Perfectly straight wheels

[JungleGus]

A couple of wheel refurbers I've spoken to have said unless you can see the bend in the wheel, it can't be straightened. Is this true?

I have a slight obsession with having perfectly straight wheels (no wobble on the motorway, at any speed) and am wondering if the only way to do this is to shell out for new rims from the dealer? (£1K ish).

Tyres are new proxes, they have been balanced (but with a huge amount of lead in there) but still wobble around 60mph.

Have been meaning to get around to dips to have him take a look, but given it's a bit of a drive I thought I might postulate on here first. Plus spending £200ish on refurbing that doesn't work would be frustrating when "only" another £800 gets you a brand new set and some track rims...

Cheers!
Gus

[DanThe]

What wheels exactly? If its regular run of the mill 15" BBS for example then your better off finding straight wheels rather than have them manipulated to get rid of any flat spots etc, plenty out there and the cost of a wheel will be about the same as repairing a damaged one

[JungleGus]

15" BBS BUT I'm thinking any 2nd hand wheel is going to have similar issues - Lepson's appears to do a pretty good job on straightening/refurbing them and is close to home.

[DanThe]

Loads of perfectly good wheels out there, just a case of if you can be bothered hunting them down/checking them over etc

[Prey]

if you want them 100% perfect then you could spend as much time looking for perfectly round tyres as wheels

[Rich320I]

isnt that what balancing is for? to take out any slight imperfections, balance the wheels.

[JungleGus]

DanThe - that's kinda the thing - I wouldn't have time to hunt through enough 2nd hand pairs.

Tyres are new - balancing can, but it seems if they get enough out of round/bent then they are too far gone (I have probably 8-10+ chunks of lead on all 4 of mine).

Looking like I'll try the refurb option for now - any more opinions on new ones appreciate though!

[Rich320I]

8-10+ pieces of lead would suggest the wheels are perhaps not as round as they should be,

as dan said, you may be best sourcing a decent set in the first place, rather than a refurb the cost will be similar

[Speedtouch]

Just jack the car up on each side and spin the wheels, and look at the rim on both outside and inside - any buckles or flat spots will be quite obvious.

Maybe whoever did your balancing didn't do a very good job of it, or their machine was out of calibration...

You could also try swapping the wheels around, front to back and see if that improves things; I recently did this on a Peugeot 306 Cabriolet with big 17" rims and elastic band tyres, and it made a big improvement.

[Gavla]

I'm no expert but don't they use a machine to straighten any imperfections.

If that is the case then what difference does it make if you can see the imperfection or not, it will get straightened either way....?

[Speedtouch]

The point is to first do a visual check of the wheels yourself, on the car, before potentially making a fool of yourself turning up at a place to straighten already straight rims!

[JungleGus]

Great point! Although I'm quite used to turning up and looking foolish in pretty much any situation...cheers!

[maggspower]

Just my 2 pence worth: Make sure the wobble is nothing to do with any joints or bushes on the lower arms, as suggested move wheels around to see if it makes any difference, this will help eliminate suspension components, but start with a visual check.

BBS 15s are "strong" and with the correct 55 profile tyre they don't bend at first sight of a pot hole. If you cannot see the bend in a wheel when it is spinning then it is not bent enough to need straightening, set up something (a pointer) to act as a reference at the side of the spinning wheel, this will show up a bend or buckle.

The tyre when fitted will take out much of any minor damage in a wheel, especially having higher profile like standard e30 ones.

If you have a tame tyre fitter, you can try altering the position of the tire on the rim (a tyre can be out of balance), this may help to get a few less weights on the rim, and be better balanced over all.

HTH

[kam-325i]

isnt that what balancing is for? to take out any slight imperfections, balance the wheels.

Balancing compensates for difference's in weight and not for out-of-roundness.

[DanThe]

isnt that what balancing is for? to take out any slight imperfections, balance the wheels.

Balancing compensates for difference's in weight and not for out-of-roundness.

Indeed, lots of people seem to think you can 'fix' a battered wheel by putting more weight on it, wheel weights are more for weight differences in tyres than the wheels, hence why most tyre manufacturers mark the heavy and light spots of the tyre to aid fitting/balancing, some manufacturers also mark the light spots of wheels with a paint mark.

IMO, find straight wheels first, then get a refurb. Even if you end up buying two sets to make a good set it can work out cheaper

[78gizmo]

I would have them balanced somewhere else first, as someone else mentioned their machine may be out of calibration. Worth eliminating this before going to buy new wheels etc

[driftwood]

I would have them balanced somewhere else first, as someone else mentioned their machine may be out of calibration. Worth eliminating this before going to buy new wheels etc

^this^ If you're getting a wobble at a particular speed, it's normally a balance issue. There are several programs in most wheel balancers specific to alloy wheels and also an optimisation program. A wheel shouldn't need more than 40 grams of balance weights, considerably less if done properly. Can take a while to do though.

[capnmchl]

Another thing to check is that the faces between your wheel and brake disc, and brake disc and hub are clean. Small amount of corrosion cause them to sit unevenly that can then transmit to a large movement at the outer edges of the wheels.

[JungleGus]

All front bushes/joints are new - at the rear RTABs and Subframe bushes are old (but inspected by Barry, seem in pretty good nick).

Some very sensible advice (more so than myself anyway which is nice to hear)

Very interesting - makes sense but never realised weights were to balance the tyre.

Sounds like I should check mine for wobbles/bends first - they could do with a refurb anyway and it's not too $$ so may go down that path first. Worst case, I'll end up with a pair of wheels for the track. For me, running around getting another set of 2nd hand wheels is a bit of PITA (time wise) - would rather just buy new in that case

I may enquire about getting the centres painted nogaro...

Thanks for all the help any input guys!

Cheers,
Gus

[JungleGus]

Another thing to check is that the faces between your wheel and brake disc, and brake disc and hub are clean. Small amount of corrosion cause them to sit unevenly that can then transmit to a large movement at the outer edges of the wheels.

yep they are all good - the ONLY thing that may be a culprit is the WMS Brake kit on the front and it's 2mm spacer - may try taking that off and see if that helps

[pukar]

when fitted with new tyres, don't brand new wheels also need some balancing?

[Speedtouch]

Yes, usually. It's a rare instance indeed to have a wheel & tyre that doesn't need any balancing whatsoever.

[maxfield]

Depends if the tyre fitter knows how to balance wheels too.

Most just stick weights on till the machine says zero, whichever isn't the way to do it.

[pukar]

[pukar]

how about these gus? nogaro centres to boot....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-BMW-E ... 25862e21c8

NAWS

[Brianmoooore]

Depends if the tyre fitter knows how to balance wheels too.

Most just stick weights on till the machine says zero, whichever isn't the way to do it.

Also helps if the fitter mounts the tyres correctly before balancing. The little yellow dot is there for a reason!

[pukar]

[JungleGus]

What WILL Gus do with his wheels?

Pukar - you've helped upset my delicate balance of deciding to "f*ck it" and get them refurbed. Thanks. A bunch.

This is basically like watching Jaws for me.

[pukar]

i LOVE that movie....it is awesome in every way, such a great story, build up of suspense, cast, music, history of the making of the movie (basically spielberg put all his cash into it, and if it had failed, he wouldn't have made anything else, that's how much he believed in it). anyone who disagrees is wrong!

[clarko74]

You're gonna need a bigger boat...