Hi,

Ever since I had my winter tires put on, the steering wheel on my 98 CR-V appears to vibrate intermittently -- sometimes none, sometimes a litte, sometimes a lot. Is it possible that my balancing is off?

Also I've got a weird whistling noise happening at various times -- again it only happens sometimes, and varies with the speed I'm going -- 30, 50, 70 mph etc. Any ideas what that could be?

Thanks!
Christopher

Well.. steering wheel vibration after wheel "add-ups" or change could be due to wheel imbalance, you should note when the vibration starts and at what speed it maxes.
Adding the winter wheel could somehow cause imbalance in the wheel as they start to turn at high speeds.. Does the problem exist when you take them off? if yes you can do the following after checking the front steering system (sometimes it need calibration at tire replacement shop):
if they indicated a well balanced front steering system, you can simply try removing the front wheels to back and bringing the back wheels to front. i had that problem and it was almost fixed for speeds up to 100 mph! i dont know if i needed to chek vibration beyond that speed!! :)

Another thing my friend is to check the wheel screws (donno what you call them) "nuts"?? in my country we have different names for car parts!! anyway, check if they are tight enough or not. and check the edges of the wheel, it should have symmetrical erosion all over the sides, if one side is more eroded than the others, then you should look for a deeper cause, usually in the steering & suspension systems..

hope this would be helpful,,,
Good luck

Hi,

thanks again for the info. I'm keeping track of the speeds etc. It seems to occur really intermittently. I'm going to take it in for an oil change this week and perhaps I'll ask my mechanic to check the wheel balance in the front end.

I'm hoping the front end alignment is ok -- I recently had the right control arm replaced. It seemed ok at the time though, and the problem didn't start to happen until I put the winter wheels & tires on.

thanks again!
Christopher