Rotated my tires, now the car shakes....

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I just finished rotating all 4 wheels/tires and I went and drove it around and now the front end shakes a little bit (causes the steering wheel to shake and it gets annoying). It mainly is at 50-60 mph and when I am accelerating or decellerating at those speeds. As soon as I drop below 50mph it almost completley goes away and above 60 it isn't very bad at all.

Do you guys think it's just because now the tires up front are worn differently or possibly a rim is slightly bent?


What else could cause this? (I'm about 99% sure it has to do w/ rotating the wheels/tires because I never noticed it before.)
 
well, how did you rotate them?
front left to rear right?
or front left to rear left?

and there's a good chance one of the rear wheels were not balanced correctly and now its more noticeable in the front?

also make sure the rims are seated on the hub correctly, and make sure they are centered, and check to see that all the lugs are tight

hope this helps
 
I put front to the rears, then the rears to front but swapped so:
Front left -> Rear Left
Rear Left -> Front Right
Front Right -> Rear Right
Rear Right -> Front Left

I'm pretty sure that's right. I checked on the net and the site I found said that's the best way to move 'em for non direction & front wheel drive.


All the lugs are tight (criss crossed pattern too ;))
I'll take the car up to discount tire & wheel and get them all balanced to make sure that's not it. Should be free if I bought my tires there I think.

Thanks for your help.
 
i personally am from the school that whatever direction you break a tire in, you should continue to use that same direction

i ALWAYS do front left to rear left, front right to rear right
but i guess its a matter of prefrence, lets see what they tell you at discount tire dump...

let us know
 
Have a buddy follow you in his car down the road and look at your tires, he might be able to see them move if thier bent real bad.
 
I get this problem all the time at work. You need to balance your rims. ALL FOUR. If your rim was bent you would feel it each time you move the vehicle even if its 5 MPH. Just get them balanced, problem solved. Tires wouldn't cause this
 
Well I went to Discount Tire Co. and told them to balance them. When they did, they found the front left tire had a small amount of tread seperation so they replaced it for "free" (it was actually 8 bux, but an 8 dollar tire is always nice :)). They balanced them all and now it's riding as good as ever :)

Thanks for the help guys.
 
did you check to make sure your tires aren't directional tires? rotating them from the left to right will cause them to roll backwards.
 
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