New 12" tires

[mikeand]

Speaking of Subarus, Got behind a Justy the other day. Pretty neat looking old car. First time Ive ever seen one, seemed to have some pep to it.

[htchbck]

Yeah, say no to trailer tires. Also, did you ever get your 13s balanced and/or have the wheels checked for an out of round condition? I've run 13s and 14s in both steelies and aluminum and never had an issue as long as they were properly balanced. I'd say one or more of the wheels were out of round. Were the 13" tires brand new or used? Tires may have had a flat spot in them from sitting if they were used. Will cause a vibration that no amount of balancing can fix.

[denguy]

thanks for your responses.

[denguy]

I have checked the 13" wheels with tires on for runout after installing on the car and they seemed ok. After driving a bit and starting to notice a shake I checked them again and found significant r/o. I think that without the support of the center hub there is enough slop in the threads of the lug bolts to allow the wheel to shift off center when hitting a sharp enough bump in the road.

[Banana Bonanza]

I have checked the 13" wheels with tires on for runout after installing on the car and they seemed ok. After driving a bit and starting to notice a shake I checked them again and found significant r/o. I think that without the support of the center hub there is enough slop in the threads of the lug bolts to allow the wheel to shift off center when hitting a sharp enough bump in the road.

Using this line of logic unless you can think of something special that Hyundai does to their lug bolts, they seem to do fine without center hub support. And as I say, I have no problem with three non original rims that have no snug center support. Most older American cars didnt do the snug center fit either. If Festy hub bolt holes and lug bolts are close to original condition, there will be no problem with them doing all the work of centering the wheel. Sure having rim snuggly fit in center gives some extra safety, no argument there, but any rim where lug bolts are snug shouldnt give problem without that center fitting snuggly. Kia didnt make the center fit snuggly just so they could go cheap and sloppy on their lug bolts and hub bolt holes. They did it for that small extra bit of safety in case bolts loosened for some reason, or rather Mazda designers did since Festy is just a variant Mazda 121 clone. If your lug bolts are wobbly when screwed into Festy hub and wont tighten down properly, then probably should replace the hub and the bolts.

Any wheel even slightest bit bent or out round will make it impossible to balance it properly. Oh you can put it on balance machine and get it to appear balanced, but it wont drive properly. And it doesnt have to be bent or out of round enough for you detect with your eye balls. I've personally only run across couple bad rims in my lifetime that you couldnt tell by looking, but they will drive you crazy when you do. Usually it will only be one rim, so go around one at time and temporarily replace with your spare and see if shimmy goes away. It can also be a tire with a broken belt or tread separation. Sometimes thats hard to find also. However if you inspect it thoroughly usually can find the bump or whatever. And the longer you keep trying to use tire with tread separation, the bigger the bump until it finally blows, then you know for sure though I dont recommend waiting that long to deal with it. Blowouts at speed are never safe.

[nitrofarm]

Using this line of logic unless you can think of something special that Hyundai does to their lug bolts, they seem to do fine without center hub support. And as I say, I have no problem with three non original rims that have no snug center support. Most older American cars didnt do the snug center fit either. If Festy hub bolt holes and lug bolts are close to original condition, there will be no problem with them doing all the work of centering the wheel. Sure having rim snuggly fit in center gives some extra safety, no argument there, but any rim where lug bolts are snug shouldnt give problem without that center fitting snuggly. Kia didnt make the center fit snuggly just so they could go cheap and sloppy on their lug bolts and hub bolt holes. They did it for that small extra bit of safety in case bolts loosened for some reason, or rather Mazda designers did since Festy is just a variant Mazda 121 clone. If your lug bolts are wobbly when screwed into Festy hub and wont tighten down properly, then probably should replace the hub and the bolts.

Any wheel even slightest bit bent or out round will make it impossible to balance it properly. Oh you can put it on balance machine and get it to appear balanced, but it wont drive properly. And it doesnt have to be bent or out of round enough for you detect with your eye balls. I've personally only run across couple bad rims in my lifetime that you couldnt tell by looking, but they will drive you crazy when you do. Usually it will only be one rim, so go around one at time and temporarily replace with your spare and see if shimmy goes away. It can also be a tire with a broken belt or tread separation. Sometimes thats hard to find also. However if you inspect it thoroughly usually can find the bump or whatever. And the longer you keep trying to use tire with tread separation, the bigger the bump until it finally blows, then you know for sure though I dont recommend waiting that long to deal with it. Blowouts at speed are never safe.

Finally someone on this forum that knows the difference between hub piloted & stud piloted wheels. One big rep for you Bannana !

[MasterTec]

I got these for my Dad's Festiva about a year ago. Now he just gave me his car! They handle great!

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Yokohama&tireModel=Y372&partnum=67SR2372

[Pgh5spd]

The ~70 shakes were completely cured for me when I got the front end aligned several yrs ago. Fortunately, I watched the guy, who was very good, but he would have used '80 Fiesta specs, which are quite different, if I hadn't caught that.

[Handyman]

Do donut tires have a different bead? Why not get 4 donut spares and put 13" tires on them?

[AlaskaFestivaGuy]

Festiva Low-rider

Why not just a four-donut Festy? The ultimate Festy low-rider!

The ride quality is actually quite good, though the speedo error is quite noticeable.

[Larry Hampton]

Most older American cars didnt do the snug center fit either.

How old is older? My 1963 Fairlane and 1965 Mustang are hub centric, so is my 2003 SportTrac. In fact, I can't remember a Ford I've owned that wasn't.

Sure having rim snuggly fit in center gives some extra safety, no argument there, but any rim where lug bolts are snug shouldnt give problem without that center fitting snuggly. Kia didnt make the center fit snuggly just so they could go cheap and sloppy on their lug bolts and hub bolt holes. They did it for that small extra bit of safety in case bolts loosened for some reason, or rather Mazda designers did since Festy is just a variant Mazda 121 clone.

I'm going to beg to differ here. The hub centric wheels are designed for the hub to carry the load. Lug centric wheels were designed for the lug to carry the load. It's not an extra safety measure, its the way it was engineered. I'm gonna bet that the metalurgy of the stock lugs is different between the two types. I would never recommend someone not use a spacer to put larger hub hole wheels on a car that the hub doesn't come in contact with the wheel, its just not safe.

[denguy]

I have an 86 Mustang gt that is hubcentric [neat word]. I don't remember ever owning a car or working on a car that wasn't and I am talking about a lot of cars, being 70. Without "hubcentricity", If the lug bolt flange of the hub isn't very thick, the lug bolt screwed into it could rock side to side due to slop in the threads allowing the wheel to shift around on the hub even though the boltheads are tapered.
Just a thought.