235 40/R18 VS 235 45/R17 ride quality / vibration problems

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Hello guys!

My car is an FK10 Civic.
I just recently traded my OEM 17" rims with 235 45/R17 tyres (Michelin Primacy 3) for 18"rims with 235 40/R18 (Continental TS850). I know it's not logical to have the bigger rims for winter but because of a small mistake I made that's how things turned out.
I was expecting the ride to be harsher, and it is, but I also feel like the cars vibrates at relatively slow speeds from ~50km/h (31mph) to ~100km/h (62mph), even when the road seems to be smooth. I'm struggling to differentiate if what I feel is due to vibrations (not normal), or if it's only poor ride quality due to the bigger rims (predictable).
What's your experience on this guys? Did any of you make the same jump I did from 17 to 18? Was the difference shocking for you in terms of ride?
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I'd like to see what people have to say about this as well. I haven't made the change yet, but I ordered 18's yesterday.
 

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A vibration would likely be caused by a need to rebalance? Lost wheel weight? also, are your 18" rims aftermarket? Hubcentric? Perhaps if not hubcentric you've now introduced an imbalance.

On my old car I always notice ride quality changes when putting on my winter/snow tires, and most of it had to do with tread pattern as well as tread squirm. Winter tires are softer and the many smaller tread blocks are softer/squirmier than my summer tires. Maybe its just a matter of putting some miles on the new tires?
 
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Yes these 18" rims are aftermarket Proline PXF
They are hubcentric but I ordered them from a site than delivers them with plastic hub centering rings. Maybe they sent me the wrong ones? I should measure them when I got the time.
They had to put alot of weight in one of the rear wheels (something like 100g) and felt like the vibration was coming from the seat so I suspected a balance issue at first and went to the garage where I mounted the wheels so I could get rear wheels re-balanced. But after they re-balanced them the vibrations stayed the same I think. Maybe a little bit better but not much. Now I feel like maybe it's coming from the front floor and the wheel, so maybe this is a problem with the front wheels after all. At slow speed it's hard to distinguish what comes from ride harshness vs vibrations, but when you take it to the motorway you can really feel the wheel vibrate a little bit. It's not brutal but it's irritating...
I have an appointment next Friday with the Garage so they can take the car for one day, test it out, and figure out the problem. Meanwhile the only thing I can do is maybe check this hub centering rings my self.
 
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AlfonseGirardier
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Okay so unmounted both my front wheels. I checked the hub centering rings my self : they seem perfectly fine. There is no play when the wheel is placed on the car.The lug nuts have a conical seat, so I guess they help the centering too. The tires look fine by me, no sign of it having any defect. I even bought a torque wrench for the occasion and torqued everything correctly, in the right order (at ~115NM which is a tiny bit over what's recommended), but no change.
The more I think about it, the more I think it might just be an imbalance problem coming from the front wheels. I do feel it all the way up to 130km/h and that's because I don't drive faster. Not with Swiss police around hehe
But then... would an imbalance problem cause vibrations at 30mph too? I've got to wait until Friday for my garage to take a look at it... I which I could do it my-self !
 


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Have you tried switching the wheels from front to back to see if the problem follows the wheel?
 
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That would be a good test... But for that I'd need to get a second Jack ! With my low skills that would require alot of work hehe
Maybe tomorrow if I have time I'll see what I can do.
But is it normal that they had to put more than 100grams in total in one of the rear wheels? Isn't that like... alot? And all of that with 5g weights...
 

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That would be a good test... But for that I'd need to get a second Jack ! With my low skills that would require alot of work hehe
Maybe tomorrow if I have time I'll see what I can do.
But is it normal that they had to put more than 100grams in total in one of the rear wheels? Isn't that like... alot? And all of that with 5g weights...
The number of weights sould be 1% or less than the weight of the wheel and tire.https://blog.tirerack.com/blog/make-driving-fun-2/how-many-wheel-weights-are-too-many-
 
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Oh I didn't know that standard. The rims weight ~9.6kg so I guess with the tyres on it should be something around ~ 20kg. 1% is 200g so it should be fine...
 

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Just today mounted 225 45 18's from stock 215 55 16. Never drove on anything tire that low profile before. The difference in ride is huge, enough so I'm wondering also about what I'm sensing in the feedback from the tires. Still feel I'm feeling the road and not not any imbalance, after after only a few miles of testing.
 


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Just today mounted 225 45 18's from stock 215 55 16. Never drove on anything tire that low profile before. The difference in ride is huge, enough so I'm wondering also about what I'm sensing in the feedback from the tires. Still feel I'm feeling the road and not not any imbalance, after after only a few miles of testing.
There is definitely a sacrifice going from stock. For me, going to 225/40/18 there is more road noise for sure. As far as ride quality I would say I went from a 10/10 to 8/10. There is just no way to maintain the stock ride quality when you upsize.;)
 
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So... the garage told me the problem is that both rear rims are veiled. One of them is just a little bit bent, the other one really vibrates, apparently. They tell me it's invisible to the eye but they can see it vibrate when they try to roadforce balance it.
Is this even possible that something like that is invisible? Thing is I bought these rims on the internet.... so this makes everything more complicated.
 

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So... the garage told me the problem is that both rear rims are veiled. One of them is just a little bit bent, the other one really vibrates, apparently. They tell me it's invisible to the eye but they can see it vibrate when they try to roadforce balance it.
Is this even possible that something like that is invisible? Thing is I bought these rims on the internet.... so this makes everything more complicated.
Yes, it's possible. The outer shell can be bent and out-of-round without having a visible bend in the lip.



Long vid, but starting at 1:50-ish, you'll see a little bit of straightening more than just a bent rim lip:
 
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AlfonseGirardier
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Yep I just found videos like the ones you posted. Thanks for confirming it !
I find it crazy that 50% of the rims I bought were veiled. They both come from germany so maybe they where bent during the DPD delivery... Or maybe these are just poor quality rims... I don't know. They didn't look low-end to me when I chose them.
Now I'll have to buy two new ones and get a refund for the veiled ones, that I have to send back to Germany. Hope they don't say it's my fault they're veiled, because it's not. They look smooth, I never hit a plot hole or a pavement or anything.
This is very annoying :(
 

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An aside: "Veiled" here means "thinly covered", like a bride's face as she walks down the aisle to her wedding. How do you mean "veiled" in your context? I'm not being rude, I just think it's interesting when languages cross paths.
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