Any of you tire shop pros out there? I have one rim that’s bent quite a bit. I had the tires mounted a few weeks ago but I didn’t put them on until I lowered my car. Then I put them on and the car vibrated over about 55 mph and I thought it could be the alignment because of the lowering. Well, after doing a search I see that vibration is usually caused by off-balance wheels.
Currently, my car is in awaiting an alignment on Monday, but should they balance the wheels for free since they just balanced them a few weeks ago and didn’t do it right? Or is it impossible to balance a bent rim and I should just give up. Thanks!
Take your rim to a shop that can straighten it out for you. The vibration is caused by the rim being out of round, balancing the tire will not get rid of it.
hmm… two tire shops that I’ve taken it too said they couldn’t fix it because it would probably break since it’s aluminum or something. They probably just don’t know how to fix it. I’ll try a different place. It’s not even bad, it’s just a little flat in one place.
But one more question; if the vibration were from the rim being out of round, wouldn’t I feel it at lower speeds too? TIA
I had an aluminum rim that found a pothole and was badly bent. No shop would straighten it sayin it was because of liability reasons, and it would probably break anyway. Since it was over 10 years old (and I had nothing to lose, it was junk anyway), I decided to beat it into submission! So I just took it off the car, layed it on the ground and beat the hell out of it, putting it back on the car, spinning it and “adjusting” it a bunch of times until I got it close to right. Mine was also bent a little on the back side, so check that too. A Dremel tool with a small grinding wheel and some emery cloth cleaned up my handy work. Looks pretty good, still runs smoothly after 15,000 miles, and the wheel never cracked. Oh, and to answer your question, it rebalanced just fine.
I went to the only wheel shop that I know of locally and they said they don’t fixt aftermarket rims and don’t know anybody that does: because of liability reasons, just like you said, ShootingStar.
I got the alignment and two wheels were balanced again and most of the vibration is gone now although I can sometimes feel a slight vibration from the corner of the bent rim. I suppose I can live with it, though. HTH somebody.
There are wheel repair shops around me. Look them up in the phone book.
I repaired my Kosei Seneka wheel a year ago when it was bent.
It is possible that it is non-repaiable, but they’ll tell you that.
BTW I would really be careful if you’re trying to fix a bent wheels yourself. You may damage the outer rim causing the tire bead to slip off at high enough pressures.
You can balance a bent wheel, but only if it is minor. The machine usually won’t take accept a wheel rotating very off-center.