Ok so here's the story...About a month and half ago I decided to buy some Hankook Icebears to mount on the evo 8 rims. About a week after that our area got hit with a rather large snow storm (13 inches) and being dumb and messing around I hit a curb, went over it and came back down. It bent the lip of my drivers side rear rim pretty good and scratched about a 1/3rd of the lip on my front drivers side rim. I thought for sure I had broken something on the drivers side rear suspension because it hit pretty hard. Luckily because of the deep snow the rim was (ramped) onto the curb instead of hitting it square. Anyways I took it to NTB a few hours later to check it out. They checked the suspension and checked the alignment and the suspension was just fine but the alignment was slightly off on the front passenger side wheel. I had the alignment done and everything was set to spec. They even gave me a before and after print out. However the more and more I drive on the highway I notice that my steering wheel does a slight shimmy about a few degrees only at speeds above 50 mph. I figured it was due to the new tires and the deeper tread.

I took my car to the dealership today to get an oil change and they also checked out my brakes and suspension because of the shimmy. They test drove the car and said that they did notice the shimmy but it was very minor. My alignment is fine and the service manager told me that it's probably one or more of the wheels being out of balance. I told him about the bend in one of the rims and he told me that it's most likely that which is causing the shimmy. A couple hours after I was at the dealership an Sti riding next to me flagged me down at the stop light ot tell me that my rear passenger side wheel is wobbling. I didn't ask how much or how bad but I did thank him for letting me know. Here's where I need the advice. When I hit the curb it was with my rear drivers side wheel. The guy in the Sti noticed my rear passenger side wheel wobbling. I checked out the wheel w/o jacking up the car and it seems solid and the wheel weights are still attached.

When I did hit the curb it actually went over a parking lot median and it might have hit the rear passenger side wheel on the way down but I honestly don't think it even touched that wheel. What would cause the wobbling? My suspension was checked out and the cars alignment is in spec. Could it just be the balance of the wheel?

 

its bent so its wobbling probably

 

Go to a tire shop and get balanced. They should let you know if its bent...if thats the case replace it.

 

Did you read the post? The wheel that's wobbling is not the one that hit the curb.

 

OHHH i read it it was just very confusing
with that question youre pretty much asking us all to be psychics who could possibly know what you did without seeing anything or being there

 

Try rotating the tires and see if the wobble follows the wheel. Also, make sure all 4 wheels are centered on the hub and torqued to spec. It really doesnt take much to throw a wheel out of balance so it would be worth having them all balanced just to make sure they are good.

 

The wobbly wheel sounds like the result of a bad hub assembly - wheel bearing. Chances are that you also might have bent a few aluminum suspension bits ever so slightly - but still bent nonetheless. If I were you, I'd be pissed that my Mitsu service department didn't catch this wobbly wheel. They sound incompetent to me. You should have bought that STi owner a keg of beer. It's so damn important to have everything in proper working order on our cars, as most of us tend to drive more aggressively than the above average driver. Try taking it to another Mitsu service department for a second opinion. Hell, take it to a third while you're at it, or, if there is a good Evo shop around, take it to them first and get a proper assessment.

 

I thought that myself so I jacked up the car and inspected the wheel with it off the ground. The wheel is solid without any movement or freeplay. When the wheel bearing went bad on my old talon tsi the wheel had freeplay. *However once again the wheel that is wobbling is not the one that made contact with the curb.* I also checked the wheel that hit the curb and it also appears to be fine. I beginning to think that it might be the balance of the wheel. Even if my suspension was ever so slightly bent, it is now in spec and actually never really went out of spec in the first place. Unless something was actually loose or worn on the suspension (ex. bushings) even the slightest bend would not cause movement in the wheel, just an unaligned wheel. I was more or less wondering if anyone has experienced this before.

 

Get the wheels/tires all checked. Sounds like a simple, inexpensive fix. Maybe get a friend to drive your car and follow behind him/her in another car to get a good view of the wobbling wheel. At any rate, get this fixed and be safe while you drive "unsafely."

 

Yeah i'm going to have a buddy follow me when I drive it tomorrow. I'm also bringing it back to the place that put the tires on in the first place to have the wheels balanced again. Funny thing is that I drove my car 2 1/2 hours each each way to Wisconsin to visit some family with no problems at all. The wheel must have been wobbling for awhile and I don't feel a thing besides the very very minor shimmy in the steering wheel. If it wasn't for the sti owner I wouldn't have known at all. I tried to ignore him at first because it looked like he was either going to make a stupid comment or want to race.

 

Too bad about the wheels...as suggested previously, locate a good shop to bring you car into. If the wheel is wobbling, the bearing may be out of whack. If it isn't the wheel itself may be out of "true". Without the wheel on the car, they'll need to put a dial guage to see what's up. Good luck.

 

why not get a new wheel?! if that doesn't alleviate the problem, then i'd definitely take it up to whoever you trust the most w/ your suspension (dealer? other shop?)...but luckily the sti driver caught you...what a freak accident

 

Well the bearing is perfectly fine as stated above. There is also no reason for me to replace the wheel since it is undamaged. I would not go the most expensive route first.

 

*UPDATE*

I brought my car to my parents house so I can use their garage. My dad decides to follow my car so he can take a look at the wheel himself and finds that it is wobbling very badly. I get out and drive his car while he drives mine and you can even see the wheel wobble from the rear of the car. It looks as if the lug nuts are loose. I pull the car into the garage and jack it up with a floor jack and take off the wheel. Everything looks fine and solid. I decided to take one of my summer rims (evo 9 rims with advans) and put it on to see if it still wobbled while I drove. I drove my car again while my dad followed and he called me on his cell phone. He started laughing because the wheel was not wobbling at all, perfectly fine.

I pull the car back into the garage and inspect the old wheel again and it all seems fine. I cleaned up the hub and the area on the inside of the wheel where it meets the hub and put the old wheel back on. Drive the car one more time and my dad calls and said it's hard to tell if it's fine or not. It seems to be wobbling but no where near as bad. I drive his car again and check it out for myself and it still wobbled but not nearly as bad.

I then take my car to NTB where I got my alignment and tell them to balance the wheel. The guy comes to get me in the waiting area about 15 minutes later and says they have bad news. I asked if it was the wheel or my suspension and they said the wheel. They showed me the wheel while it was spinning on the balancer and it made the same wobbling effect. The guy said that he has never seen anything like this ever! The wheel is literally warped. Balancing it would not work because the wheel is uneven. So I had him put the wheel back on, they didn't charge me a thing. I went back to my parents house and decided to swap out all 4 wheels and put on my summer wheels.

I'm very pissed because I just put the Hankook Icebears on my evo 8 rims and bought the evo 9 rims for summer only. Granted I was messing around and hit a curb but it wasn't even with that particular wheel! The wheel that hit the curb has a bent lip but it still is perfectly fine. I don't know how this wheel could have gotten messed up and i'm beginning to wonder how long it has been like that. Very odd.....