Balancing and Vibrations

[7Andrei7]

Hi everyone!
I've searched a little but found nothing about balancing the wheels of the Stinger and I'm a little surprised because I've had very big problems with both sets of wheels (summer and winter).
Long story short, either I was so unlucky that I got 2 sets of bad tires (19" factory summers and 18" winter aftermarket Pirelli Sotozero) or the Stinger has an ultra sensitive steering because I keep getting vibrations in my steering wheel.
This is the third time I change my wheels (I bought it with summer, changed to winter, then summer and now winter again) and the third time services are having a very though time balancing them and stopping the vibrations (occurring between 120 - 140km/h).
It's not the roads and it's not the services. I've tried balancing in Bucharest and Vienna at top rated wheel shops and of course I drive on very different roads and the smoother they are the worse it gets.
I can honestly say I'm desperate because at every wheel change I need to redo the balancing 2-3 times until it gets almost right. A slight vibration is always there but maybe that's just the road surface.
Have any of you experienced this?

 

[MerlintheMad]

I'm hypersensitive to steering wheel feedback. Unless the vibration increases with speed, I've trained myself to not be bothered by any vibrations that are slight. I WANT perfectly smooth steering wheel feel, all, the, time. Like you, I'm less noticing anything on a rather crappy/rough road. Give me a "perfectly" smooth, quiet road surface and I start to notice all manner of "imperfections" through my hands and ears. Lol.

But that said, it is possible and maybe even common for the sticky balancing weights to come off one at a time. This doesn't even have to happen over time. I think that the wheel guys are supposed to thoroughly clean off the old sticky from previous balancing jobs before applying weights; but even my pros don't do this: when cleaning my rims, I've noticed old sticky residue to either side of the line of weights. Missing weights? Or just uncleaned "sticky"? Don't know, yet. As I said at first, if the vibration doesn't increase with speed, don't worry about it. If you can push above 100 MPH and control remains constant, I say you're good to go.

 

[Revvdmedia]

I find my Michelin Pilot Sport 4's (19's) acceptably smooth at above 120km/h speeds, so unless you are incredibly hyper sensitive (I am somewhat myself), it may be the tires.

On my last vehicle, I would get vibrations that start around 120km/h. Any "regular" tire shop would not guarantee a good balance since they only guarantee balance up to about 100km/h. If you haven't done so already, it may be worth looking at Road Force balancing which is done by more high end shops. It puts a load against the tire when balancing to simulate road surfaces, this cured the vibration issues on my summer tires on the Mustang completely.

 

[7Andrei7]

Will look for a Road Force balancing machine here in Bucharest. The shop I usually go to has a Haweka tool that goes through the wheel to centre it.
The vibrations don't really increase after 140km/h but rather slowly disappear. I didn't go past 150 because I anyway don't really drive that fast.
The annoying thing is that they are the most intense around 130 km/h which is more or less cruising speed on the highways.
I'll go back next Monday for a check-up and will bring updates.

 

[Ozstung]

Will look for a Road Force balancing machine here in Bucharest. The shop I usually go to has a Haweka tool that goes through the wheel to centre it.
The vibrations don't really increase after 140km/h but rather slowly disappear. I didn't go past 150 because I anyway don't really drive that fast.
The annoying thing is that they are the most intense around 130 km/h which is more or less cruising speed on the highways.
I'll go back next Monday for a check-up and will bring updates.

This is most odd. My Stinger is the smoothest ride I've had and drives like silk. I think your car needs a trip to the dealer. Take one of their representatives for a drive so they can feel this issue. Good luck.

 

[7Andrei7]

Oh, I actually did that and they said it might be the tyres and wanted to send them to Continental to get inspected. That's what i got on the 2.0 GT-Line.
The thing is that after repeated balancing attempts I did manage to get the car running smooth until the next wheels change. So I doubt there is something wrong with the car. What I thought is that it might be (by design) extra sensitive to any kind of variation in the tyre structure / wheel weight.
Based on feedback received on this topic it looks like I was just very unlucky with my tyres..

 

[CKeeler]

I’ve noticed the stock wheel/tire combo goes out of balance fairly easily. I’ve had to have them balanced at least 3-4 times in the 30,000 miles I’ve driven. Never worried about that with my previous car. Then again I wasn’t spending a ton of money on high end tires. So far the 4S is doing better on staying balanced than the stock 4.

 

[7Andrei7]

I just took the car to the shop today and they found 2 wheels perfectly balanced, third had 5g imbalance on each side and fourth (the culprit) had 15g imbalance on the inside (was the left forward wheel).
Still, they considered it should be within the tolerance margin and there should have been no vibrations. I nevertheless balanced both.
Then, they did a thorough measurement of the tires thread and found a little inconsistence so I did a check of the wheel alignment to find that both front and back was very slightly miss-aligned. They said it's somewhat normal for this to happen and should not be worried. My car has now 33.000 KM, since January 2019. Had everything aligned and will follow-up on this after the summer tires will be put on in the spring.
Did a test drive after and car is now very smooth up until 150km/h. So, happy camper again, at least until late March