When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
I’m wondering if anyone else has shared a similar experience..
I recently had my wheels refinished and seeing as my tires had seen better days, I ordered four new sport cup 2’s from Tire Rack to have put on while the wheels were out. When they came back mounted up and balanced (road force balanced) I noticed they had used a good amount of weights on my front wheels. Thought nothing of it until my first highway run and sure enough around 80mph I can feel a slight vibration in the steering.
Most of you will probably point to the refinishing of the wheels as the culprit, which was my first thought even though I used the same ultra high end place my buddies and I have used for years (most of which were CL wheels on turbos/gt cars). When I inquired about it they said that although they were able to get the fronts to balance out to zero, the front tires came very unbalanced which is the reason for all the weights. At this point I decide to take a ride to my dealer to get the fronts rebalanced thinking maybe they’d be able to get them right with less weights. They always let me down in the service bay so I watch them take the wheels and tires off - they throw both front wheels on the balancer without the new tires - they’re perfect. They remount the new front tires and put on the balancer - each wheel needs almost 70 grams to balance out.
I have my dealer write up a work order detailing the problem, which I attach to an email to tire rack. Pleasantly surprised they tell me no problem - they’ll send two new replacement tires. Problem solved...
The two new tires come in yesterday. I go to the dealer to remount and road force balance the new fronts (now paying for a second visit that Tire Rack only reimburses $25 per wheel - goes a long way at pep boys - not at Porsche). First new front tire gets mounted up and it’s perfect - takes barely any weight. Second one gets mounted up - it’s just as bad if not worse than the first two I got. The dealer writes up a similar work order for me and I do the whole song and dance with tire rack again yesterday. They’ve now agreed to send me another replacement tire.
The willingness to keep sending replacements leads me to believe this is nothing new for them... have I just been extremely unlucky? So far 3 out of the 4 fronts have been defective. Fingers crossed the 5th comes in right and I can be done with this silly saga. Has anyone heard of this? I’m losing my mind..
Sorry to hear about this, nothing worse than going for a run and having a vibration... Do all four tires have the same date stamp by chance? Here in Toronto last summer Cup 2s were on back order and no sets were available with the same date stamp, all random weeks. In 2019 I had to run late 2017 date stamps?! My point is this particular tire can get chalky fast if neglected. Also, did you buy N spec rated Cups? If not the ''regular"non-N spec width is not wide enough (although the printed dimensions are the same) and the top of the tire and side wall gets stretched causing an imbalance. Don't ask me how I know....
I had this issue with some PSS I bought from Tirerack, but as mentioned this isn’t a tirerack issue and more of a manufacturing issue. Tirerack just has good customer service and I am sure with the number of tires they sell they have a good refund program with the manufacturers where if something isn’t right they are taking the tire back and Tirerack probably doesn’t loose much.
This sounds more like a manufacturer issue (Michelin) then Tire Rack...?
I agree, michelin manufacturing issue, not retailer, though 70 gm to balance is NOT hugely excessive IMO
Who did the mount and balance, tyre rack or other?
Whoever did the initial mount and balance should have told you there was a possible tyre balance issue prior to delivery.
For my wheel / tyre combo's, if anything takes more than 2 oz to balance, I ask them to spin the tyre to find a better starting point.
Spin the tire. Hunter road force. See if the weight are on the opposite side of the valve TPMS. Once again, spin that tire.
back in the day it took like 4 times for the tire to balance out correctly. The owner of the shop kept rebalancing it and it kept vibrating, then his employee did the rebalance and absolutly vibration. We were super close to sending it back.
I just did cup 2's and it took twice to get the fronts to not vibrate.
Michelin has a great return policy. You can return a tire for any reason within 30 days. You don't like the way it looks, you can return it. Tire rack facilitates that service with the manufacturer.
I had the mount and balance done at Porsche. Zero complaints with the return policy at tire rack - customer service has been great. Just frustrating - hopefully this will be the last swap.
I think it's pretty widely accepted that the tires that ship to tire rack are typically the worst quality group that the manufacturers will allow out the door. Maybe I am only painfully aware of this because I work in the tier 1 auto supply chain as a vehicle dynamics engineer.... It's accepted in our industry that we need to protect the tires that come with our new test vehicles because we will have trouble replicating that level of ride quality when we have to order tires ourselves. The car manufacturers definitely have more strict requirements than a wholesaler like Tire Rack. I just mounted up a set of Pilot Super Sports for my Own GT3 that came from tire rack. I had no trouble getting them to balance out, and I don't remember using an excessive amount of weight. Could have just gotten lucky, or maybe the Super Sports run out a little better. I feel very lucky to have access to tire mounting equipment... It would be a nice task to farm out to someone for $100, but I just don't trust the attention to detail that some others provide. Good on Tire Rack for their willingness to keep sending you tires!
I had the exact same issues sport cup 2 tires from tire rack also... Porsche rated but old stock... even the second pair of fronts replaced have not balanced up.
Respin tire on wheel until it balances out. On IMSA DPi cars we tolerate until to 7 inches of tape on weight. That is a LOT. Don't freak out about how much weight. Another tip if seeing track use- put metal tape over the weights. Often due to heat from track use the glue allows the weight to get thrown.
Flat spotting on these performance tires could also be the issue if your car sits. I have one tire that notoriously does this if the car sits and/or the temps drop outside. I can normally drive it away in a couple miles and get some temperature in the tires but it can be a little annoying.
05-01-2020, 10:02 AM
Tire Rack Quality Issues
