What did I mess up?

[augustus]

OK, so I have a 2017 HB I bought new, it's got the continental tires, which I feel are horribly noisy. About a month ago, at around 14,000 miles I finally get around to rotating the tires. Because of laziness (let's leave it at that), while rotating my front right (passenger) wheel assembly, no tire, fell to the ground and landed on the two bolts on the knuckle. I might be using the wrong words, bear with me. At any rate, I finally got things sorted out, and the only thing I notice on the test run afterwards was that the tires we even noisier than before, which I assumed was because I took too long before rotating and maybe there was some uneven wear. But I noticed no vibration, which was my main worry from dropping the car.

Fast forward to now, about 1,000 miles later, I'm going 70mph and I feel a slight, very slight, vibration. Is this just a normal wheel balance issue, or did I do damage dropping the car?

Thanks for your help!

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[calonzo]

I don't think there is any way to know without having it looked at. However, did you rotate them them front to back, or did you switch sides? Maybe these tires don't like the change in the direction of rotation.

 

[augustus]

i put the fronts straight back, and the backs swapped as I put them in the front, like:

Since I loathe these tires, I thought about getting new ones and seeing if the issue went away. Likewise, I could have these balanced and see if the issue went away. It's just still in the back of my mind that maybe I messed up something excluding the wheel/tire, and I'm not sure how to investigate that, what to look for.

 

[calonzo]

First try swapping the two front tires and see if the issue goes away.

 

[augustus]

ok, I will do that. I thought about undoing the entire rotation, are you suggesting the wear is specific to each side and wouldn't be noticeable if it's a wear issue and I put the tires back to their original sides?

Thanks for the help!

 

[calonzo]

It could be a general wear issue that could be solved by undoing the entire process, or it could be caused by the fact that the front tires are rotating in the opposite direction.

 

[Green82]

for the noise of the tires its because they are low profile tires, they are prone to pick up way more road noise than tires with taller sidewall

 

[bluehatch17]

Exact same stock tires. I don’t have road noise issues.

 

[augustus]

Exact same stock tires. I don’t have road noise issues.

Oh, that's interesting, you never had any noise? I had noise right from the start of owning the car, new, and I'm willing to scratch this noise up to me waiting too long before rotation, but the vibration has me concerned.

 

[bluehatch17]

Sometimes, when I drive. I drive in silence (audio off). Whether to hear the engine or intake/exhaust or listen for rattle or various loose car noises. Honestly can say tire noise has never been an issue on this car. 12k+ miles...

 

[Gruber]

Exact same stock tires. I don’t have road noise issues.

These are not same tires if you mean your Sport Touring.

 

[fitz318is]

Alignment may help with the road noise.

 

[Troy Jollimore]

Tires will sound different over different road surfaces. Drive in a different State, and your tires can sound very different. But your car fell off the jack? How hard? Can you show us a picture of the two bolts and ‘knuckle’ it fell on?

 

[augustus]

Tires will sound different over different road surfaces. Drive in a different State, and your tires can sound very different. But your car fell off the jack? How hard? Can you show us a picture of the two bolts and ‘knuckle’ it fell on?

yeah, it fell slowly of the jack, my wheels weren't chocked properly, but hit hard enough to put divots in the conrete. I'll try to get a good picture of it.

So, to be clear, I'm not too concerned about the road noise unless it's indicative in this case of other damage. Mainly it's the slight vibration I have at high speeds, which normally I would assume is an unbalanced tire, but in this case I'm worried it's because I messed something up when the car fell.

As soon as I can, I'm going to snap some pics, and swap the front two tires and see what happens.

Thanks!

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