Hey guys i have wheels spacers 5mm with et lugs. I have a vibration around 80+ that i never really noticed before i took a road trip. They are the weapon x ones. I just got the wheels road balanced and the vib is still there. Do you think its the spacers? Should i do a better job cleaning the hub? Or say screw it all together

 

if your alignment is off, the spacers may exacerbate the condition. Say 1 tire is running more toe out than normal the spacer may push it that it is scrubbing more and comes out as a vibration. I had this issue on my rear passenger side and it really smoothed out once I got my alignment done right. I had put on new forged rims which were offset more like I had put spacers.

 

Hmm never thought about that issue. Thanks for the help

 

The wheels can be balanced and bent at the same time. I would take the car back to the place that balanced the wheels. Have then mount the rear wheels on the tire balancer and see if the inner barrel has flat spots or bends. Also check the front. Sometimes the guy doing the wheel balancing doesn't notice or don't want to tell the owner that the wheels are bent. Also, the vibration from rear wheels you will feel in the seat, whereas a bend in the front wheel you feel in the steering wheel.

Hope that helps.

 

i thought it was a balancing issue so i took to get the road force. RR was the only one really out of wack. So some notes:
normal speed around town nothing. Highway 80+ it keeps getting worse
z07 packaged car 7k miles

 

well if u got it balanced, alignment is next to look at.

 

If the spacers are not hub centric the wheels can move on the lugs - even if only a small amount - you will get vibration at speed.

Jim

 

Try removing the spacers and go for a ride at those speeds and see if the vibration goes away. If it does at least you'll know the cause.

Ron

 

I do not agree with that statement. The spacers don't have to be hub centric. The conical shape of the lug nuts hold the wheel to the studs and center it on the studs and the hub. When the nuts are tight there is no way the wheel moves around on any of the studs. The only way the wheel moves is if the wheel isn't tightened properly or if the studs are loose.

Bill

 

If the wheels were moving around from not being hub centric, the vibration would be at all speeds. This scenario can't be speed specific as if its not centered, then the wheel is trying to rotate around the center rotation of the hub.

 

Not always. Case in point is when I lost a left front wheel at VIR. I was running CCW wheels and had a Wilwood Big Brake kit on the car. The kit I was using had a rotor hat with an indented center so the rotor would line up with the caliper properly. The stock wheel fit perfectly in that indented area which is similar to the indented area in the rotor hats that come with the C6 and C7 carbon ceramic rotors. However, the CCW wheel had a rotor flange that was a few thousandths larger in diameter than the stock wheel. That meant the edges of the wheel's rotor flange were riding on the radiused edge of the indentation. I didn't realize that and did wonder whey it took 3 or 4 final tightening circuits around the 5 lugs. Since the wheel wasn't flush with the rotor and riding on that radiused edge it would move slightly every time it rotated with weight on the wheel. I had been using this setup for several track events but at the NCM VIR event in 2015 the lug studs finally broke from fatigue. When it happened I was just finishing my third session of the day and had been hitting speeds of 150 mph every lap. I decided to take a cool down lap before coming into the pits so slowed considerably but was keeping my speed in the high double digits or low triple digits. As I came down the front straight at about 90 mph I moved to the inside to let people pass and braked down to 50 mph for Turn 1. That was when the left front of the car suddenly dropped. My first thought was I had a flat, then I saw the wheel leave the car and disappear into the bushes. The rotor dug an inch wide groove in the pavement and I went off track and came to a stop.

The small amount of movement due to loose lug nuts and the radiused edge of the rotor indentation was sufficient to eventually fatigue the studs. Since we couldn't find any parts on the track we assumed the studs had been breaking one at a time. I never felt a vibration. I had used a torque wrench to set the nut torque at 100 lb ft. but that was with the wheel sitting in one spot. When the wheel rotated with weight on it the radiused edge caused it to move and the nut was no longer tight enough. As the wheel rotated and moved different nuts came loose with all of them eventually becoming loose. Art Spong a retired GM engineer who attends NCM events is the individual that spotted the cause. As I was kneeling by the car trying to change the wheel hub he pointed to the rotor and said "See the wear ring on the rotor hat? That means your wheel was moving around on the hat and only contacting the hat where the wear ring is".

That is why I said the spacer doesn't necessarily have to be hub centric. I wasn't using a spacer and the wheel was riding on the hub and there was still sufficient movement to fatigue those studs. The solution to the problem is to run a small spacer that will fit in the indentation and provide a flat surface for the wheel to mount to.

The key things to remember are the lug nuts have to be tight and the wheel has to have a flat surface to ride against.

Bill

 

They are weapon x hub centric spacers with et lugs

 

The easiest test (and free) is to remove the spacers and drive the car. If the problem is fixed the spacers are causing a problem. I would mark the spacer from which wheel and how it is indexed to each hub. You could have tolerance stacking exacerbating the wheel issue you found when road force balancing.

 

thanks guys, i have a appointment tomorrow for alignment. Its a chevy dealer and they said they have a vette tech. And they said will do caster so i hope that holds true. Anything to look out for?

 

The alignment is not going to help your issue, its good to have it done but won't take care of the vibration. I'm assuming the weapon x are machined billet spacers. Its probably a centering issue from the spacers if you didn't have the problem before the installation. I was in the business for 12 years and its a misconception that an alignment will fix a vibration thats either a tire, bent wheel or an out of balance problem. Hope you find the issue soon.

 

****UPDATE***
So got alignment,road force balance, and removed the spacers. The vibration is not as bad as it was before but its still there, I also rotated the tires. The vibrations starts around 85+ around 90+ its pretty noticeable. I checked all suspension components and they all look fine. This is a z07 packaged car so carbon brakes. I changed from the cup 2s to the SS, which have about 1000 miles on them. I really havent had a chance to drive the car fast in along time and the road trip i took is the first time i noticed this, also I looked at all of the tires and wheels and they look fine. Could it be the shock? i see no leaking. but the vibrations seem to come from the passenger front, any help would be much appreciated.

**also, the car drives smooth normal speeds** and it feels like a up and down vibration.

 

Have the wheels spun on a dial indicator to see if they are bent.

Have the tires pulled from the wheels and the wheels spun by themselves with no weights...