Hey all,

I just got some Lexani 19" wheels for my CLK 430 and the car's been vibrating a lot between 40-70mph. Also, there's a low-pitched noise that fills up the cabin.

A few questions:

1) Has anyone had similar problems when upgrading from the stock rims?
2) Someone suggested I install wheel spacers (Hubcentric, 20mm in the front, 10mm in the back) to help with the vibration. Does that work?
3) Chances are if I get wheel spacers I'll need to buy new lug nuts as well. Any idea what length I should get, or will the standard set with the original stock wheels fit?

Thanks!

 

Yeah, I have similar problems and a majority of the problems was attributed to a bad tire. You either have a bad tire, bent wheel or bad balancing.

Getting wheels spacers won't help. If anything, that just introduces another factor into possible vibration.

Check if the wheels take ball or acorn seat -- most aftermarkets take acorn so I hope to god you're not using ball seat bolts on acorn bores. Good place to start is see what length the wheels take without spacers (start at 28mm shank, adjust from there) and then just add the spacer width to the shank length. I'd definitely look into this first as running incorrect bolts can end up being a huge disaster.

 

Damn. My tires look good, and I've had it balanced twice which means it has to be a bent wheel. Funny, considering I got these to replace a bent wheel from my original set.

I'm pretty sure they take ball seats, and I'll check the length.

Thanks!

 

I'm assuming the wheels are hubcentric -- if not, make sure the rings you have are super snug on the bore and hub.

If you have no initial vibration issues then there's a module in the Hunter balancing program called QuickMatch that will do a more standard dynamic balancing with no force load applied to the tire. That's what should be used the first time tires are mounted to wheels. If you're still running into vibration issues, then road forcing balancing will usually sort that out. If not that, obviously it's a wheel, tire or suspension problem.

 

Yes, the wheels are hubcentric. I'll take it to a Les Schwab and have them check everything for me.

Thanks a log for your help! Really appreciate it.