Tire Rotation ~ all was well and now WOW...

after I had my tires rotated today (front to rear - rear to front) I immediately was presented with a HORRIBLE tire shake/vibration/thumping issue (and road noise too).

 

what the heck?? has anyone else had this issue? I searched here and found a that a few of us have had some similar experiences but no real solutions. should I just put them back the way I had them?

 

thanks!

sounds like it was better like it was before, haha. Did the tire place accidentally knock a weight off somehow?

same thing happened to another member

linky - still working on it...

You probably have a bent rim, or they are out of balance. It happened to me, vibes arent as noticable when then are in the rear.

shaking in steering wheel - front wheels

shaking in seat - rear wheels

Usually when we do tires at work we watch how they spin. Most times if its a cheap tire they spin like crap so we try and put the best ones on the front. Or if they have a bent wheel and the customer doesn't want to replace it it goes on the rear. Thus whenever they are rotated the bent wheels/crappy spinning tires are now on the front and you tend to feel the vibration.

Could be the wheel did not seat flat on the hub when they impact wrenched the lug nuts on. Only a possibility. Missing wheel weight can do it easy.

Your noise description sounds like an irregular or choppy wear pattern. What tire are you running and how often do you rotate?

What tire are you running and how often do you rotate?

 

Were you overdue for your rotation? When was the last time your alignment was checked? Did you inspect for irregular tire wear?

Your noise description sounds like an irregular or choppy wear pattern. What tire are you running and how often do you rotate?

 

The tires look okay... they are Kuhmo Ecsta ASX tires. They have less than 20K on them.

 

Were you overdue for your rotation? When was the last time your alignment was checked? Did you inspect for irregular tire wear?

 

Yes, overdue for rotation... I have to have the car aligned for sure. Do I have to take it somewhere special to handle an AWD alignment? I think I'll get new (better) tires this summer at Costco and then take it for an immediate alignment.

 

Thanks, everyone. I put the wheels/tires back the way I had them for now and all good.

The tires look okay... they are Kuhmo Ecsta ASX tires. They have less than 20K on them.

 

 

 

Yes, overdue for rotation... I have to have the car aligned for sure. Do I have to take it somewhere special to handle an AWD alignment? I think I'll get new (better) tires this summer at Costco and then take it for an immediate alignment.

 

Thanks, everyone. I put the wheels/tires back the way I had them for now and all good.

 

If you're at nearly 20k that's beyond the point of help for a rotation IMO on these cars, and it sounds like you've got a tread wear problem. I would leave the tires where they are, but monitor the fronts compared to the rears. If there's a real noticeable difference between the tread wear front to rear, it's time to replace the whole set so you don't burn up your center differential. It's up to you how much you want that difference to be and for how many miles you want to put on an uneven set. If summer is a couple thousand miles away, I wouldn't worry about it. If it's 10-20k miles away, I would.

 

The spec btw from Subaru is that the difference in overall circumfrence between front and rear tires cannot exceed 1/4in (works out to about 1-2/32nd"s). Your tires are probably at or beyond that limit, but if you're not way out of the limit and/or don't plan on driving very much between now and your next set of tires, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

An AWD car does not need anything special for an alignment, you can take it anywhere alignments are done.

I see alot of elgacys come through the door with worn oem rear struts. See alot of cupping on the inside edge of the tires, even on perfect alignment. Once the strut wears it creates unequal amount of pressure on the tire causing it to cup. However, that still may not be your issues.

 

THe vibration will come from an out of balance tire, thge noise, will be from uneven wear. The wear is not fixable, but the balance is.

Wut?

 

 

Sorry i posted from my phone. I meant a vibration from a misbalanced wheel isnt as noticeable when its in the rear of the car. Put the same wheel in the front and its a lot more obvious. Just like the other guy said.