Stock Bridgestones

Remspeed3

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2011 Mazdaspeed3 Sport- LSM w/tech pkg.
Hey Guys, I was just curious if anybody has swapped their stock Potenza's to a new set of wheels and are now getting vibrations out of them? before I changed them over they were fine..one was starting to make alittle noise but everything was smooth..My new wheels are an 18x8 38 et, perhaps the increased offset could be causing some of it but im not sure, the tires had about 8k on them and had been rotated once. I just had them Roadforce balanced to check and see if it was the wheels...the tire shop said that three of the tires were close to the limit of being out of round. I really hate to up and buy new tires already... Any info and opinions would be great Thanks.
 
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I've had my OEM Potenzas on 4 sets of wheels. I have noticed increased tramlining on the lower offset wheels but that's to be expected. Is the vibration felt in the steering wheel? How about the wheels themselves, are they hubcentric? If they aren't are you using hub rings or at the very least torque your lugs in a progressive star pattern to help center it?
 
I get vibration in the front as well as the rear, I guess due to three of the tires being almost at the limit supposedly..I am running hub rings with the wheels and they are torqued properly..One of the tires is newer than the others which is why theres only three bad ones. It was bought after a pot hole left a nice big bubble in one of them when they were on the stock wheels. The tech at S&S tire said the right front had like a flat area in it..thats the puzzling part for me..i drive mostly highway miles and have never done anything that would have caused this. Thanks for the reply Wastegate i knew you had a low et and have mounted and dismounted yours a couple of times.
 
I guess I will just drive the crap out of them and buy a new set later this summer or next summer. The vibration isn't bad enough to keep me from running them, I just thought it was weird that it started after changing up wheels. Im not ruling out that it could still be the wheels tho..(bang)
 
I recently mounted my OEM Potenzas on a set of nearly-new RX-8 wheels. Tires had 12.5k miles, during which they were rotated twice.

Everything feels rock-solid until I get up to around 70mph, and then the vibrations start coming through the steering wheel. No humming.

I drove it this way for 2 weeks, took it back, had all four re-balanced, and the problem has not gone away, in fact it may be somewhat worse.

The tech pointed out that my tires were out of round when he was re-balancing.

This same shop mounted my winters on my OEM wheels last fall, and I had no problems at all.
 
What's the hub bore size compared to stock? (stock is 67.1mm) Did you use hubcentric centering rings? That's a common problem with aftermarket rims that have a larger hub size. The hub ring will help make sure everything is lined up properly when putting the wheels on the car to eliminate vibration...
 
I recently mounted my OEM Potenzas on a set of nearly-new RX-8 wheels. Tires had 12.5k miles, during which they were rotated twice.

Everything feels rock-solid until I get up to around 70mph, and then the vibrations start coming through the steering wheel. No humming.

I drove it this way for 2 weeks, took it back, had all four re-balanced, and the problem has not gone away, in fact it may be somewhat worse.

The tech pointed out that my tires were out of round when he was re-balancing.

This same shop mounted my winters on my OEM wheels last fall, and I had no problems at all.
Took it to another shop, problem solved.

1st shop will never see me again.
 
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