Is it easy to check if a wheel has been buckled ?

[Snowfiend]

Not on the Drag R....on my Golf GTI.

I've had a weird noise/vibration for a while....I checked over, fitted new front wheel bearings, wishbones, bushes etc as they were worn but it made no real difference.

The tires are crappy cheap ones (called SUNNY's, LOL...came on the car when I bought it not long ago!) and I've meant to change them but just not got round to it as it's only my drive to work car.

Anyway I've borrowed a friends wheel/tires off her golf to see if the problem went away and suprise, suprise it did so the issue is defo wheels/tires!

I'm going to buy new tires but wanted to just put my mind at rest that I wouldn't fork out for 4x18" tires and then find out a wheel is buckled or something and that's what's causing the noise/vibration/wobble.

Don't think it's balancing (which would be sorted when new tires go on anyway) as it does it at all speeds...even just crawling along and it's more then a steering wheel wobble, you can feel the vibration through the pedals/seat as well.

[gtr-loz]

jack the car up and spin the whell whilst looking towards the face of the tyre if you see the rim wobbling about its buckled, if you can move it due to it being on the transmission axle then take the wheel to a tyre shop they can oput it on the balancer if its wobbling or a long way out of tolerance then its buckled

[Snowfiend]

Cheers.

I tried that when I swapped over to my mates wheels and yeah I couldnt see any wobbling with my eyes.

Could $hit tires really cause a noticable vibration through the car ? Plenty of thread left on them but they're just 'ditch finders'.

[chippy]

Originally Posted by Snowfiend

Cheers.

I tried that when I swapped over to my mates wheels and yeah I couldnt see any wobbling with my eyes.

Could $hit tires really cause a noticable vibration through the car ? Plenty of thread left on them but they're just 'ditch finders'.

if they got good tread get your tyre shop to spin each one up an check for balance, may only be one tyre thats giving the prob !

[Snowfiend]

Might not mean anything...but there isn't that usual 'steering wheel shake above 40mph' though that I've had before when a wheels lost a weight for example ?

I've quickly checked all wheels and cant see any missing weights either.

The tires have got to go anyway...they're horrible...but as said before was just paranoid that I'd pay like £600-700 for new tires and then find I've got a knackered wheel.

In which case I was thinking I'd rather just shove a set of stock wheels/tires back on it as it's a GTI but came with R32 Golf wheels which are an bigger and not really my cup of tea if I'm honest.

[s2gtr]

Best DIY job is to jack the car up & rig up a device to look for high spots, IE pile of bricks & a fine screwdriver, spin the wheel checking the tread in three places & the rim on the inside & outside.

Dave

[tonigmr2]

Tyres can definitely give those symptoms alone. You really need to spin up the bare rim on a balancer to see if there is a problem with it - I'd have thought a helpful tyre place would do this for you if you ask.

[cefiro_drifter]

you tried taking the wheel to a local tyre place as ask them to re balance it . I had some very very slightly buckled wheels and when they spinning fast on the balancing machine u can see the buckle but not when u did it by hand, they aslo balanced it out and it was fine .. they did the same with a wheel that was VERY buckled to .

might be an option. Could also be the tyre as some cheap mass produced tyres are perfectly round.

[Jamerio]

Reminds me of my first car a metro, that thing would shake and I never had any money to repair it.

The only way it stopped shuddering was if it you went over 80 MPH

[cefiro_drifter]

might just need balancing as the weights and stick on weights do come off now and again

[Snowfiend]

Thanks guys, will try and run the car down to a local tyre place and get them balanced first off.