Went to 20s and need help

[MiCkEy]

Thanks all for the pointers. The centering rings are plastic.

1. I can try using no centering rings in the front and see what happens. Like Driver8 it just might behave better without in the front. Also there is no shimmy of any kind while braking.

2. I did check the centering rings and they were seated properly (before I retorqued the lugs I took the wheels off for final inspection).

3. AFS had mailed 4 centering rings. They all looked exactly the same. Andrew are you sure two are different and are meant for the rears? What size exactly are the fronts are rears (for my information)

4. The tire shop did use the hunter 9700 with road force and even unmounted one of the tires, rotated the tire a few degrees and then remounted so that it takes less weight.

5. The AFS wheels and tires came premounted but for my sanity I had them rebalanced.

6. I am tempted to try the 17s back on (front) to see if the shimmy is gone. Perhaps the OEMs being smaller do not exhibit or amplify the shimmy that much.

[dlg9779]

I had AFS 20" wheels with michelin diamaris tires. I had the same problem. The first couple months they were ok, then I had the same shimmy you are experiencing! I had the tires rebalanced and even put a new set of hub rings on. I couldn't get rid of the shimmy. I was told that it was the wheels that were out of round. I guess you get what you pay for. I have since purchased new 22 " wheels and have absolutly no problems.

[MiCkEy]

I would hate to have 4 (rather large) paper weights.

Originally Posted by dlg9779

I had AFS 20" wheels with michelin diamaris tires. I had the same problem. The first couple months they were ok, then I had the same shimmy you are experiencing! I had the tires rebalanced and even put a new set of hub rings on. I couldn't get rid of the shimmy. I was told that it was the wheels that were out of round. I guess you get what you pay for. I have since purchased new 22 " wheels and have absolutly no problems.

[X5Andrew]

I'll have to pull off the tires and look. I know there were two sizes, one seemed to fit better on the back and one on the front.

Will let you know, I will try to pull them off tonight.

As far as the wheels being out of round... well they do offer a warranty, I would strongly suggest sending them back and gettting them replaced. I have a friend of mine that has 20's from them for over a year now with no problems, or I wouldn't have bought them.

[Tel]

Lead weights are soon to be banned in the UK.

The tyre place i use already uses powder bags. They place a paper bag with powder in the tyre and when the paper bag disintergrates the powder uses centrifugal force to balance the wheel.

[powers1]

Originally Posted by MiCkEy

Thanks all for the pointers. The centering rings are plastic.

1. I can try using no centering rings in the front and see what happens. Like Driver8 it just might behave better without in the front. Also there is no shimmy of any kind while braking.

2. I did check the centering rings and they were seated properly (before I retorqued the lugs I took the wheels off for final inspection).

3. AFS had mailed 4 centering rings. They all looked exactly the same. Andrew are you sure two are different and are meant for the rears? What size exactly are the fronts are rears (for my information)

4. The tire shop did use the hunter 9700 with road force and even unmounted one of the tires, rotated the tire a few degrees and then remounted so that it takes less weight.

5. The AFS wheels and tires came premounted but for my sanity I had them rebalanced.

6. I am tempted to try the 17s back on (front) to see if the shimmy is gone. Perhaps the OEMs being smaller do not exhibit or amplify the shimmy that much.

1.Do not the remove the centering rings from the front as you will get even more vibration!

3.The AFS centrering rings MUST the same for all wheels.There should two ,usually quite faint, numbers stamped on the centering rings.The bigger number is AFS ,the smaller number is the one to fit your car .This should say 72.6.If you have 74.1,they sent you the wrong ones this is the reason why you have vibration!

[Driver8]

I had major vibration issues on my '03 530i when I installed the 18" Style 37 M-Parallels. Turned out that the Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S tires I installed were badly out of tolerence (3 of 4 were out of factory specs). It was pretty easy to find it on the Hunter machine. After faxing the results to the Tire Rack, they bought them back and replaced them with another brand at my request.

If your new 20's perform cleanly on the Hunter machine, the problem has to lie elsewhere (unless the person running the Hunter machine was not skilled or the machine was out of tolerence, either of which would negate my prior statement). However, in all honesty, I've never had a Hunter balance that was wrong (and I've had several). If the tires and wheels balance up on the Hunter machine and show no vertical or horizontal runout, then the problem has to be somewhere else other than the wheel or tire.

If your old wheels and tires run fine without any vibration and your new ones come up clean on the Hunter machine, then it would make me even more suspicious of the centering rings, especially knowing that the car was initially vibration-free for a time with the new setup. Remove the rings from the wheels and test fit them on the hubs to ensure they fit snugly and that they are not damaged in any way. Also ensure that the right ring is on the right wheel, if applicable.

Ultimately, as X5Andrew stated, they are warranted and you may need to exercise your rights in that regard, or at least get the company involved in problem resolution. Good luck!

Mike

[X5Andrew]

3.The AFS centrering rings MUST the same for all wheels.There should two ,usually quite faint, numbers stamped on the centering rings.The bigger number is AFS ,the smaller number is the one to fit your car .This should say 72.6.If you have 74.1,they sent you the wrong ones this is the reason why you have vibration![/quote]

I stand corrected. I just took a front and rear tire off to check the spacers and they are all 72.6

My bad, for some reason I thought I used different ones on the front and back.

But there ya go.

[MiCkEy]

Sheeeeesh. Here is a head scratcher.

I took the wheels off yet again (probably the 12th time) to check the center rings (I seem to have bigger biceps because of all the heavy lifting, jacking the truck (no pun) than when I was single and lonely) and even though the center rings did not have any AFS marking on them, I found a little white stickie that says "74.1mm/72.56mm". What does this mean? Do I have the wrong center ring? Why the two numbers? the center rings seem to be in not so good shape so I have taken them off. Are aluminum ones better than the plastic ones?

thanks all. I guess I am getting close to solving the mystery ( i hope)

[poleposition]

Originally Posted by MiCkEy

Are aluminum ones better than the plastic ones?

Yes. Most definitely.