club.liberty.asn.au

For the last two weeks I've noticed a shudder in the car between 80 and 90 ks. Seeing the car is virtually new I thought I would start with a wheel balance just in case a balance weight had fallen off.

When my friendly tyre man put the wheel on the balance machine he called me over to watch this enormous wobble - the wheel was no longer round! It was my off side rear wheel (the reason why it felt like the car was shuddering rather than the steering wheel wobbling). There was no obvious damage to the wheel or tyre. He said they are getting an increasing number of problems with low profile tyres/18+ wheel combinations and the only thing they can put it down to are Sydney's potholed roads!

He could not achieve a satisfactory "balance" on the wheel so I've had to rotate the spare onto the car (thankfully Subaru provide 5 alloys on the sti - the tyre bloke said that most people were faced with either buying a new wheel or driving around with less than perfect balanced wheels because so few manufacturers supply 5 alloys).

Any other Sydney drivers unlucky enough to strike this problem??? Eskimo - have you seen this at Castle Hill or are the roads smoother out there?

Is the spare an Enkei too?

drndrn wrote:Is the spare an Enkei too?

Fortunately yes! Could have ended up costing a lot of money otherwise! I now have a less than perfectly round spare.

You should be able to get the rim re-rolled.

In Melbourne it costs around $80-$100.

is this thread a secret EOI on your wheels..? LOL

tmacca wrote:For the last two weeks I've noticed a shudder in the car between 80 and 90 ks. Seeing the car is virtually new I thought I would start with a wheel balance just in case a balance weight had fallen off.

When my friendly tyre man put the wheel on the balance machine he called me over to watch this enormous wobble - the wheel was no longer round! It was my off side rear wheel (the reason why it felt like the car was shuddering rather than the steering wheel wobbling). There was no obvious damage to the wheel or tyre. He said they are getting an increasing number of problems with low profile tyres/18+ wheel combinations and the only thing they can put it down to are Sydney's potholed roads!

He could not achieve a satisfactory "balance" on the wheel so I've had to rotate the spare onto the car (thankfully Subaru provide 5 alloys on the sti - the tyre bloke said that most people were faced with either buying a new wheel or driving around with less than perfect balanced wheels because so few manufacturers supply 5 alloys).

Any other Sydney drivers unlucky enough to strike this problem??? Eskimo - have you seen this at Castle Hill or are the roads smoother out there?

mate ive seen a few belted out Tyres but they are ones with hub caps, Not any mag wheels with an insane amount of Wobble to it, Most are generally good without a wobble to them. I guess Sydney roads aswell

EJ25 wrote:is this thread a secret EOI on your wheels..? LOL

Hey ... no hidden agendas

Hey Tony, do you do most of your driver in east or west Sydney? Because I've found that the western suburbs have decent roads but have the occassional humongous pothole that will swallow you whole. Whereby the eastern suburbs, as posh as they are, are riddled with uneven roads, cracks, ripples, bumps, and gigantic speed bumps. But because most easties drive road numbing 4-wheel drives, they could care less.

Whats wrong with Oversized 4wd's? , Speaking of a wheel alignment i think i just might get my car checked.

Arith wrote:Hey Tony, do you do most of your driver in east or west Sydney? Because I've found that the western suburbs have decent roads but have the occassional humongous pothole that will swallow you whole. Whereby the eastern suburbs, as posh as they are, are riddled with uneven roads, cracks, ripples, bumps, and gigantic speed bumps. But because most easties drive road numbing 4-wheel drives, they could care less.

My driving is basically from the southern suburbs to the northern suburbs via Newtown very day. A couple of days a week I've got to go through the inner west. Unfortunately I think your right about the big 4WDs in the south as well - there are so many in these areas that it is great excuse for the various councils to get lazy. In some council areas you would swear that they are setting up obstacle courses just to keep the big 4WD driver entertained.

I can't believe how crap even the NEW roads are in NSW - e.g.

Cross City tunnel - was patchy form the day it opened - compared to the ED which is a nice surface.
Longueville Rd - the side street I use to enter Longueville road was resurfaced with roadworks there and has big hollows where the road surface is above manholes / access plates.

3rspecb wrote:You should be able to get the rim re-rolled.

In Melbourne it costs around $80-$100.

just be careful as re rolling light weight wheels can lead to further damage.

senator wrote:

3rspecb wrote:You should be able to get the rim re-rolled.

In Melbourne it costs around $80-$100.

just be careful as re rolling light weight wheels can lead to further damage.

I tend to agree. The bloke doing the work said under no circumstances would he recommend rims damaged this way be re-rolled. If they are heat treated under manufacture then attempting to re-roll may create potential failure points in the alloy. This may be a bit conservative but I don't want to discover further problems at speed !

i am sure if you hunt around, you could pick up a single wheels that will clear your brembos, allot cheaper then the full cost of replacement, they were $620 each before the dollar went south.....so just add 40%

btw would insurance cover you for this?

That sucks....It's a shame to see that happen to such a nice rim...

On the other hand though I think all you Sti Lib drivers should pull your spare out of the boot to make a full set of 4 to sell to me