Anyone have a wheel balance / vibration issue after either installing new tires or having the old ones rebalanced? (e350 vans with stock steel wheels)

I have been fighting this issue now for months. it all started when I started to feel a vibration in one of my front tires. Since I do a lot of freeway speed driving and did not want to ruin my tires, I decided to have them all reballanced. (vibration about 60+)

well, after this I experienced even more problems than when I originally took the van in (corner tire store) I took the van back 3 times and each time the same tire store told me that they spun the tire before stripping it of the weights and noticed that it was out of ballance. Hello, you are the ones who ballanced them! So i bought a used set of tires from another forum member and had them installed on the rear of the van to see if this would at least eliminate the possibility that I had bad tires. that didn't work either. I ended up at another tire shop and purchased 2 new tires for the front. guess what? this didn't work either. I still have vibration. I have now had the suspension looked at and no one can find anything wrong.

So I decided to poke around on the internet sites that list TSB's for the E350 Vans. after about a 1/2 hour of surfing I discovered TSB 05-24-8 effecting 1997-2006 E-vans titled: vibration/harshness above 45mph after tire balance. I had a friend of mine down load the bulletin and fax it over to me. Low and behold! This TSB indicates that some E-series vehicles equiped with single rear wheel, 16 inch steel wheels with (8) lug bolt holes may experience vehicle vibration at 45mph or higher after balancing the wheels/tire assemblies. This is because balancing these tires requires special procedures not followed at the local corner tire stores!

I RECOMMEND ANYONE HAVING THIS PROBLEM DOWNLOAD THIS TSB AND TAKE THE VEHICLE TO THE DEALER WITH THE TSB IN HAND!! THESE VANS ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO RIDE LIKE THE TIRES ARE OUT OF BALANCE! THEY SHOULD RIDE LIKE THEY DID WHEN THEY WERE BRAND NEW... SMOOTH!

I hope my research helps anyone experiencing this issue, as I am sure that it is a popular problem based on previous posts that I have read.

 

If the wheels are mounted on the wheel balancer with a cone in the center hole, it is very likely that the wheel is not centered on the balancer shaft. You must use an adapter that uses the bolt holes to mount the tire and wheel assembly on the balancer to insure that the wheel is truely centered. Then when you mount the wheels on the truck (obviously by the same bolt holes) it is much more likely that the wheel will run smooth. I used to have this exact problem with my 89 E350.

 

also, most tire shops only do a low-speed balancing. a tire/wheel that is balanced at 15-25mph may develop vibrations and harmonics at 65mph+. since our tires are bigger & heavier than most car tires, the issue is exagerated. you might find a speed shop that can do a high-speed balancing on your wheels/tires.

 

Desert-Rat:

Did you have a shop (I assume dealer?) balance the tires using this procedure? And (holding my breath, drum roll please).......... DID IT FIX IT??

I'd type more, but my hands are still shaking from driving the bumpy bus.

Seriously, I'm very very very very very interested to see if this has fixed anyones bouncing E350.



Harold

 

It did help, but what I did was take a copy of the TSB to the shop that my local dealership contracts to do these tire balances. apparently not even the dealer in my area has the proper equipment to balance these tires. the shop refered me to is Wheel Works. a tire chain store that is very popular here in California. My advice to you if your not in California is take the TSB to the dealer. If they don't do it there they will at least refer you to the tire shop that does.