It's been an interesting winter, and there have been deep freezes and mountains of snow, punctuated by thawing periods. As a result, we have craters in the road, often hidden by slush water. My new tires have taken a pounding on these "stealth" sink holes.

Soon, there will be an opportunity to visit the folks in another city, 5 hours drive away. The Fit is already prone to road vibration at 110kph and above. I've only slightly mitigated this with rebalancing in the past. It'd be nice not to have to put up with 5 hours of car shuddering.

Would it worthwhile to get a tire inspection before such a trip? I'm not sure what are the measures that can be taken if the tire is out of wonk due to the sink holes. I'm not even clear on the ways that a tire can be out of wonk. Distorted rims from the sinkholes? Apart from the rim itself, my web browsing of tires reveals that it's way more complicated than just a chunk of rubber, so maybe other things can be deformed. But I wouldn't be looking for a *new* set of tires so shortly after buying mine. Just wondering what are the ways that the tires could be degraded due to the banging, and what are practical solutions. For example, anything that requires removing the tire from the rims, I'd likely consider it to be impractical.

 

Your car definitely shouldn't shudder at 110kph. If you've had the wheels balanced recently, it could be that your wheels are out of alignment. Take it to a shop and fix your alignment. My mechanic says that potholes really mess up the alignment of the wheels.

 

If you take it to a decent tire dealer they can pull each wheel spin it and measure for out of round and run-out (left to right variance). They can also check for bent wheels at the same time.

I had a new set of tires installed at Tire Rack just before going to Alaska and back 2 years ago. They vibrated slightly at 70 so I just put out up with it. When I returned, I took the car back to Tire Rack and they found 2 of the 4 tires were just over the limit for run out.

It took them about 10 to 15 minutes to diagnose the problem and another 10 to 15 minutes to replace the 2 tires for free.

A good tire dealer should be able to do the same for you.

 

One easy thing to check is to make sure there's no snow or muck or whatever stuck to the inside of the rim. Mud or snow or whatever can make the wheel (temporarily) out of balance, and if left there long enough cause the tire to wear unevenly and be (more permanently) out of balance/out of round.

Other than that, there's not a whole lot that can go wrong with wheels/rims that isn't rather immediately obvious upon inspection. You don't tend to get slight distortions; rather, there's an obvious dent or chip in the rim or something equally as noticeable. Shuddering/vibration would more likely be caused by tire problems or other driveline difficulties (like alignment, as mentioned, or possibly a slightly bent driveshaft or something along those lines).

 

If your tires were damaged by potholes, you may see "bubbles" on the sidewalls. They are caused by a split inside the tire where the higher pressure on the inside of the tire inflates the outer layer of rubber on the tire and forms a "bubble".

Search online for "tire bubble" for an image of what it looks like. Be aware that a bubble may form on the inner sidewall and may not be visible. By inner sidewall, I dont mean inside the tire, I mean on the sidewall of the tire that is under the car towards the inside of the car. It wont be visible unless you, jack up the car, put some jack stands uner it for safety, lay under it and spin the tire slowly by hand.

Might be best for you to have a tire shop check them while up on a lift.

 

I'd certainly get the alignment and balancing done again. Make sure the pressure in all the tires is even and at spec. That's all I can think of.

It could be the tire as well, take a look at the post above about tire bubbles ^

I don't think a rim can go 'bad' it would be really noticeable.

 

Thanks, all. I brought it back for rebalancing about a week after they put on the new tries in December (the car was new in December too). But I didn't ask about alignment. Will also take a closer look for bubbles, but I check the tire pressure every 2 weeks. Haven't noticed any bulges, but could be due to lack of attention.

Oh, i also have indoor parking, so I doubt that snow/ice in the wheels would stay there for long.