90 sentra B-12 vibration in steering wheel need help, long post

[ahardb0dy]

90 sentra, 153,000 miles 4 speed, manual steering, the car had the 13" steel wheels and 175/70/13 tires on it, I recently bought new 15 x 6" wheels and 195/50/15 Firestone indy 500 tires mounted and balanced already from Tirerack, their was a slight vibration after installing the new tires and wheels, I took it in for an alignment and was told the car needed balljoints and they couldn't do the alignment, I had the balljoints and both cv axles replaced, after having those parts replaced the steering felt very tight, when I made slow speed turns the steering wheel wouldn't re-center, I found the mechanic had left the washer behind the cv axle nut off, I put the washer back on and that corrected the steering problem. Now the car has a vibration that I feel thru the steering wheel at 55 MPH, I took the car to the local tire store I used to always go to and had the tires rotated and rebalanced, they said all the wheels were straight, now the vibration is really bad between 55-65MPH, someone on another forum suggested checking the steering shaft U-joint which I did and it seemed tight, the guy also suggested I apply some penetrating oil on the steering joint I did that and it hasn't eliminated the vibration. The vibration feels really bad in the morning but doesn't go away as the tires warm up also depending on the road surface the vibration will be more or less noticeable. I'm taking it back to the tire shop tomorrow to have them check the tires and wheels on one of those road force balancers. Any idea on what else I should check? Someone at work suggested the rotors may be causing this?? Thanks

[NISTECH]

As I read through your story I was thinking road force variation. Right up untill the point you said it does not go away when the tires warm up. So either you have a completely opposed tire band [tire high spot] to the rims low spot. Or you still have an imbalance. Because the vibration is speed dependant I feel it is tires or rims. If the do the radial force variation adjustment and it does not clear up the condition I suggest having them break out a dial indicator and start measuring rim and hub runout.

[ramrat]

I do not know about Sentra's but i know 240sx are hub centric. Maybe you need hubcentric rings installed since these are aftermarket rims? If it's not that i have also been told to clean the surfaces where the rotor connects to the hub and where the wheel connects to the rotor really good before installing the wheel and make sure the wheel is torqued to specs. I also had this type of vibration and for me it turned out to be wheel balancing.

[ahardb0dy]

the wheels are hubcentric and the plastic rings are installed, the wheels are torqued to specs, I took the 15's off the front today after work and put the factory 13's back on and took it for a drive the vibration was gone, so I guess that means there is a problem with either the tires or wheels, I called Tirerack ( where I bought the pkg from) and they told me to take the car to one of their authorized installers and let them look at it, they said it could be an out of round tire.