Vibration @ 120km/h 04 Accord

My '04 I4-auto Accord had a wicked vibration at 80-100km/h until the dealer
rebalanced the tires... now the vibration is at 100-120km/h (highway
speeds).

I assume Honda dealers know how to balance tires so should I be looking for
problems elsewhere?

The car has 500km's on it now... one week old

 

I forgot to mention the dealer swapped new 15" aluminum rims for the stock
steel rims... I noticed a small read dot on the tire... wonder if that has
anything to do with balance...

 

get your stock wheels back

 

Perhaps the tires are bad and you got a rookie trying to balance them.

Pars

 

You should never underestimate the incompetence of your mechanic...
Make sure the tires are swapped front to back when you come there next
time. It's the front tires that are responsible for vibrations, so if it
goes
away with the tire rotation, you know where to look. Front end alignment
would be the next thing I'd be worried about, though with a car this new
everything pretty much comes down to how competent your dealer is...

Vlad

 

A one-week old car? You shouldn't be looking anywhere, except to the dealer
to get it right! Vibration is not strictly related to balance; an out-of-
round wheel or a tire with a mis-aligned belt can cause vibration. In
any case, it is for the dealer to sort out, not you.
Dan

(This account is not used for email.)

 

Subject: Vibration @ 120km/h 04 Accord

Did you drive the car with stock rims? If there was no vibration, Then the new
wheels need to be rebalanced,the tires are fine. If rebalancing doesnt cure the
problem then they should road force the wheel and tire assembly and check the
wheels for excessive runout as well as the tires for excessive runout.. If the
wheels require tape on weights, and the tech balancing the wheels doesnt punch
in the proper measurements, the wheels wont balance properly either.

 

Well, just got back from the dealer tonight... third attempt at balancing
may be golden... felt OK on the way home... got to put some miles on now.

 

Don't worry about it. Usually it takes more than 3 times for the tire
guys to balance my wheels. I now think that it takes a lot of
practice to correctly mount the wheel on the balancing machine.

Take it back, take it back, take it back until it's perfect. It's
their fault they can't balance a wheel.

Bye,
Leon

 

Try to find a tire shop that uses Hunter equipment that will "force" balance
your tires. See http://128.242.141.111/pub/technical/4127T/4127t.cfm

 

the OP shouldnt have to take it to a tire store. sounds to me like one
of the tires may be bad. the dealer should be able to sort it out.

was there one particular wheel that needed an unusual amount of weight
to balance?

does a front to rear swap cause the rear to vibrate?

left to right?

 

Sorry I forgot to post back.

Both my wife and I felt the vibration was coming from the right side of the
car so I rotated the front right tire to the rear right and the rear right
to the front right and the vibration is gone.

It looks like the right rear tire is the culprit. I did notice that the
dealer installed two wheel weights on that particular tire. If the valve
stem is at 12 o'clock the weights would be at 4 & 8 o'clock.