2010 fit sport with I believe alloy rims. Whenever I travel through mud or snow and slush the car will begin to vibrate excessively at highway speeds over 60 mph. Have had it to dealership twice and they say mud or snow is building up on the backside of rims on the rear and causing an imbalance. Get charged $24.00 to have rims removed and cleaned.

Anyone else have this problem and what do you do to rectify it. Live in the country and dealership is 60 miles away. Hard to remove rims along a highway to clean. First time it happened I powerwashed the wheels but didn't help. Last time I was in town and started out of town when I noticed it. Felt like driving on square tires at 65mph. Turned around and went back into town to have cleaned so I could get home.

 

Happens to me too.. you just need to use the handle end of your ice-scraper to poke the crusted-on snow out. you can usually get it all off just by poking in there through the spaces between the spokes.

 

Man u just got held up at gunpoint it's called. Jack the car up pul the wheel off and break out the hose and spray it down. If u have a good enough hose you won't even need to take the wheel off. Stop wasting money

 

hahaha!


Yeah, I don't get it... you don't need to take the wheel off to clean out snow/ice/slush! just pull over and scrape the shit off while the wheels are on the car!

 

All my buddies own subies and when snow cross or just driving off road they get all kind of crap stuck in heir wheels. Most get their hands dirty .

I also have some friends who have a reverse lil on the wheels so when it rains water pools inside the rim and makes it in balanced. You know what they do. Pull over and use a shamwow to soak up all the water

 

I love to kick the ice and snow off with my foot--Took great pleasure in doing this with my Subie--even though it has mud guards on all four wheels, the snow & ice accumulate- although the Fit doesn't have much room to get your foot in there. Poking with an ice scraper or end of snow shovel works.

 

me too... the other day, I saw a jeep near where I worked, and had to resist the urge to go up to it to kick of the ice behind it's front wheel.

dunno why I like it when its nice and solid and the whole thing comes down in one massive chunk.

 

That's what she said

 

Someone got hosed!

 

I have had this happen to me too. I just go to the do it yourself carwash and powerwash the heck out of the wheel wells and the ice and snow comes off.

 

Hmm...You live in North Dakota and this if the first time it's happened to you? The ice scraper is a little big for the space between your spokes so just keep a small wooden stick you can buy at a hardware store in your car so you can "clean" out the snow or mud from inside your rims.

Damn stealership...they knew there were other ways to fix the problem.

 

First time it happened this summer it was mud. Wife was driving and thought it was something with wheel balance as car only had 500 miles on it. Second time was this winter and temp was in 30's but a front went through with winds in excess of 40mph and temp abruply dropped to teens within a hour. Needed to get car inside because I couldn't even stand up outdoors due to wind and solid ice on roads. Couldn't drive vehicle on icy roads with vibration so it was choice of severe frostbite trying to get ice out of wheels or get it inside at stealership.

First time driving it this winter because we have gravel roads that I have had to use my 4wd pickup to get through. Roads were finally cleared enough to trust it that one day, but alas the weather changed before I was able to get home. Just thought there were rims that would solve this problem without having to carry a damn stick around and clean them out all the time. Not everyone lives in suburbia with perfect asphalt to drive on. After cracking my bumper when hitting a pheasant this fall I'm beginning to think this car was just made to drive in an utopian environment!

 

My Fit (GD3 Sport) has been put through some ridiculous conditions in the past few years. Including a late fall trip to the east end of Lake Superior where we got pounded with a huge snow storm and air temps in the negative teens. This was also off-road and on gravel roads.

With 4 large passengers and 150lbs of gear on all season tires and stock ride height we had no issues. Even on some really steep grades, like the couple miles of unpaved road in through the woods and the 300 yard driveway up the hill to the cabin is easily 7-8% average with some parts much worse.

Tomorrow we are supposed to get 18" of snow in Chicago and I expect it wont let me down then either.

Grease the inside of the wheels (do not get any on the brakes, obviously) and you should be fine.

I've only once gotten stuck in the snow, and was able to rock my way out.

Obviously there are situations the car can't overcome, but it is a 2500lb hatchback.. not a baja truck. I think it does very well, especially considering it was designed for paved urban "utopias." But for many situations if you just think ahead, get a good angle of attack and maintain enough momentum you shouldn't really have too many issues.

But if you have ever seen the quality of the roads in most major metropolitan areas you definitely wouldn't call them utopias.

There are potholes in Chicago that can swallow this car

Are you allowed studs or chains where you live? Or you can sneak in some sparse studding on the inside tread blocks if need be for places they aren't allowed.

 

With the description you gave above, you may want to get a front wheel drive with lots of ground clearance and soild steelies instead of alloy rims to catch everything in.

 

+ 1 hahaha awd for the win in muddy conditions

 

Sounds like a good excuse to buy some new rims to me! We've had quite a bit of snow around here this winter and so far no problems with the stockers. I have a nice soft detailing brush that fits easily into the rims spokes. Hope you can find a good solution to the problem. We are all hoping for spring to hurry up and come!

 

Seems like there was some confusion between the 'snowboogers' that form behind the tires, and the OP's problem with snow or slush or mud in his rims.

I've had lots of snow packed in my rims from time to time,and never had a vibration problem. We do get winter here in Westsylvania.
Are the rims entirely okay when they are clean? I'm wondering if there is a borderline balance problem, and the slop pushes things over the edge? Any chance of a broken belt/out of round tire?

A powerwasher is the best way to clean out those rims, but be careful if you have the greenie stickem weights; you can blast them off with the powerwasher.
Moon

 

I have recently had this same issue, the vibration was so bad that I panicked a lil at first. It turns out that it was just some slush or snow that had frozen on the inside of the rim just as the others said. I solved the problem the next day with a warm car wash indoors to melt all the build up. However I don't recommend going through that whole process as I only went that route because my milano fit was powdered white with all the damn salt!!

 

One of the many benefits of a heated (or at least above ambient) garage is melting both the slop in the wheels and the snowboogers.
For those of you without that advantage, it's off to the carwash. There's really no fix for it, and it will happen with any kind of car. Of course, if the inside of the wheel is flat, the crud won't be flung off.
As I said in the previous post, tho', if you're having extreme trouble with it, there may be something else going on.
One more reason to love winter....
Moon

 

Well, I finally got the car inside a heated shop. Let it thaw for 6 hours and then got to scrubbing. There was alot of muck on the inside of the drivers side rear tire. Scrubbed with a toilet brush and washed with a power washer. Took about 30 minutes to get it cleaned out. Will see if this does the trick.

In 35 years of driving I've never had this happen. Owned a 72 cutless supreme, 85 caprice classic, 93 + 01 toyota camry's, 05 and 10 toyota sequoia's and a few pickup trucks. The rim spokes on the fit are dished which collects material and the rims have a very large flat step on the inside which also collects allot of debris. You would think engineers would realize this could represent problems. Especially with people travelling on gravel roads in the country.