So I've had my FF for 9 months, and in that time its had a persistent vibration and steering wheel wobble in the 55-75 speed band. Not horrendous, but there

Its on 20 inch SC alloys. The suspension joints are all fine and I've had the wheels balanced 4 times, but I've never been convinced that they were 'spot on' - not sure why - just a hunch

So I did some research, rang around, and ended up driving 80 miles to a wheel alignment and balancing specialist in Swindon.

Halleluiah........

For a start they use the "Hunter GSP9700 Road Force balance & measurement system" - this makes your average tyre shop equipment look like kids toys. It does a rolling road test on the tyre amongst other things. This machine declared that two of my wheels were so far out of true that they couldn't be balanced...

They whipped the tyres off, had them cold rolled back to 'true' at a place round the corner, and had all 4 wheels back on and balanced by lunch time

And the result...........

Utterly and completely perfect.... Happy customer

So the lesson is.... DONT TRUST YOUR WHEEL BALANCING TO ANYONE WHO ISNT A TRUE BALANCING SPECIALIST WHO IS USING ONE OF THESE MACHINES

IF YOU ARE SUFFERING FROM ANY AMOUNT OF WOBBLE - GET YOURSELF TO THIS PLACE

PM me if you want details and/or what it cost (it wasn't much).

Cheers Jon.

imperial tyres ? ... - .- -.




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Yeap.

A very good customer experience all round.

Cheers Jon.

stan wrote:

imperial tyres ?

No I'm pretty sure they went metric ages ago  2008 MY Supercharged
Rimini Red / Jet
four zone climate
remote park heater
and no ugly kid windows.
magnus satis quod turpis satis

Not having metric tyres could also be a cause of wheel wobble. Very good. 2011 Range Rover Vogue SE 4.4 TDV8

Previous cars :
2003 Range Rover Vogue TD6
1999 Discovery Td5 ES
1995 BMW M5 3.8 6 speed
1992 Range Rover 3.9 Efi Vogue
1992 BMW M5 3.8
1988 BMW 735i SE
1989 Ford Sierra XR4x4 2.9i
1981 Ford Fiesta Supersport

with this sort of fault a typical its a start, is if you try fitting the spare wheel at each corner, till you notice something feeling better etc. however, with two wheels out, you would not have had that benefit.
interesting though. 20 inch wheel damaged..... where both the wheels on same side? ie deep pothole could have damaged both wheels? or same axle, maybe clouting a speed hump at speed! those things come in all shapes and sizes...

with the 22 inch wheels I think you only need to drive over a pound coin and they are out..

Hi, always use Hunter system and fully agree with you.

What does cold rolling do to the tyre and what is the process?

I assume it's nothing to do with flat spots or is it?

Interested to know as I am not too happy with my current brand of tyre.

Added Note. Upon reading again, are you referring to the tyre or the rim being cold rolled.

I assumed the tyre from your post.

If it's the alloy rim, then the structure could be compromised depending upon the degree of cold working.

Cold rolling refers to the alloy wheel being rolled in a machine back to true... Nothing to do with the tyre sir

Thanks C-T-C, caught out by the dreaded syntax again.

So the rim is re-formed to bring it into true by cold rolling. This would be done under some form of pressure which in turn could work harden the contact surface.

Hopefully not by any degree in order to avoid adversely changing the homogeneity of the material structure.

Hard spots/soft spots, stress raisers.

If only done once in the lifetime of the rim it may be ok.

Think how Birmabright had to be re-annealed after work on body to avoid hairline cracks after even light hammering/cold forming.

It was the inside edges on both front wheels, probably pot hole damage

The worst was the front left.... on the balancing machine looked awful, but actually it was about 4 separate dents of which the worst was probably close on 8mm out - difficult to tell really.

Clearly there are limits on how much can be repaired by cold rolling, but I was assured these were well within, (and fairly normal).

The other thing I was really impressed with was the extent that they went to, to clean the wheel before balancing. They were cleaned in a giant dishwasher, and all remnants of previous weight stickers and debris buffed off because "this all affects the balance"

Attention to detail and a proper job, all for £20 per wheel

Cheers Jon.

Well done and good news that you have this issue sorted.

I fully agree that this is the only way to ensure proper balancing and it sorted out a problem I had with an L405.

That said, I still feel that the L322 is a more comfortable ride then the L405.

Only benefit for L405 is that it is much flatter on twisting country roads, but not a smooth ride unless pushed very hard.

I have both models and favour the L322.