Strange harmonics?
 

So I just got a pair of 17 x 8 RPF1s (gunmetal). Put on with spacers (of course). have 235 x 45 (the 40 height ones cost $50 more each) DD SSIIs. Driving in to work this morning, I got some loud harmonic sounds. Occasionally intermittent, but very consistent and I was hearing them around 90% of the time at highway speeds, maybe more.

Any ideas? Is this normal for the wheels? It is loud and annoying.

--Me

Any odd feelings in the steering wheel (vibration, tugging, etc.) My first thought was the tires were out of balance, or perhaps since the wheels may not be hubcentric and perhaps were installed improperly. Hub rings can help this. Both may not be your issue, but are the kinds of small details that often happen when installing new wheels.

So hub rings were installed - RPF1s need them. There is some vibration in the steering wheel, especially at speed.

200tw tend to be on the loud side. But I would remove the spaces and see what happens. Then if still there take back to the tire shop to che k the balance since there is some vibration.

It's been said, but try again with no spacers. If it's still there, have the balance checked. ZII's are a louder tire, so if there's no vibration it's probably just tire noise you're hearing. My original ZII's were significantly louder than the stock tires and my snow tires. To be fair, my RS3's and AD08R's are also really loud.

My bad. I put my first post up when I wasn't paying attention (I was in a meeting with partners at the office, but want y'alls feedback. No spacers. Just hub rings - the RPF1s need them to be centered.

Tires are dunlop durezza star spec II 235 x 45 (I know, but the 235 x 40 were $50 more each).

--Me

Hub rings aren't as necessary as most shops will tell you, I'm going on 4 summers with mine and no hub rings.

I'd go get the balance checked if there's a vibration in the steering wheel.

So I was checking tonight, and no steering wheel vibration at all. The harmonics are still there.

As for the hub ring, when we put the first wheel up, it was clear it wasn't centered properly. So that is why we used hub rings. Anyway, I don't think that would cause the weird harmonics :)

Since you have RPF1 I guess you have confirmed that the aero of the RPF1s isn't what is causing the sound. I thought, because it is only at speed, that the wind through the spokes of the RPF1s might be making the weird harmonic noise. But I guess not. Grrrr.

The shop, good guys all, are going to poke around tomorrow or Monday and help me figure it out.

--Me

Adding hub rings will definitely not make it worse, so you can rule those out. Without hub rings, but properly torqued down, the wheels will still be perfectly centered on the hub because of the conical seat lugs.

Without the vibration, my money is just on it being tire noise. Extreme summer tires are REALLY loud compared to most tires out there. I have to turn my hands free volume up quite a bit when I swap to summer tires, and back down when swapping to winters, because of the difference in road noise.

Have RPF1s, no rings. Didnt have center caps for a long time either! No harmonics. I'm going to say its probably just tire noise like the others. RS3s were stupid loud, the MPSS are not too bad, but on some types of concrete they can be bad.

I haven't yet tried MPSS-es, but shouldn't they be a bit quieter then stock primacies?

I dont think so, the Primacies were pretty quiet...but I also am running 245s now.