Vibrations at higher speeds. Any ideas?

GNBRETT

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100% TIRES! One of ur tires is failing at higher speeds. As ur tires increase in speed they also increase in diameter due to heat and when u have a bad tire the heat pushes the bad tire to bulge slightly where its weakened causing u to have an imbalance and therefore vibrate.

Be worse on warmer days. Ur tire heats up to about 65 degrees and if its 80 degrees out ur tires are now about 145 degrees inside.
 

builttodrive

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So...I can point the finger at tires or wheels. I tried swapping wheels and tires with my parents car today and absolutely no issues at any speed... 120 mph plus was smooth sailing. I'm going to have a shop check over the wheels and tires on a balancer to see where I can point the finger exactly but if I need new tires what does a guy buy???
 

HKusp

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Nitto 55G2's are a nice economical tire that perform slightly better than the Goodyear Eagle F1's. If you want a better performing, more expensive tire, Toyota Proxes or Nitto NT05's.
 

builttodrive

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Nitto 55G2's are a nice economical tire that perform slightly better than the Goodyear Eagle F1's. If you want a better performing, more expensive tire, Toyota Proxes or Nitto NT05's.

My wheel sizes currently are 19" and I'd probably go with a 305/35-19 in the rear. The Michelin Super Sports I have now have pretty decent traction for a car making 700HP and 660 Tq at the wheels. I have nitto NT555G2's on another car that only making 500 hp at the crank and they do well with that but I wasn't sure how they do with considerably more HP and Tq.
 

HKusp

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The 555's in 285's on mine don't hold 650hp at the wheels. I have NT05's in 315's I haven't mounted yet. They are supposed to be much better, but the 555's up front are fine.
 

BlckBox04

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I'm sure it is the tires but now what do I put on it to replace them?
I just ordered toyo r888r 325/30/19 for my z06 since nitto nt05’s were on national back order. My car has h/c/i and exhaust.
 

builttodrive

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Well yesterday I stopped by my go to tire guy just to spin the wheels up on his balancer and take a look and there was definitely some up and down movement but it was hard to say if it was the wheel or tire. I decided to take the wheels and tires to Costco where I bought the tires (incase there was a warranty claim) after that and they looked everything over and tried a few things along with rebalancing the tires. They didn't think there were any issues with the tires but the wheels were most likely the culprit. That's not really what I wanted to hear but on the other hand I just wanted to know what the issue is and how I can fix it. I decided to throw them back on for now and give it a test drive to see if it was any different or figure out my next plan of attack and low and behold they have them much better! Still not perfect but I can go speeds 100+ and it's not shaking me to death. They have a ton of wheel weight on them though.

Now I just have to determine If I want to keep them for now or look at getting something better. I would like to have a wheel/tire combo thats good for drag stuff too.
 

BlckBox04

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I wouldn’t take what Costco says as the gospel. Tires are much cheaper to replace than rims.
 

tones_RS3

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I was going to say the driveshaft, wheels or tires.
If you're 100% sure it's not the driveshaft, then go to the wheels. Are you sure those American Muscle wheels are 100% round? Not sure about the quality of those wheels, but I may be wrong.

Good luck man and keep us posted to what you find out.
 

builttodrive

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I was going to say the driveshaft, wheels or tires.
If you're 100% sure it's not the driveshaft, then go to the wheels. Are you sure those American Muscle wheels are 100% round? Not sure about the quality of those wheels, but I may be wrong.

Good luck man and keep us posted to what you find out.

I've been chasing the vibration for quite a while and checked quite a few things. I recently had the driveshaft checked and re-balanced to rule that out. Friday I had a good opportunity to try some wheels from my parents mustang and the problem completely went away so I had it narrowed down to either my American Muscle wheels or the Michelin tires. I had the wheels looked over by a wheel repair and straightening service and he said they weren't perfect but he didn't think they were bad enough to be noticeable. They didn't straighten them any because the cost would probably be more than what the wheels are worth. I read online that the Michelin pilot super sports I have had some issues with wobble around the time frame I purchased mine so I wanted to rule that out also.

I think to completely eliminate the issue I would need to purchase some new higher quality wheels. Not that I blame American Muscle or anything just that they are inexpensive wheels and are probably never going to be perfect.
 

builttodrive

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I wouldn’t take what Costco says as the gospel. Tires are much cheaper to replace than rims.

No I generally don't use Costco for tires but they had a great buy on the tires at that time. Unfortunately in this case the tire cost was double the cost of the American Muscle wheels. The other downside is I just spent a good chunk of change on some Forgeline wheels for my 70 Mach 1 and when I mentioned possibly needing new wheels for the GT500 my wife gave me the evil eye..lol Oh and the tires are in really good shape yet.. fronts are like new and lots of tread out back.
 
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Imatk

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Make sure you take pictures of your wheels before you get new tires.

Also make sure you walk with the service adviser around the car to look at the wheels.

That way when they damage them you'll at least have proof... ask me how I know.
 

builttodrive

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Make sure you take pictures of your wheels before you get new tires.

Also make sure you walk with the service adviser around the car to look at the wheels.

That way when they damage them you'll at least have proof... ask me how I know.

I wish you had given me that advice a couple weeks back. Unfortunately I am going through that right now. After the initial test drive I got the wheels cleaned up from the finger prints and tire mounting lube they had all over them and sure enough there is a big indentation on the lip of one of the wheels where I would guess they broke down the tires and it left quite a mark and ruined the chrome plating. I usually use a tire shop that I trust and I won't go down this road again.
 

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