Well, yesterday I left my Z at home in the garage and took in my spare (2000 Jetta) to work. I came home and lifted the front end on jackstands again to inspect the tires and wheel. I inspected all the joints, boots, suspension parts and driveshaft u-joints for any play, leaks or tears and found nothing. My suspension guy didn't even bother since he's done an alignment and noticed nothing out of the ordinary in a test drive. He thinks it's either bent wheel(s) or bad/worn tires - especially since I swapped the spacers from a different brand and the vibration still persists.
I did a quick setup with a paint can and the tip of a screw driver to visually check radial and lateral runout of both wheel and tire. I know it's not accurate, but if I could visually detect any difference, then I'm sure a professional measurement would indicate a fault in either wheel or tire.
I spun both tires by hand, one at a time, and noticed the tires were visually off by a millimeter or so, but even several millimeters in radial. It was in both tires, so I think it's just a result of flatspotting from being parked overnight. I would think the Hunter Roadforce machine would flag that down if it were a permanent runout, no?
The outer edge of each wheel were ok. Maybe a hair under a millimeter when I spun them. Would that indicate a bent wheel(s)? I know there is a tolerance of .01 inch by manufacturers, but I guess it would have to be professionally measured to make sure. I thought the Hunter balancer would also detect that though.
I'm debating on getting the wheels inspected and measured for runout by a wheel repair shop before ordering an entire set of new tires.
