When I got my new tires (Kumho Ecsta ASX 225/45 17) the chap at the shop mentioned that 2 of the wheels were rather un-round. After a few trips, I decided I couldn't bear the vibrations any more. So, up on the jacks the car went, underneath I rolled on my trusty rusty creeper, with a sharpie and a can of WD-40 (with straw!!). Here's how it works:

Car in neutral, brake off (make sure to chock the wheels so the car can't roll off of your jacks), line the straw on the can up with the lip of the wheel, as far towards the tire as possible. slowly rotate teh tire, watching for high spots. These will cause the straw to start to bend, and follow the wheel. Mark the beginning and end of the high spot(s) with the sharpie, and dismount the wheel from the car.

find a nice soft piece of carpet, a large pad, something soft to set the wheel on FACE DOWN. Grab your BFH (My BFH is a dull old splitting maul, with plastic on the face to prevent unneeded scarring. Now would be a good time to put some duct tape over your balance weights, to keep them from flying off when you hit the wheel..

Arrange the wheel on your soft surface in such a way that you can give it some careful strikes from your BFH. The wheel will bounce a lot. I tried standing on the sides fo the tire too, and hitting it betweeen my legs, but it didn't work too well.

after this exercise, the wheels are noticeably more round, and the annoying vibration is all but gone at all speeds (it was really annoying at 50 -75).

YMMV, but I've used this method in the past, and ressurected it with sucess over the weekend!

 

BFH returns!!!

 

I decided to have a whack at it (pun intended)...

 

BFH approach scares me to no end...!

 

Why? It works. It's better than heating it and bending it!

 

I just amde a post on how to unbend one of my wheels. The rear is causing a vibration around basically all speeds and its annoying as hell! I dont think i can last till spring for new wheels so im going to have to try this.

 

I used to call the BFH my "Fine Adjustment Tool"

 

Love it!

 

I think I picked the term up in the military. I worked on nukes ;-)

 

Sweet. Using a BFH on nukes.. takes some LARGE attachments to do that!