z51vett

To add to this have tire removed and have mag spunup on machine and look for up and down or side to side wobble. If none then you have a bad tire that has a high spot or bad low spot. The force balancer will also find this and match wheel and tire it will tell tech where to rotate tire to on rim to get a smooth running tire. But I would look real close at rim.
z51vett

Boomer111

Wondering how this problem resolved?

KILR-Z51

Boomer 111 you are the MAN THANK YOU VERY MUCH ever since i spent 4K on my Forgeline rims for my o7 Vette 3 years ago i had the vibration at 80 to 83 MPH i also had the Hunter RF done & the vibration was still there from day one so i just learned to stay under 80 or above 85.

Well this week i pulled off my rims & placed Duct tape around the hubs & went for a test drive, The vibration is 99% gone !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hardhattg

i am currently on vacation in the florida keys for a couple weeks , worrying about boats more then cars for two weeks . I plan on buying factory rims when i get back but i would sure like to see a picture of this tape on the hub remedy ? anyone have one ?

thanks to everyone and i will post final resolution once i get to that point

Boomer111

I am very happy that this worked out for you.

I originally posted this a few years back (or so it seems).

I was meet with less than anticipated reception. Nothing negative so to speak just kind of ignored.

It worked for me and I have passed it on with the subject has come up.

Not sure why either with all the tech talk about not being hub centric etc.

Boomer111

With boats you have your hands full.

DRLC5

Do you have any shops in your area that can balance your wheels while on the car? I had this done once and it worked for me a few years ago. This way the entire rotating assembly gets balanced. Very cool process but looked kind of dangerous.

Boomer111

I have hd this done on another car A few years back. Old school technology, and it did what a few different Hunter Road Force machines could not.

Laying of the hands on the fender as the each corner is jacked up and the tire spun up to speed with a floor jack looking spinning roller. Add some weight and repeat till smooth.

KILR-Z51

Take a look at the picture below:






Hardhattg i didn't take any pics but if you look at the hub it's aprox. half an inch wide all i did was clean it up & sliced some duct tape the width of the flat surface and wrapped it around the circle of the hub on both front hubs, It only took me about 35 minutes to do both sides.

There was times in the winter when i felt like putting my factory rims back on because the vibration was worse in the colder months & for the life of me i can't understand why i never searched the CF for this topic before i could of fix my problem years ago.

Anyways i'm sure glad it work for me & i hope it works for you too GOOD LUCK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hardhattg

kilr z51

i am going to try this as i like the factory look spider wheels and if i can get them to roll nice i would keep them .

So to be clear we are talking about just one thin layer of duct tape around the hub ?

Certainly worth a try .

Walt White Coupe

Duct tape: The 8th wonder of the world. How exactly is that suppose to help when the hub is not suppose to center the wheel? If it did, any tape would prevent you from putting the wheel on. If this cures your vibration, the problem was in your head not with the car.

Boomer111

Interestingly it worked for me. I will repeat, I had a 1mm smaller hub than the wheel bore. One wrap of tape was applied to the hub and the vibration was gone.

Why I really dunno, but the wheel shop guy said that it has worked in the past with this small a variation. Usually with a bigger gap they would use a spigot ring. In my case there is no spigot small enough so the rim would have to be bored larger to accept a spigot to close the gap.

I was hesitate to have the 4 wheels bored and he suggested this saying that sometimes it works...it did

The vibration could not be balanced out even with reorienting the tire on the rim etc.

Anyway it worked for me for a couple of years. Since I have returned to OEM tire size and rims.

It worked and I saved a bunch of money, no need for reason here, although it would be interesting to know. I think that it has to do with vibration being absorbed by the hub..what else could it be.

I can assure you that in my case the vibration was not imagined either being present or not.

Now if you asked me if the vibration was OEM feel of stock factory, I would have to say I am not sure. Saying that though I ran the car for a couple of years with no concerns of wheel vibration.

Having gone back to OEM tires and rims the steering wheel feels the same as with the after market wheel/tire set up with the tape.

This is how I have experienced this exchange.

If you have this kind of problem I hope it works for you as it did for me.

KILR-Z51

That's it i got a razor blade & a roll of duct tape & just eye balled the hub & cut the tape aprox. that width as it was still on the roll, Just cut one strip around the tape until you get around to where you almost started, Just one thin slice is all i needed.

KILR-Z51

Well i will be the first one to say i'm not very bright in the head but all i know is with my factory wheels my Vette drove real smooth, 6 months later i bought Forgeline rims & had them balanced sevaral times with no luck, My steering wheel used to vibrate & shake when i drove 80 to 84 MPH for the last 3 years.

Then i tried the 8th WONDER OF THE WORLD & the Vibration is gone, I've only driven it once to work, round trip is 44 mile but just to make sure it's not just in my head i will take my Vette to work tonight again just to make sure.

Boomer111

......

Streetk14

5.5 ounces (or around 155 grams) is a ton of weight to have on one wheel plane. The better and higher quality a wheel and tire are, the less weight they require to balance. I've been balancing tires as part of my job for over 10 years, FYI. I think your problem is mostly the poorly made Chinese reproduction wheels. I'm not sure how 'true' a Firestone run-flat is, either. I've never thought of Firestone as being a very good brand. Always had the best luck with Michelins.

For what it's worth, I just installed my new 305/30/19 Potenza RE-11s on my factory rear wheels. The RE-11 is not a run-flat, but it's a heavy tire with a stiff sidewall. It felt like a run-flat when I was mounting it. Anyway, I lined up the yellow alignment dots on the new tires with my valve stems and the tires took almost nothing to balance out. I think one of them took only 10 or 15 grams on one plane, and that was it. The other took maybe 15 on the inside and 10 on the outside.

I guess my point is that there is something seriously wrong with that wheel/tire combo. I'd ditch them and get a factory wheel set. Probably not what you want to hear, though. Good luck with it...

KILR-Z51

So here's my final verdict, I drove my 07 Z51 tonight again, This time i took all freeway to work ( 22 Miles one way ) instead of back roads to work where the speed limit is 55 MPH as i new i would be speeding way to much for posted speed limit, In the State of NM once you leave the city limits on the freeway the speed limit is 75 MPH.

I drove between 81 & 90 MPH most of the way when traffic was light, I used to avoid the freeway most of the time when i drove to work in this Vette just because i hated the way it vibrated at those speeds.

Well i have to say my vibration problem is 95% better not 99% as i previous stated but for 35 minutes of my time & some Duct tape i'm still EXTREMELY SATISFIED with the way it drives.

I have 13K on the factory Goodyear Super car tires once i hit 20K i will be replacing with Michelin PS2 from what i here they ride way better than the Good years, So all in all the vibration is almost completely gone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hardhattg

ok , got back in town a few days ago and decided i would try the duct tape .

Unfortunately this did not work for me . My vibration is exactly the same as before , no better or worse .

I may have a slightly different issue then some of the other members who have benefited by the addition of this tape , as my vibration is not apparent just between a certain set mph range but rather would become noticeable around 70 mph and just get worse the faster i went .

i tend to agree with streetk14 that these after market wheels are just not balanced very well and that in combination with a heavy run flat type tire is at best problematic .

I plan to have oem wheels put on by the middle of this next week . Sure hope that solves the problem . No fun driving on highway in current condition .

TMyers

This is the problem I had. In my case it turned out to be the tires. I lived with the vibration for 3 years only because I don't see 70mph all that often. New tires and no vibration which to me means one of the belts must of slipped.

torquetube

You're not supporting science when you dismiss experimental evidence that doesn't fit the hypothesis. These guys' experience sounds credible. It's not as if they claimed the vibration went away after performing a seance.

Perhaps the placement of the lug holes on a slightly over/undersized circle and is very slightly off center, and the tape acts as a jig for an over/underconstrained mounting system. Perhaps it damps some harmonic between things that don't seem like they should experience any relative motion, but do. Who knows - vibrations can be complicated.