mikdivad

Alright, I'll try to describe it as best as I can, but it might sound ambigous anyways so here goes. Any suggestions/advice would be helpful...

I was driving on the highway around 70mph, and started hearing a strange sound coming from the the front end of my car. To define the "front end," it wasn't from the engine, but rather from the tires/wheel/axle of the car. The sound was like intermitent grinding. So I pulled off at the first exit ramp, which was a banking right turn. That's when I hear a much louder grinding/higher pitched sound.

I pulled into a service station right away and they put the car on their lift and checked to see if nothing was loose. They shook everything, and could find nothing wrong. Everything was tight.

So I drove home, and don't hear the sound again, but instead, the car vibrates at higher speeds. That's the only thing I can find wrong now.

Now keeping in mind that I have significantly modified my suspension, tires, and rims (Neuspeed/Bilstein's/17" R-28's/Dunlop SP9000's), any ideas as to what might be causing this???? I'm totally stumped....

EricBell

Are the wheels hub-centric (sp?)?

mikdivad

I did not have to put any spacers to fit the wheels, if that answers your questions.

QCRAZY

..and crank the wheel as hard as you can. Do a turn like this in BOTH directions(the sharpest slow speed turn you can). If you hear a chatter you may have a CV joint on it's way out. You could possibly have torn your CV boot and got some dirt in your joint.

This doesn't sound like a CV joint problem but sometimes they sound a little different. You should rule it out as best you can!!
---
Andrew

EricBell

Some wheels are made to fit many vehicles. Some of them have to use rings that size the central part of the wheel to make sure it aligns properly when you go to put it on the vehicle. This ensures that it is centered. Other wheel manufacturers make the wheel just right and no hub rings are needed. An example is my friends BMW that he put Monsoons on. The wheels didn't come with the rings and the car rode like the wheels were out balance, alot. took the car back to Discount Tire and they installed them and evrything is now fine. BTW, they didn't put them on the first time, they just didn't provide the rings.
Now I've never had any firsthand issue with these rings self destructing but if it were to happen it might cause what you dealt with. Some of the rings are metal and some are plastic. My friends are plastic.
Hope this makes sense.

Good Luck,
Eric