Wheel Shake After Tire Rotation

[hectikart]

I put 5 new 245/70r16 general grabber AT2's on my KJ about 2 months ago and just did my first rotation this weekend at 5000 miles. Did the rotation properly (rear tires to the front, one front crossed diagonally to rear, other front to spare, and the spare on the opposite rear. Now on the highway at 65mph+ I'm getting some wheel shake...nothing severe, but enough to be annoying.

Is it possible that because the spare that's now a rear tire is brand new it needs to wear in slightly? I know the rest of the tires felt different when I first put them on until I drove it for a couple of weeks, almost like they needed to break in.

When I originally had the tires put on I had them do an alignment as well, and my fear is that the alignment was off, causing the tires to wear unevenly, and now that they were rotated I'm noticing the effects.

Any thoughts on what could be causing the shakes and what I can do to fix it?

 

[tommudd]

Steering wheel shake ?
No shake / vibes before?

 

[Luke]

Rims nice and clean in the inside? I had a similar problem at my first rotation. One Rear was out of balance (already) the other was coated with a nice layer of dried mud. (inside the rim)

 

[hectikart]

Yes steering wheel shake. I had a similar problem before I got the tires, only more severe. Went to get the tires balanced but they told me balancing would do no good and to replace the tires. So they put on the grabbers, did an alignment and all was good. No shaking/vibes at all.

Now after rotation slight vibration in the steering wheel at 65/70mph+
Everything should be pretty clean..I was on a trail with some mud about a week ago but as soon as I got home I got underneath and sprayed everything out. I'll definitely check it out though.

 

[Cardhu]

hows your alignment,

mine gets a slight twitch in the steering wheel on highway when i rotate but it goes away after some miles.

 

[Luke]

^^^ what the dude said... have you have your post, post, lift alignment yet?

 

[Dave]

The main culprit would be mud or a rock stuck in the wheel but you said you cleaned them out.

Only other things I can think of......As tires wear, they can possibly get out of balance if they wear unevenly? Also, check to be sure you didn't knock off a "wheel weight" when you were off road.



Dave

 

[hectikart]

Thanks for the ideas. First thing I checked was tire pressure because I had one shop put on the 4 tires because they offered to align it for free...went to my normal place for the spare...and they offer free rotation so I brought it back to them for that at the 5000 mile mark.

The first shop had them at 40psi...the spare was at 35. So I dropped them all down to 35. That helped, but still some shaking in the steering wheel. Started looking closer at the wheels and it looks like I am missing a wheel weight on the driver front wheel. Just seems odd because I was off-road a week before I had the tires rotated and there was no vibration or shaking until after the rotation. Seems odd, assuming I lost the weight on a trail.

Anyway, looks like I'll get a balance done and see if that takes care of things. If not I'll start looking further into any potential misalignment issues. Alignment should be good. I had one done when I lifted it, and then after about 10,000 miles...but I'll never go back to the shop that aligned it last time because it took them over 3 hours to mount 4 tires and do an alignment, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they screwed something up.

 

[dude1116]

Thanks for the ideas. First thing I checked was tire pressure because I had one shop put on the 4 tires because they offered to align it for free...went to my normal place for the spare...and they offer free rotation so I brought it back to them for that at the 5000 mile mark.

The first shop had them at 40psi...the spare was at 35. So I dropped them all down to 35. That helped, but still some shaking in the steering wheel. Started looking closer at the wheels and it looks like I am missing a wheel weight on the driver front wheel. Just seems odd because I was off-road a week before I had the tires rotated and there was no vibration or shaking until after the rotation. Seems odd, assuming I lost the weight on a trail.

Anyway, looks like I'll get a balance done and see if that takes care of things. If not I'll start looking further into any potential misalignment issues. Alignment should be good. I had one done when I lifted it, and then after about 10,000 miles...but I'll never go back to the shop that aligned it last time because it took them over 3 hours to mount 4 tires and do an alignment, so I wouldn't be too surprised if they screwed something up.

When you think about it, it's not odd. You won't get steering wheel shake if you're out of balance in the back. (If they're out of balance enough...the whole vehicle will vibrate). If that tire in the back got its weight knocked off, then was rotated to the front, then VIOLA! Wheel shake after alignment.