Steering shake after wheel replacement

Had a set of American Racing AR172 Baja wheels put on today (2009 PreRunner) to replace the factory wheels that the previous owner spray painted. First issue I had was that the center caps did not fit. They called me outside into the bay area to look before moving forward with the install and I told them to mod them however to make them fit. Apparently this is a common issue with these wheels (or so I was told). They had to grind out a bit of the inside of the center cap pieces to get them to fully sit before putting the wheels on.

Left the shop and immediately had terrible steering wheel shake, so I called them and they told me to bring it back. They let me know that to get it completely balanced, they may have to use clip weights on the outside of the wheel. I told them I wanted to avoid that because it looks terrible and scratches the coating on the wheel. So they added clip on weights to the inside lip of the wheel along with the sticky weights.

Doesn't seem to be shaking nearly as bad now but it still seems like there may be a bit around 60-75 MPH. They told me to call back in and bring it back to them Monday if there were still issues. These are mechanics I've been taking my stuff to for over 10 years now and are family friends, so I don't think they're trying to screw me over, but I don't know if this is an oversight or just my paranoia kicking in. Anyone else have any input on what else I may be able to check or have them look at if it continues to be an issue?

 

"Apparently this is a common issue with these wheels (or so I was told). They had to grind out a bit of the inside of the center cap pieces to get them to fully sit before putting the wheels on."

Let me get this straight: They took a grinder to the center cap pieces? Who does this? Maybe I am ignorant on this subject but that doesn't sound right at all.

 

The center caps were maybe slightly less than an 8th of an inch too small to fit over the rotors when putting on the wheel. The caps on this particular wheel have to go on before the wheel does because they have a flared lip at the end that prevents them from falling out after the wheel is put on over them. The guy working on the wheel had the same set and said he had to do the same on his Chevrolet when he put them on. I don't know. Obviously I'm no mechanic but I can't tell a difference with them on, and having them off looks terrible because you can see the rotors through the giant hole. I'm not too concerned about the caps, more about the balance on the front wheels.

 

Yeah but: Anything that spins at a high rate of turn needs to be machined precisely in order to have balance. A grinder?? Did they use a precision machine or a hand grinder. Maybe I am misunderstanding you here.

 

No I doubt they used anything like that. I'm sure it was a hand grinder. They didn't have to take off much, but enough to get it to fit over the rotor. I guess balancing the tire without the cap on would be enough to throw it off. Stupidly, I didn't think of that. I'm just going to call Monday and see what they want to do about it.

 

Yeah. Go back Monday. Ask alot of questions about what they did.

 

I’ll assume the wheels you bought were hub centric? Did they road force balance the tire and wheels?

 

From the description of the way the center cap fits the wheels cannot be hub centric and that would probably be the root of his shaking problem.

 

If they are hub centric there is very little room for the metal center cap that the wheel uses to fit. That’s why a lot of wheel manufacturers are using snap on caps or the ones that physically attach to the wheel with screws.

 

I'm not exactly sure, but basically the cap itself is hollow and the very end of it is ever so slightly curve outward to a flat. It fits over the very end of the brake rotor and then the lip of it contacts the back of the wheel and after the wheel is bolted on with lugs, it stays in place. I think American Racing makes replacement caps that are push-through, I may look at those if this is an issue. I took it on a drive about a half hour ago and got it up to speed, didn't seem to be shaking so maybe it was the road or wind earlier. Definitely had a balancing issue at first though before I brought it back to them this afternoon.

 

I took my truck back again and had them balance the tires a final time. It's better than it was, but I still get some shake around 65-70mph. Could it possibly be the tires being bad at this point?