What to do when you experience vibrations

If you experience vibrations, there can be multiple causes. Not all of which are related to the balance of the tire. The following are some of the reasons that a tire may be vibrating in an up-and-down direction:

• Uneven tires;
• Local tire damage;
• Worn shock absorbers, struts, ball joints, kingpins;
• Bent or wrongly mounted tire/wheel assembly;
• Shifted tire belts;
• Excessive tire/wheel assembly run-out;
• Alignment issues, especially toe-in settings.

If the tire is vibrating from side-to-side (wobbling), look for the following potential causes:

• Bent wheels;
• Bent axles; 
• Improper wheel installation;
• Loose or damaged wheel bearings;
• Loose front end components.

The severe dose of Ride-On can cause balancing issues in high-speed vehicles.

In order to avoid ride and handling disturbances, the MOST important thing that has to be done correctly is installing the recommended dosages into the tires. If you install too little, or too much, you can have balancing issues. Furthermore, if you install too little product in a tire, you will have sealing efficiency problems. Therefore, it is imperative that you use our published dosages when treating vehicles. Also make sure that you use the right formula for your vehicle. 

Follow these steps to fix the vibrations:

1. Make sure that the vehicle has been driven at least 5 miles (8 km) at high speed (minimum 55 mph) to completely spread the sealant inside your tires. 
2. Determine if the vibration is from the front wheels (vibration of steering wheel) or the rear tires (vibration of the body of the vehicle). Only try to follow these steps for tires that seem to be the source of the problem. 
3. Remove the wheel weights from both of the tires on the axle that you are feeling the vibrations in (i.e. if the vibration is felt in the steering wheel, remove the wheel weights from the both of the front wheels). 
4. Add more Ride-On to get to the Severe dosage. 
5. Drive the vehicle again at highway speeds to see if the vibration has dissipated. Over ninety percent of the time this takes care of any vibration issues. 
6. If vibrations still persist, please add additional Ride-On to the tires: 2 oz. of product for cars and 4 oz. for trucks and SUVs. 
7. Drive the vehicle again at highway speeds to see if the vibration has dissipated. If the vibrations persist, then remove the product and rebalance tires. As with traditional lead weight balancing, there are up to 5% of tires that will not able to be satisfactorily balanced. Sometimes, excessive ribbing inside the tires or non-concentric tire belts may make it impossible to remove vehicle vibrations with balancing.

For more information, view the technical service bulletin on this issue.

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