DJF1

ok this one drives me crazy. Last Sunday I managed to swap out my winter tires on my wifes mercedes. I had a set that I used in BC complete with rims that went off the car last winter and onto the moving truck to Ontario.
When I took them off the set was perfectly balanced, no issues. These are 2 season used Yoko's.
So I mount them and there is all shorts of vibration over 80kph. Off to Canadian tire for balancing, the tech told me that the weights had fallen off.
ok fair enough, he said now all balanced, I drive the car, same deal.
Just went back to them to fix the issue. Drive it off same deal.

So either they are moron's and dont know what's what, or there is something wrong with the set. The only thing I can think is that when we moved, the truck went through some of the coldest winter places with temps constantly in the -30C range. I dont know if that deformed permanently the rubber? Can this be it?

Welcome your thoughts before I go to another shop and plunge another 85 bucks

gtihop

are the rims hubcentric or lugcentric, and are the oem rims?

Imo000

How were they stored? Stacked up on their sides

DJF1

OEM style, aftermarket, aluminum one piece. The car is a 97 E320

stacked up with cardboard dividers on each tire. I have been storing this way my tires for a couple of decades without issues. But they were transported stacked up without the dividers and i'm not sure if the were moved and when from where they were originally loaded. I did not see them coming out of the track but i did notice they had moved our stuff around. The track load was shared.

wc11

Sorry but your sure they weren't mixed?
Same side only. Front to back.
No switching left to right?

DJF1

No mixing and the tires are identical size 215/55/16 Yoko Advan S4

Turbodan

if the rubber was damaged the tire balance machine would show this, same with any damage to the wheel. are you certain that the winter set did not have the same issue? could you have hit a pothole and damaged the suspension at some point in between? I would try the winters again.

9964runner

Have you checked the tire pressure? Assuming yes, but might as well start with the cheapest and work up from there.

If you have the time,
put the snows back on, check for vibration, if none then mount the summers two at a time to narrow down the problem tire.

But I'm thinking if you have a noticeable vibration below 80kph your gonna be spending money on something. Time to find a reputable tire shop.

rideau

Simply Tire with their Hunter Road Force balancing machine. Owned by a car enthusiast who has helped Rennlisters in the past with a tire group buy.
They are superb.

Imo000

Is the mating surface of the rim or the spindle smooth and free of any corrosion?

DJF1

Yeap, the winters were straight and true. It only started when I swapped the rims/tires...

Yes the tire pressures I actually did them myself before I mounted them on the car. I did the tire change, then drove the car only to experience the vibrations.

Thanks, I will give them a call.

Good question. I have not checked that. The hats have some corrosion, but I had done them last year so its not a lot.

Thanks guys for your advise, I just broke my foot, otherwise i would have mounted back the winters to double check. probably a shop that knows what they are doing will be the next step...

atr911

Rubber runout will only show if they're using a diagnostic balancer (road force, sonar, laser)

Some of the larger sizes are hard to balance. Info that would help would be: How many OZ of weights were used and how many places do you find sticky weights on the rim? There should just be one strip at the inside, and one on the outside. Also, did they show you that the wheels balanced to zero?

Koenig-Specials 928

Take it to RNJ Tire in Pickering. Paul or his son Craig will spin and balance each wheel individually while it is on the car. This will identify the culprit wheel assembly (tire+rim+rotor). He's been in the business for over 40 years and deals with lots of hp cars

DJF1

I gave them a call yesterday but they were too busy. I went with a recommendation from another thread to Tire23 in Mississauga. I got to give props to these guys. FINALLY someone confirmed what I thought and one tire is the problem, but their balancing almost cured the issue 100% despite that tire. They too use the road force and did things right. I will just ride out the season and replace at least 2 tires for the next one.

Previously tried: Canadian tire ( twice) a small shop in Burlington and Simply tire which was recommended on this thread without success.

I was especially disappointed with Simply Tire as they too use the road force Hunter, but not only they did not cure the issue, nor identified the problem, but set all my tires at the completely wrong pressures. Maybe they had a bad day or they put an apprentice to do my car which is a beat up old Mercedes. In fairness I called them and told them and they invited me back to redo, but in my book you do things right the first time to earn my business and I did not bother.

aviography

Came across this recent review on Tire23 http://www.myg37.com/forums/canada/2...ssissauga.html, almost went there to try them but will likely stick to my regular Road Force balancing shop (Young's Tires) in Brampton.