Ride not as smooth after putting on new wheels

[B-R-Z]

Originally Posted by Ammunition

This probably won't offer you much help as like others have said - it sounds like it may be a balancing issue, but I'm someone that likes to start at the bottom with the most basic (do we really need to check this?) issues.

Two or three times I've experienced a ride-doesn't-feel-as-smooth issue, and even felt (like you mentioned) sort of like I was rolling over something super small, but definitely noticeable on a flat road like the freeway.

It turns out each of these times I had a good-sized pebble wedged firmly between one of the grooves of a tire, and it was poking out a bit. After removing it, it was clearly the source of the problem.

Again - might not be the case with your issue, but figured I'd mention it.

I plan to remove all wheels tonight and rotate them. In the process I will inspect for anything in the treads.

Originally Posted by White64Goat

Have you re-torqued the lug nuts?

Yes, I re-torqued them with a torque wrench about 3 days after putting them on.

[Boxer486]

Another consideration is Radial Force Variance:

[ame="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radial_Force_Variation"]Radial Force Variation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]

Anytime you change wheels and tires they could have their own variation of out-of-roundness and you could risk stacking the asymmetries if you don't balance them out. Assuming their is an asymetry at all. You have to measure on the machine to know for sure. Michelins should usually be pretty decent, XXR, no idea.

Most techs, tire/wheel shops and dealerships have no idea what this is or have the equipment to balance for RFV. Usually only racers, engineers and specialty shops deal with it. I know a proper Lexus dealership should have the equipment and be able to offer this as part of balancing, whether their tech will know what to do is something else.

[Marcoscrdo]

Some tires cause more vibration than others, thats why i went with the Nitto Invos. I do not know the specs with the super sports, but /shrug.

Did the balance work? If you added springs with no alignment than get one. :P

I recently got new wheels/tires mounted with an alignment and after it felt smooth like butter.

[8R6]

could be either wheels or tires, that are out of balance. given that the setup is michelin pss and xxr, my bet is on the xxr's being bad. lol

[B-R-Z]

Originally Posted by Marcoscrdo

Some tires cause more vibration than others, thats why i went with the Nitto Invos. I do not know the specs with the super sports, but /shrug.

Did the balance work? If you added springs with no alignment than get one. :P

I recently got new wheels/tires mounted with an alignment and after it felt smooth like butter.

I didn't cheap out on tires, I dont think, the few reviews I read on tires prior to my purchase used the Super Sports as the benchmark so I figured they would be a nice set; they got great reviews all over the net. I'll do the rotation and see how it drives, if the problem is still there I'll have them check the balancing and at the same time I'll get an alignment.

[Sportsguy83]

Originally Posted by B-R-Z

I didn't cheap out on tires, I dont think, the few reviews I read on tires prior to my purchase used the Super Sports as the benchmark so I figured they would be a nice set; they got great reviews all over the net. I'll do the rotation and see how it drives, if the problem is still there I'll have them check the balancing and at the same time I'll get an alignment.

PSS are the best performance street tire on the planet.. Of course you did not cheap out... It is not the tires.

[wparsons]

Stiffer springs, stiffer sidewalls, and smaller sidewalls all at once will DEFINITELY make a very noticeable difference in bumps.

The difference between my summer tires (225/45/17 ZII's) and snows is huge!

[suaveflooder]

Originally Posted by reardrv

And there's the reason, bigger wheel and tire setup with less sidewall.

Yup. This. I had the same thing happen when I switched to 18's. Normal

[stugray]

Originally Posted by ZionsWrath

I'll just leave this here. I had a set of adjustable coils and was showing my cousin what "adjustable" meant. I set it to full stiff and drove on a fairly flat road. His response? I didn't know there were bumps on this road..

Wait...WHAT?

If you have adjustable coils and you adjust them, that does nothing to the ride harshness, just the ride height (unless you had it sitting so low it was against the bump stops).

Do you mean you had adjustable shocks?

[B-R-Z]

Originally Posted by wparsons

Stiffer springs, stiffer sidewalls, and smaller sidewalls all at once will DEFINITELY make a very noticeable difference in bumps.

The difference between my summer tires (225/45/17 ZII's) and snows is huge!

But I'm not saying bumps are more harsh, I do expect that, but not a bumpier ride while on a smooth surface.

[dobbrz]

Originally Posted by stugray

Wait...WHAT?

If you have adjustable coils and you adjust them, that does nothing to the ride harshness, just the ride height (unless you had it sitting so low it was against the bump stops).

Do you mean you had adjustable shocks?

I'm sure he means coilovers...

[stugray]

Originally Posted by dobbrz

I'm sure he means coilovers...

Adjustable coilovers still do not change ride firmness when you adjust them up & down.

Changing from one coil over to another can change ride stiffness, but the adjustable perches only change height.

[SirBrass]

Originally Posted by ZionsWrath

I'll just leave this here. I had a set of adjustable coils and was showing my cousin what "adjustable" meant. I set it to full stiff and drove on a fairly flat road. His response? I didn't know there were bumps on this road.

That is the kind of thing that happens when you increase your wheel size, decrease your aspect ratio, AND get a tire with a stiffer sidewall. All those variables at the same time and BOOM, something you never noticed is there.

If your steering wheel isn't vibrating I doubt you have a tire balance issue and it is just you went further than you thought with your wheel and tire mod.

Electric steering. Your wheel wouldn't vibrate due to that b/c steering column has no physical connection to the steering rack.

[ftc~brz]

I'm able to compensate adjusting the dampers for my coilovers, maybe that zion meant.