2008 Kia Optima LX Steering wheel shake

> wrote:
>Scott D:
>
>Can't drive around my block, safely at least, at the speeds I stated throughout this thread at which the vibrations are occurring. It's at least 10 minutes to either of two high speed motorways, assuming light traffic.

So put the doughnut on. There's a 50% chance it'll be perfectly fine. If
it isn't, stop it, put the old tire back on, then put the doughnut on the
other side. Voila, you found it.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

wrote:
> Scott D:
>
> Can't drive around my block, safely at least, at the speeds I stated
> throughout this thread at which the vibrations are occurring. It's
> at least 10 minutes to either of two high speed motorways, assuming
> light traffic.
>
> I'll just replace the two remaining older tires and the rims, and get
> this behind me.

And if it's the rim you accomplish nothing.

Toss the donut on either rear side. Now head out and see if it's still
there or gone. If it's still there then bad tire is the one still on the
car. If it's gone the tire that's off is the bad one.

As for how to find out, You put it on the machine and rotate it by hand
You watch for wobble in the rim, sidewall or tread. It really isn't hard.


--
Steve W.

Steve W. wrote:
> wrote:
>> Scott D:
>>
>> I'll just replace the two remaining older tires AND THE RIMS, and get
>> this behind me.
>
> And if it's the rim you accomplish nothing.
>

throwing away the bad rim sounds like a good idea to me!
GW

A friend spotted me today alongside and said both rear tires were hopping visibly up & down. Speeds were 60-65, recently repaved highway.

Can a hopping tire on one side translate to another? And exactly what kind of balancing job did Town Fair do on the rear wheels on this thing??

On Sat, 7 Jun 2014 16:56:47 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

>A friend spotted me today alongside and said both rear tires were hopping visibly up & down. Speeds were 60-65, recently repaved highway.
>
>Can a hopping tire on one side translate to another? And exactly what kind of balancing job did Town Fair do on the rear wheels on this thing??

If there is a Kia dealership where you live, this can't be too small
of a town. I have to assume that there are many places to take a car
for wheel balancing. If you are willing to buy two new tires and rims,
just take it another shop to balance the rears first. Don't you have
Sears, or tire franchise shops, or competent independents? It can't be
that hard. If you go to a bigger place, they're also more likely to
have a road force balancer. You might as well have it done right,
although this sounds more like a straight balance problem.

I had a problem at one dealership - the tire guy was using the wrong
weights, and they were flying off at high speeds. And is this front or
rear drive? There have been issues where the tires were slipping on
the rims, and that would throw the balance off. But that happens on
the drive wheels, and usually, if not always, on certain types of
alloy or chrome rims, not steel.

And one last thing, does the current shake always happen at the same
speed, or only on certain roads?

George Welsh wrote: "

throwing away the bad rim sounds like a good idea to me!
GW "

And my local Town Fair will never admit they discarded and replaced the wrong rim!


As far as the dealer goes, yes there is a Kia in my town, but the service guy says it's my alignment. Wrong! My car tracks straight, and steering effort to either side is the same.

So it looks like I might do the donut tests, and then call around to see who has a road force balancer once I've isolated the bad corner.

George Welsh wrote: "

throwing away the bad rim sounds like a good idea to me!
GW "

And my local Town Fair will never admit they discarded and replaced the wrong rim!


As far as the dealer goes, yes there is a Kia in my town, but the service guy says it's my alignment. Wrong! My car tracks straight, and steering effort to either side is the same.

So it looks like I might do the donut tests, and then call around to see who has a road force balancer once I've isolated the bad corner.

George Welsh wrote: "

throwing away the bad rim sounds like a good idea to me!
GW "

And my local Town Fair will never admit they discarded and replaced the wrong rim!


As far as the dealer goes, yes there is a Kia in my town, but the service guy says it's my alignment. Wrong! My car tracks straight, and steering effort to either side is the same.

So it looks like I might do the donut tests, and then call around to see who has a road force balancer once I've isolated the bad corner.

George Welsh:

And the local Town Fair will never admit they discarded and replaced the wrong rim!


So I guess I'll perform the donut tests, then call around to see who has Road Force once I've isolated the trouble corner in the rear of my car.

NO road force brand balancing machines in my town.