spacers cause vibration?

[Boxster44]

.... agree with prodriver. I had some Fikses for the front for AX and was fine until I used spacers. It seemed sort of a 'hub centric' issue - not perfectly centered.

kj

[Lil bastard]

As mentioned, several things can cause or amplify an imbalance. Adding spacers in addition to amplifying can cause vibes of their own.

Agree w/ jmatta - Modern tires do NOT permanently flat-spot - that issue belonged to the era of stell-belted tires where the steel cords had a permanent 'memory'.

The nylon/kevlar cords used in today's tires do not have a permanernt 'memory' and if the tires misshapen due to underinflation, being cool, etc. and hold a shape, as soon as they're inflated and/or heated up, that memory disappears.

The issue not mentioned here is what is the mileage on the tires? Tires can become imbalanced and out-of-round with mileage. Though it's minor and barely noticed, adding spacers will amplify any effects and imho, that's most likely what you're dealing with here.

Cheers!

[cvhs18472]

You can try to re-torque the wheels. Loosen them up, check that the spacers are properly installed and then carefully re-torque. Incorrect torquing of the wheels distorts them and causes a vibration. Cheapest or easiest fix is always the first one to try. Ed

[eclou]

while modern tires may not permanently flat spot, they can deform temporarily and cause a vibration. Many tires still use steel belts which you will see if you ever cord a tire at the track.

I get this sometimes on a car that I drive once a week. Usually some driving will eliminate it but you can also over inflate the tire (not to dangerous levels but just beyond car spec) to help quickly resolve it. The tire may have a max of 50 psi and the recommended fill for the car may be about 28-35 psi, so you can bump it to 44 psi or so, run it for 5 minutes then deflate back to normal.

[landrovered]

Michelin Synchrone tires are notorious for riding in a lumpy fashion from temporary flatspotting while sitting parked. It was a serious problem at Land Rover dealership when I was the "off road guru" at the local dealership in 2006.

People would come in to test drive the brand new Range Rovers and LR3s and they would ride like crap for the first ten to fifteen minutes until the tires got warmed up.

The key to temporary flat spotting was it did it at all speeds not just at certain speeds until it went away.

I have Synchrones on my RR HSE and they will do it occasionally still but mostly on cold mornings after the truck has been sitting for a few days.