Since I had my engine put back in the ride quality has gone out the window. Even driving at 5km/h the car is very bumpy. At around 100 km/h the steering wheel starts to shake heavily. I've had a wheel alignment done recently and everything checked out but have not had a wheel balance.

I was under the impression that my stock suspensions (with close to 100k km's) was on its way out. But getting that inspect too the workshop said they are naturally hard and stiff suspensions.

However I do remember having a dent on my right wheel and inspecting the car yesterday I notice that the mechanic had put my right wheel onto my left! In other
words on the tire there is a symbol for the direction in which the tire is meant to rotate and both my front tires are rotation the wrong way!!!

Would this explain the bumpy ride?

 

When I'm doing alignments sometimes I must cross rotate the tires to get any kind of pull out the car's ride. As far as your rotational tires it's not terribly important nor is it your problem, but you should address the issue before too long. If you have shaking in the steering wheel, that means it's definitely front end.

Go to a shop that has a wheel balancer and ask if they could check the two front rims for bends, they should do it for free, if not, try another shop.

 

Also, your mechanic shouldn't have cross rotated directional tires, it's just common sense.

With directional tires it's front to back - back to front.

 

Took it to the shop today and they said the dent in my rim will contribute the bumpy ride.

Added to this my 2 front tires are bald on the inside so I'll need new ones this week.

Hopefully this will fix the problem.

 

The only way the tires can be rotated is on the same side front to back, in other words if they are directional you can't move a tire from the right side of the car to the left, or vise-a-versa. I still can't figure out why you would allign the car then buy new tires (I know it's not supposed to matter) but why not get the tires and have the alignment done at the same time, balancing and all.

 

Ok I had my two front tires changed yesterday and the inside wall of both tires were completely worn. In particular the tire with the dent in the wheel had a more severe wearing on the inside wall.

After I drove home the car felt marginally smoother but still I cannot figure out where the bumps are coming from. This happens particularly at low speeds even on a smooth road, I get like these annoying little bumps.

I looked at the steering wheel and its not shaking so I suspect that the dent in the rim is causing the wheel to be out of shape or something?

Could someone ellaborate on this?


I'm suspecting that the rim with the dent is not circular

 

Err get your wheels balanced, It's not expensive.

 

Tires have a tendancy to form Flat spots if u drift or ebrake the car a little. BUt since ur rim is bent and i know u dont want to buy a new one that is prob the problem. All i can say is try putting the bent rim in the back.

 

My bumpy ride was due to a wheel imbalance but in order to get a wheel balance
my rims needed to straightened. As my front wheels had damage on them the tire shop said they had flat spots on them so instead of turning and rotating when the car moves, my wheels were actually bouncing up and down which explains why I was getting a bumpy feeling even on a perfectly flat road.

My wheels are at the repair shop now and it was only when I took them off that I discovered more dents on the inside of the rim which weren't visible at first. After this I'll be getting a wheel balance which should solve the problem.

Hopefully I'll actually enjoy driving my car after this.