Well, I kind of hesitate to ask this because I think it has a fair
amount of "dumb question" potential, but that's never stopped me before.
Just exactly how ROUND does a tire need to be? I've got a slight
vibration in my steering between 60-70 mph that I haven't been able to
eliminate with two separate balancing attempts. Last night while
changing over to the snows, I rigged up a reference point and spun the
tires relative to it. One of the fronts is 1/8 out-of-round, not oval,
but kind of a gradual flat spot on one portion of the circumference.
(No, I didn't do that!) Is this enough to cause the vibration that I'm
experiencing? Or should I go back to looking at balance?
FWIW, they are 225/45-17 TA KD's, mounted on the stock Audi TT wheels.
The wheels are true, and there is no noticeable lateral runout in either
the wheels or the tires, just this rather odd flat spot, kind of like
you might expect from parking a set of cheap tires for a long time in
one spot.
The other, unrelated, thing that I noticed while changing tires; These
things are HEAVY! The stock 7.5x17 alloy wheels, with the above
mentioned tires, tip the scale at 55 lbs per corner. Being a former DSP
guy, I've never owned a set of wheels/tires this huge and have no point
of reference, but this seems like a lot, no? Anybody with similar size
footwear have any light to shed on this?
Thanks for your help.
Bob Fogt
|