from siting to long. I purchased new tires and they should be arriving today !