Well, to give a brief background, one of my tires had a blow-out. I had two tires replaced as a result. Then, I noticed that one tire was losing air. When I had it checked, the tech showed me that it was the wheel that was welded by one of these mobile wheel repair guys. Coincidentally, it's the same wheel that I had the tire blow on.

The body shop manager (who does welding on racecars) took a look at the wheel and noticed that the previous welding was done only on the outside but not the inside. Also, the welding job looks like a glob of the metal was just stuck on the wheel. So he redid the welding on both the inside and outside. The finish on it looks more smooth that the first one, too.

When I drove the car to work one day last week, there was a rotational "thump" like if there was flatspotting. However, this did not really go away like a flatspot would. Also, it's very noticeable at about 65 to 75 mph.

The wheel was balanced after the weld, the alignment was checked, and the pressures were set.

Any other possible reason for this?

Thanks in advance!

 

The wheel is out of round maybe ? What caused the wheel to need welding - a hell of a thump I would have thought, which could have distorted the wheel.

 

Not sure what caused it originally. The wheel was cracked when I bought the car. They speculated that it may have been caused by the previous owner hitting a pothole or something.

 

Sounds like an out of round rim to me. the rims on our cars are prone to warpage/distortion. if you have the shop put the tire on the balancer and then have them put a micrometer on the rim, that will prove if the rim is out of round or not.

 

Well, I finally got around to driving my X-Type to work today after the shop re-welded and re-balanced. For a little while, it was vibrating/thumping from the temperature and sitting for a week. Later, after the tires warmed up, I still had some vibrations...more noticeable when coasting than accelerating.

They said that the wheel didn't look out of round when they spun it to balance.

I wonder if putting on a new wheel would take the vibrations/thumps away. I know, that's pretty drastic. If that's the case, I'll probably wait until Spring since the roads suck right now from the weather.


Now, she exhibited something else that threw me for a loop today. When I got to work, I used the remote to lock the car. However, when I approached the car in the afternoon, the remote wouldn't unlock the doors. I had to use the key to unlock the door. Afterward, I couldn't unlock the doors by using the door lock on the driver side door at all. Then, when I got home, the remote worked fine to lock/unlock/lock the doors again. What's going on?

 

exrub, your driver's door lock button is not rotating all the way. When it gets stuck in the intermediate position, it will cause the locks to do strange things. I am having this issue with my car right now and I have traced my problem down to that. So, once it gets a bit warmer, off comes the door panel and I am going to investigate it a lot more and see what is causing things to be held up.

 

Thanks, thermo!

I'll look forward to what you find out.

Today, it worked fine so maybe it's just starting to show signs of the problem.

 

exrub, some days mine will work fine, some days it will be a royal PITA. It has a mind of its own. I can't find a method to its madness other than if I cycle it manually a few times, it seems to be good for a few days.

 

I have had some experience with tire/wheel problems over the years and would recommend a diagnostic check list if you are not sure the wheel in question is the problem.

Ensure the tire/wheel you did the repairs is the one causing the vibration by noting if the vibration can be felt in the steering wheel (front wheels) or your seat (rear wheels). Then try replacing the wheel in question with the spare to see if it acts differently. Tire shake or vibration can also be caused by poor wheel alignment and if a nasty pot hole caused the damage to the wheel, could be at least part of the problem.

Good luck solving the problem.

 

Thanks for triggering one other symptom!

Before I knew that the welded spot was cracked, the damaged wheel was mounted on the front. I took the car to service because I felt the vibrations mainly in the steering wheel. At that time, I had the place the damaged wheel and its opposing one in the rear. However, the vibrations were still mainly felt in the steering wheel. After the wheel was re-welded, it is still on the rear, and the vibrations still occur. All the while, though, I do feel the vibrations through the body of the car itself.

Any other possible issues?

Thanks!

 

Change the suspect wheel for the spare. Then see.
Leedsman.

 

exrub, I had a vibration issue in the steering wheel of my car (wobble felt in the steering wheel only). This turned out to be a bad alignment and it was the one wheel crabbing across the road. This lead to a rapid wear on the inside edge of the tire in question. So, that might be worth a quick look. I only noticed the tire when I was getting ready to rotate tires and saw where I was worn down to the cord.

 

I took the service tech (I trust this guy with my cars) for a short drive yesterday so he could experience the vibrations. He believes the best approach right now would be to re-check the balancing on all four wheels but mainly the front since it's very noticeable in the steering wheel. Also, he thinks it would help to bring the tire pressure down to about 32 all the way around...although the label on the pillar says 40/35. Currently, they're set at 35/34 front/rear.

Any thoughts?

 

My thoughts would be that to check the balance is worth a try, but while it is in the tire shop I would have them check the wheel allignment as well. Lower tire pressure should just smooth the ride a little and change the way the tires wear. Traction will improve with lower tire pressure as well. Tire pressure should not cause vibration unless it is hard tires (over-pressured) on a rough road surface. 40/35 is quite high for these tires. You would feel every pebble and crack on the road. After a day or two without driving my car, I sense some vibration for a few miles until it seems the tires warm up. Then it smooths out. I always keep my tire pressure at the pressure displayed on the drivers door frame label for my vehilcles.

My experience has been that a wheel allignment is cheap compared to the replacement cost of the tires that wear out prematurely due to mis-allignment and the car handles better, as well as gets better gas mileage.

 

Well, it almost sounds like the tech (at Lincoln) is better than the one at Jaguar. Three of the four wheels were out of balance. Also, the tech told me that two of the wheels show slight bending...hence the vibrations. Now, it's pretty much tolerable though I can still feel a very slight one. However, it's a lot better now than it has been.