Problem Balancing Tires

Jan 03, 2004 6 Replies
S

I have a 2000 OBW LTD.



At the 72K service, the brakes were checked and 'serviced'. Tires were rotated and balanced.



Car never ran smoothly again. At 110 Kph (65 mph), I get a slight wheel shimmy. Back to the dealer it went. He rotated balanced etc. Conclusion, tires were shot. Balanced as best he could but told me the tires were needing replacement anyway.



At 80K, replaced with Michelin Hydroedge. Shimmy/vibration were still there but less. Back to the tire dealer. They were great (Kipling Tire in Toronto).



Went back and to make a long story short, they balanced all tires 5 times. Shimmy still there. Thought maybe the tires were bad.



Put on a brand new set of Michelin symmetry. Same problem. Put the Hydroedges back on.



Went to dealer thinking a bad bearing/cv joint etc. Car checks out perfect. Tire changes were all torqued with a torque wrench. Different rims at different points on the car. Car does not vibrate only sterring. All drivetrain components appear to NOT be vibrating.



Everybody is at their wits end. I like the car but I can't drive it like this.



Tire dealer went as far as to balance rim without tire and put tire heavy spot against rim heavy spot etc.



Ideas?


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W

Hello:

I had a similar problem with my winter tires. The dealer that sold me the tires tried 3 times to balance the wheels and I had always the vibrations.

I went to another shop and they saw that 2 tires were not put on the right place on the rim.

If the tire is not "round" with the rim, you can balance the wheel as many time as you want and it will not be okay.

Normally, a well-trained mechanic will see if the tire is properly place on the rim when it has the wheel spinning for balancing. If the tire is not proprerly installed, it will rotate the tire for 90 degrees on the rim and see if it is okay.

Maybe it will help you.

Bye, HH

"steam_mill" a écrit dans le message de news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com...

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G

A mechanic friend of mine faced a similar problem with a Volvo. He finally found out that the unbalance was caused by one of the front brake disk. Just an idea...

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J

Some cars have a device called a steering damper. If your car has one, perhaps that's where the problem lies.

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E

Maybe the dealer has another car on the lot similiar to yours. If that car has no vibration move the 4 tires/wheels from that car to yours and see if there is a vibration in yours and with your tires on the dealer car see if that car develops a vibration.

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