Help!!! Rim Problem!!

[louie1086]

ok guys, here's the 411:

i bought these es 300 rims from a pick-and-pull today. i mounted two of them on the front but left my rear wheels alone.

note: im prolly gonna get yelled at for this, but: the front are 15's, and rear are 14's.

the problem: when i took my car for a test drive with the rims, the steering wheel was fighting alot, and when i let it go, it swerved to the right. also, i hear a wobbling sound coming from the wheels.

here is what i think are the problems: misalignment/mismatching wheel diameters/ under-inflation/ unbalanced wheels/ and what i really hope is not the problem...bent rims.

please advise this grief-stricken gen 3 lover.

[bigbird]

my first suggestion would be to get rid of thoes wheels. as long as they are balanced then differance in diameter doesnt matter. chances are teh tires arnt balanced or the rims are bent. also did u check teh lugs to make sure they were seated all teh way. usually after driving a little u need to retighten the wheels. it also looks liek the lugs in teh pic are not teh same which would throw off the balance if they are different weight.

go buy eyeball96's 15" borbets. ull be happier

[ghettosled]

you need to take them to a tire shop to have the balance checked. they can also check to see if the wheels are out-of-round.

on a side note, i dont think its terrible to mismatch wheels front to back as long as they match right to left - it just looks goofy.

[louie1086]

i forgot to mention that the picture isnt a picture of the actual rims.

i would assume the wheels are balanced since i took them off the es 300 myself. the lug nuts are all the same, all taken off the es300. although they came 4 per wheel so i assume the guy had wheel locks on them. in anycase, i have all 5 lug nuts on right now.

the es300 did seem like it was wrecked in the front, although the wheels i have on were taken from the rear.

also, would tire shops charge for checking for a problem? i have this skeptism that tire shops always wanna make money off you so they tell you the problem requires the service that costs the most.

also, the rear wheel i have right now dont have hubcaps on them so it would be hard for people to tell whether or not they mismatch.

[bigbird]

well if u didnt have problems before u put teh new wheels on then u KNOW its a problem with the wheels, theres only so much a shop could do or look for in that case. and yeah they would prolly say they need balance even if they are fine.

[renmike]

Just because they were on a car in a pull a part doesn't mean something wasn't wrong with them before. If you can, find a cheap place to check the balance of the tires, they can tell you if you've got a bent/warped rim. That's what I did. Ended up getting one of the rims straightened, cost me about 100 bucks but then I had 4 balanced tires

[louie1086]

is there anything i could look for that would tell me if i have a bent or warped rim?

Originally Posted by bigbird

"Well if u didnt have problems before u put teh new wheels on"

so i assume its not an alignment problem?

[ghettosled]

if the bearings on your car are in good shape, you can get a gauge mounted on a clamp. attach the clamp to a solid point on the body and put the feeler of the gauge on the edge of the rim (inside and out) and see how much the gauge changes as the wheel turns. measure in both directions for the rim, how much the rim is bent in and how much the rim is bent from side to side. you can use your stealie for comparison numbers.

but this isnt nearly as good of a technique as compared to the equipment at tire shops.

[louie1086]

ok, first of all, id like to thank everyone for their help. but it turns out the problem wasn't as bad as i thought. one of the tires were simply under-inflated. after pumping it up with air, it drove normally. although i did realize i needed new valve stems and possibly new tires. in anycase, thanks again.