Hi all, i just got my aftermarket wheels into day and installed the on my HHR. They are Cruiser Alloys 903mb's. Upon putting them on i went for a quick test drive to see how they performed. Everything was nice and smooth until i hit the brakes. The whole car shook under braking. Was wondering if anyone else had the same problems. i called the place where i bought them and they said i may need a set of Hub Rings.

When I first had my new rims installed I had a simular problem. It turned out that the wheels were not balanced right and it had warped the rotors. It was only slightly out of balance because I could only feel it when I would brake at first, but then in no time it was worse and I know what out of balance tires feel like. Took it back to discount tire and sure enough I was right. Then I had to have the rotors turned. I would have them rebalanced just to make sure. Good luck!

Do some research on this, and other, forums.

By your statement, sounds like you mounted them yourself. If that's the case, YOU (or whoever did the install) did something wrong, if the brake pedal shutter was not there previous to the install.

Basically.......

Did you clean the matching machines surface of the hub AND the wheel? All rust, debris must be removed.

Are you sure you mounted correctly??? Setting the rims, to the hubs, can be a little tricky (also you may wish to remove the little retainer washes.....usually 2 per wheel....that are used to retain the hubs and drums to the studs)

Did you torque the lug nuts to the Owners Book recommendations AND use the "star" pattern suggested. This IS NECESSARY.

I would suggest, again, if the shutter was not there previous to the wheel install, then something during the install is not correct. SELDOM is the wheel actually at fault.

Good Luck and keep us informed.

agree...
balancing
install,
rotors...

Been here and done that. The front rotors are easily warped when torquing the front wheels. I knew this going in on mine and still warped the rotors. I was as careful as possible and went with factory specs with the torque wrench(100ft lbs). After I knew I had a problem I searched and found a post from Mike at socalhhrs where he recommended not to torque them over 75ft lbs. My dealer turned the rotors under warranty and its been great ever since.

Three words:

Remove retainer clips, as stated by Snoopy above.

(If you have not already done so, that would be my first guess)

Yves

What exactly are the "retainer clips"? I just had aftermarket rims put on my HHR and I get some slight brake pedal pulsation at low speeds and a shudder when braking from high speed. It never happened before the refit. Only have 1200 miles on the HHR as well.

take the rims off and there are little rings on the lug nut stups you have to take those off i had that same exact problem and it was those retainer clips they used the rings in production to hold the the rotors and or drums on while the car was going to the assembely line.

And, if you take the wheels off to remove the retainer clips, I suggest you clean the hubs as I indicated in this post......

http://chevyhhr.net/forums/showthread.php?t=10686&highlight=shutter

I never even thought to take those stupid retainer clips off. I took them off today and mounted my rims back up and all shaking was gone. Thanks for writing everyone!!

I had a shaking problem once with my MRS Spyder and it was out of round tires. Some of those wheel tire packages come with crap tires. I did everything possible to figure out the shake in the front end, and then I replaced the tires with Falken's and problem solved.

I took them off today and mounted my rims back up and all shaking was gone.

Great news. You always got to try the easy stuff first. It could have been something else, but that was an easy & quick check.

Yves