Hey guys, I installed a new set of Rota Titans on my car roughly 2 weeks ago. The size of them are 17x8 with 215/40ZR17 tires. I am a trained tire technician and mounted/balanced the tires myself. I always apply Road Force balancing and ensure a perfect 0.00 balance. At the time of putting the wheels on the car, I had H&R Super Sport springs with stock dampers.
I noticed after putting the wheels on that there is a "creaking" noise from the back end when moving at very slow speeds (backing out of driveway, taking off from stop light, etc). At first, I thought this could've been due to the larger wheels/tires since I didn't have the issue with my 16" Sparco Terra wheels, maybe even frame flex but again it wasn't occurring before changing the wheels. I used aluminum hubcentric rings and they had to be tapped in to the wheels with a light greasing and rubber mallet. For lug nuts I am using the Muteki SR35 lug nuts with a tapered angle to match the wheels.
About a week after, I picked up a set of hubcentric rings in plastic, possibly thinking that it could be due to the aluminum rings being such a tight fit in the wheel and that maybe the rings were flexing when backing out of my driveway due to the tight fitment. Once changed over to the plastic rings the same noise is still occurring but the rings fit perfectly and didn't need to be tapped in. I have double, triple, quadruple checked the lug nuts after driving 50 miles to ensure they are torqued at 100-ft/lbs. I also verified if the wheels were making contact inside the wheel wells and there is plenty of clearance on the inner side of the wheels.
Then, I thought it could be suspension related. Maybe the stock dampers were going out from being lowered. Luckily I had recently purchased parts to change over to Bilstein dampers and Swift springs anyways, so I did the installation of that this past Friday and the noise is still happening. One thing I did notice is that the lip of the rear wheel hubs is slightly longer than the front and it just barely pushes the wheel center caps out a tad. They are nowhere near the point of coming out but it pushes them out maybe 1/8" because of this. The hub rings do not completely cover the hub completely in the back, so this is something I thought about as far as a possible culprit. I also checked to see if maybe my spare tire was loose and that it was moving around. It wasn't completely tightened down but even after doing so the noise is still there.![[crazyeye]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_eyecrazy.gif "Crazy Eye [crazyeye]")
So at this point, suspension out of the question, I am thinking it could be:
- Wheels
- Lug nuts
- Hubcentric rings
If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated. I haven't tried to swap over the Sparcos again to see if the noise is still there since they are in storage for the summer but after process of elimination it seems to be that it's one of the above causing this. On Monday I will swap back to stock lug nuts to see if that is what's causing the issue but my gut is telling me it won't make a difference.
I noticed after putting the wheels on that there is a "creaking" noise from the back end when moving at very slow speeds (backing out of driveway, taking off from stop light, etc). At first, I thought this could've been due to the larger wheels/tires since I didn't have the issue with my 16" Sparco Terra wheels, maybe even frame flex but again it wasn't occurring before changing the wheels. I used aluminum hubcentric rings and they had to be tapped in to the wheels with a light greasing and rubber mallet. For lug nuts I am using the Muteki SR35 lug nuts with a tapered angle to match the wheels.
About a week after, I picked up a set of hubcentric rings in plastic, possibly thinking that it could be due to the aluminum rings being such a tight fit in the wheel and that maybe the rings were flexing when backing out of my driveway due to the tight fitment. Once changed over to the plastic rings the same noise is still occurring but the rings fit perfectly and didn't need to be tapped in. I have double, triple, quadruple checked the lug nuts after driving 50 miles to ensure they are torqued at 100-ft/lbs. I also verified if the wheels were making contact inside the wheel wells and there is plenty of clearance on the inner side of the wheels.
Then, I thought it could be suspension related. Maybe the stock dampers were going out from being lowered. Luckily I had recently purchased parts to change over to Bilstein dampers and Swift springs anyways, so I did the installation of that this past Friday and the noise is still happening. One thing I did notice is that the lip of the rear wheel hubs is slightly longer than the front and it just barely pushes the wheel center caps out a tad. They are nowhere near the point of coming out but it pushes them out maybe 1/8" because of this. The hub rings do not completely cover the hub completely in the back, so this is something I thought about as far as a possible culprit. I also checked to see if maybe my spare tire was loose and that it was moving around. It wasn't completely tightened down but even after doing so the noise is still there.
So at this point, suspension out of the question, I am thinking it could be:
- Wheels
- Lug nuts
- Hubcentric rings
If anyone has any suggestions it would be appreciated. I haven't tried to swap over the Sparcos again to see if the noise is still there since they are in storage for the summer but after process of elimination it seems to be that it's one of the above causing this. On Monday I will swap back to stock lug nuts to see if that is what's causing the issue but my gut is telling me it won't make a difference.
