viperjesse

I have a 2007 ML350 with 29k miles no air ride suspension. I just installed a set of 19" Eurotech Wheels and Hankook 255/55/19 tires. At 45 mph the car rides like it has a bubble in a tire. Like you're bumping up and down slightly. At 70 mph the whole car gets a slight shimmey. The tires were double checked for ballance on a lazer machine and are fine. The one rim had a very slight flat spot (bent down) on the inside rim edge. Could that be causing all this?
Also I did not transfer the tire pressure sensors to the new wheels. Could the computer be reading 4 flat tires and doing something weird to the all wheel drive?
Any help is greatly appreciated
Jeff Z

ninjajim4

triple check. if your ride was fine before the new tires, it's the tires period. what you're describing is classic unbalanced tires. if the ride was fine on the old tires with the slightly dented rim, then it's not the rim now.

also make sure the wheels are tightly torqued on. you can also put the back wheels on the front and see if that changes anything, and if so, then definitely the tires

lkchris

The tire pressure monitor system doesn't sabotage the car, but you should have transferred the sensors.

viperjesse

Thanks for the replies. The tires and wheels are both new. I switched the bent rim to the front and it didn't feel any different. The bent rim will be replaced by UPS, it was damaged in shipping. Meanwhile I put the old 17" wheels and tires back on and it's perfect again.
I build cars as a hobby so I'm very familiar with mechanics. Ideally I would put one new tire and wheel on at a time, test drive until I felt the bump to isolate the bad tire/wheel. But with 17" old wheels and 19" new wheels and all wheel drive this isn't an option.
I agree it is classic bad ballancing. They double checked the ballance. I've had many tires done at this garage with no issues. Is it possible I got a bad Honkook tire from Tire Rack? If so is there any way to detect a bad tire/belt while not on the car?
Thanks a bunch
JZ

ninjajim4

on another car of mine, i was having vibration issues and figured it was my worn tires. i got new tires mounted and balanced at a big chain. still had vibration, checked the torque on all the lugs, and took it in again. they rebalanced, and i felt it right away on the way home, turned around and made them do it again. they road force tested and balanced, and said if it was still there, then it was something else suspension related. i did feel it, though slightly better. i ended up changing brakes and rotors a few weekends later, and found that the driver's side front was BARELY torqued on 3 out of 4 lugs. so, i was correct in that my old tired were shot, followed two bad balances on good new tires, and then once not torqued down right -- 3 bad jobs.

again, this was at a big chain that does tires exclusively, so one would expect after 3 tries they'd get it right. tons of staff, so it was 3 different guys working on my car, on 3 difference balancers too. what can ya do??

i did misread and didnt realize you got new rims AND tires, so the dented rim could definitely be factoring in. would have to be a pretty sizeable dent though... i would ask them to road force test

detail-king

Did you spin the one wheel that was bent without a tire mounted on it? did it hop on the balancer?

viperjesse

Hi King, yes the mechanic spun the wheel and it did not run true ever so slightly. I do believe I found the cause of the bad ride. I reused my old lug bolts on the new wheels. The conical or ball surface of the bolts did not seat properly in the new wheel lug openings. Instead of the 1/4-3/8 inch surface area they only made contact at the first 1/16" of the hole opening and did not seat at all. Which would allow the wheels to scooch around even the slightest bit.
I spoke to the wheel company and they said you must use their matching lug bolts with their wheels. The new bolts should be here any day and I feel very confident it will cure the problem.

detail-king

I think you are right. That can cause the problem. I hope everything works out for you. PM me or call me if you need any help.

viperjesse

I took the ML in to another tire shop. They roadforce ballanced them and said the roadforce showed nothing more than a bad ballance job ( matching lug bolts were installed and torqued to 85lbs). Drove home and got up to about 60mph, everything felt nice and smooth. The next 2 days around town it still felt great.
Yesterday I took a 1 hour trip on the freeway and as i got up to 70-80mph I could feel my butt moving in the seat and the steering wheel started to shimmy a bit, just like before.

Of course the tire symbol was lit up on the display, I didn't install the sensors in the new wheels. Occasionally the readout would say something like no tire sensors found. Could the missing sensors be causing all this crap? The rough ride is intermittant. Smooth under acceleration, even slight acceleration, then rough during cruise or deceleration.
Thanks for any ideas
JZ

EnigmaAW

sorry to here about your rim issues... not having the tire sensors mounted wouldn't effect the ride, the tires are balanced without the sensors, not balanced minus the weight of the sensor. have you tried remounting your factory wheels and seeing if it still vibrates? i guess worse case is try buying a better brand tire. maybe finding a used set at a small local tire shop or on craigslist, and see if the problem persists.
or maybe it's a suspension/drivetrain issue? ball joint, tie rod, control arm?

viperjesse

Thanks Veerodder, Tires are brand new Hankook. I put my old tires and rims back on and it rides perfect.