I have a 95 civic dx (turbo, oh yeah). I just put some snow tires on 14 inch steel wheels for the winter and the front tires work great, but the rear wheelsmake the brake drum wobble really bad. When I press on the brake I can feel the brakes in the rear wobble even worse. When I lift the car and spin the wheel I can see it wobble by watching the hub. It looks like it is not seating right.

I thought it might be wheels out of balance, but the front wheels don't wobble and I tried those on the rear and it wobbles in the rear also.

So I have my 17" rimson the rears and the 14's in the front, but with all the snow we've had in Colorado I want to put on the 14's in the rear also.

Any suggestions? Has anyone had this problem?

 

are they oem honda steelies?

 

um, not good to ride with a 3" difference in wheel size, and it could be your rear bearing and hubif the wheel wobbles when you turn it on a lift.

 

If you put new rims on the rear, maybe there is rust in the way of them seating properly?

When you say 'wobble' are you saying that you can jiggle the wheel, or does it only rotate a bit off center?

 

mxs, I bought these off craig's list as oem civic wheels. They look just like all of the civic wheels I've ever seen, but the tire shop said "these aren't the original wheels are they?" The hole in the center clears the hub, so I don't see why even if they aren't the oems why they wouldn't fit.

Stimpy, I think they are not seating right on the rear drums. The wheel bearings are good. When I rotate the steel wheels on the lift you can hear the shoes inside the drum rubbing unequally. When I have my 17" rims the drums and wheel bearings are smooth. But I'll check on the rust thing.

I think maybe since the drums are so damn big that this wheel is not clearing it and it is not seating. Any possiblility wheel spacer will help it seat better? Again it works great on the front discs, but not on the drums.

 

one more thing, I'm using the lock nuts from the rims on these steel wheels. Will that affect the way it sits on the drum?

 

no

 

Is there a spaceer from the 17 stuck on the drum? i would double check that. happened to my step brother before

 

It could be any of several things. Time to start narrowing it down...

Spinning the wheel/tire assemblywhen it's lifted off the ground reveals a "wobbling" rotation.

-Have you grabbed the wheel/tire while it's airborne and tried towobble it by handto test for looseness/play? This would reveal a bad bearing and/or lugs that have bottomed out on the wheelstuds before seating fully against the rim.

- Have you removed the wheel/tire to observe whether or not the drum wobbles as it rotates? This would reveal a warped drum or axle shaft. The wheel/tire may be fine.

- Are there any clips or hub-centering rings on the drum or the backside or the wheel? Check to make sure that there is NOTHING between the wheel and the surface of the drum unless the rims REQUIRE centering rings. Even a big lump of dirt or rust could throw the axis of rotation off, and many a person has left the OEM drum clips on when switching to aftermarket wheels.

- Have the lugs been over-torqued, or torqued in an improper pattern? This could cause the wheel mounting surface to warp.

- Are the tires seated properly on the rims, and are the wheels/tires true? A bent rim and/or a bruised tire could wobble like that.

 

Thanks for the help everyone! I figured out the problem.

The hub on my car measures 53mm and the hole on the wheel is 54mm, good so far. However the hub on the drum flares out a little bit towards the bottom making the hub actually 57mm.

The fix: I bought 8mm (overkill, 5mm would have worked) wheel spacers. The wheel spacer is 72mm ID and pushed the wheel far enough away from the hub that it sits flush now. Although I may need to buy longer studs or get the 5mm spacers. I'm onlygetting 9mm of bolt on the stud whereas before the spacer I was getting 17mm on my 21mm bolt.