silver_p5_owner

Sometimes even a good dynamic balance can't fix all vibration problems. You could try a "road force balance". I've had this done to three different cars some with bent rims even. Afterwards it was like driving on glass. Here's a link to the manufacturer of the balancing machine. the idea is match imbalances in the tire and imbalances in the rim. It works!

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/features/how.cfm

Keep hitting the "next" button at the bottom of their pages it explains the whole process. I beleive their home page has a store locator to see if someone in your area has the machine. Good luck.

Jeff M.

dkny

UPdate:

I store my car in the garage, and for my morning commute I feel the vibrations (South on HWY 400 in Toronto).

But then when I come home, after the car has been sitting in the sun all day, it feels pretty smooth.

Is this weird or what? But overall it feels smoother after they balanced the tires.

zeus

Every vehicle starts shaking sooner or later, and my Protégé has been no exception. Here’s what I’ve learned from my vast experience with the automotive DT’s.

The stock tires aren't all that great. A slight internal delamination in the tire case can cause a wheel shimmy that balancing won't fix. I've found that to be fairly common, especially in OEM tires. The only real cure is new tires.

If it's an out of balance condition alone, it can start uneven wear and take the tire slightly out of round eventually. From there it only gets worse. Balancing won't fix that either, after it’s gone on long enough.

Mis-alignment can cause uneven wear and lead to cupping and scalloping. Even after the alignment is corrected, the cupped or scalloped tire wear will still exist, as will the shimmy, which continues to perpetuate itself if bad enough.

Weak and worn shocks or struts can fail to sufficiently dampen natural vibrations and allow harmonic oscillations to occur on perfectly balanced and true tires. This problem is normally noticed along with some increase in bouncing in the suspension.

No matter what the cause, the shake will always get worse and occur at lower and lower speeds until the cause is corrected and the offending tire(s) wear back to round.

The one thing I didn’t see mentioned already is tire rotation. The back tires on FWD cars wear much less and more evenly than the fronts. And since an out of balance, or worn tire will be a lot less offensive in the rear, rotation is the single best way to stop the shake. As I recall the stock tires are bi-directional, so rotation should bring the rear set to the same side on the front, and the fronts to the opposite sides in the rear. This ensures the best wear, but verify the tires are bi-directional before swapping sides like that.

If the problem is still there after rotation, or starts up again in less than 5k miles, it’s time to find and fix the problem and/or buy new tires.