Wheel Wobble

[HUMMERADDICT]

Well, my wife was driving behind me the other day and when we got home she told me she noticed a little bit of wheel/tire wobble on one omy rear tires. What could cause this? Alignment, bad tire, need rotation, etc.? One of my tires had a internal patch put in last summer, but i'm not sure if that is the one since i've had a few rotations since then and the patch is so good I cannot identify it.

 

[ReconH3]

Start by checking balance. Many time the weights fall off. The wheel could be off round too. It happens with bigger 4x4 tires.


"Ex Umbris Venimus"

Sent from my iPhone

 

[alrock]

Perhaps your pit crew forgot a lug nut? You could also have a bad tire. I would take it to a tire shop for inspection, re-balancing if necessary and maybe even road force balancing.

 

[Mr_Rich]

I would say it would have to be wheel-related. I had lugs replaced on the back axle of my K1500 and the flange was slightly distorted. It caused horrible brake pulsing/ thumping every time the brakes were applied. If the brakes are okay on your truck I'd check the tire/ wheel for some kind of irregularity.

 

[HUMMERADDICT]

Thanks all. I was told about two months ago that I would soon need new rotors and pads. Could that be related?

 

[alrock]

Brakes would likely only be an issue if these symptoms appeared only during braking. If the wobbling is all of the time then the brakes are not likely the issue.

 

[H3slate]

Check your lug nuts. Make sure they are all torqued properly.

Sent from my Exobrain using Tapatalk

 

[Scarsman]

Speaking as an ex-tire monkey, there are only a few things that will cause a visible wobble.

1. Loose lug nuts. This should also cause an audible clunking as the wheel wobbles loose on the hub.

2. Wheel not seated flat. This can be caused by dirt, a rock, or other debris on the mounting surfaces when it was put on the truck. It can also happen with a really tight hub centric wheel, but will turn into lose lug nuts pretty quickly if driven much.

3. Bent wheel. If the wheel ever suffered an impact, either lateral or from a really hard bump when aired down, it could be bent.

4. Separating tire. This is when the steel belts in the tire start breaking, causing a bulge in the tread surface. This can be caused by a severe impact, someone plugging or patching a hole that is too big, or a defect in the tire. With this condition you should notice a wobble in the vehicle at low speed and vibration at higher speed.

Another possibility is there was some dirt on part of the sidewall, causing an optical illusion. I've noticed that before behind other vehicles.

Hope that helps.

Sent from my C771 using Tapatalk

 

[HUMMERADDICT]

Thanks for the follow up posters.


Also, would this wobble account for decreased MPG?

 

[Lchase]

Im having some wheel wobble also on my front passenger side, so went to dealership this weekend and had alignment done and tires balanced but its still doing it could it be bearings?

 

[frumaker]

I had the same problem on the front and had to replace the wheel bearings

 

[Lchase]

Thanks for quick reply, I was afraid of that, should I not drive it until fixed?
Had planned to make a long drive home for holidays but now not sure.

 

[amrg]

Its most probably a balancing issue... Weights fall off or you just hit a big pothole really fast and it did something to the tire.

Sometimes wheels become off balance coz some debris get into the inside the tire. This happens here frequently when offroading when there is a combination of high speed, extremely low tire pressure and most importantly sand. The sand gets inside and just does horrible stuff to the balance. Not sure though if its the same in other conditions such as mud, gravel?