I wrote a few days ago on a vibration that I felt after installing new
wheels/tires on my car. I put my old wheels/tires back on and vibration gone.
That was a relief. At least the problem was narrowed to the wheels and not
something in the engine or drivetrain.
I took the wheels back to Tire Warehouse for rechecking. They found that
the 2 rear tires were out of round...factory defects. I called Tire Rack
where
I purchased them and they are shipping replacements, no questions asked.
The tires were mid range Kumho's.
A note on the balancing.....the local Tire Warehouse has, what I have heard,
is one of the best machines going....Hunter #9700. Of course the machine
isn't any better than the person operating it. Must be that the first
balancer
just wasn't careful or he would have found the problems when he first did
them.
Yesterday I was able to stand there and watch the rebalancing. The Hunter
machine has a gauge to measure any irregularities of the wheel, both side to
side problems and wheel roundness. The machine also has a roller that goes
against the wheel to check the roundness of the tire. It puts pressure
against
the tire and the wheel, in a perfect tire, will "feel" uniform pressure
around the entire circumference of the tire. Non are perfect so there is an
accepted allowance for variance of 26 lb.. Under this amount and the machines
computer shows a graph and says OK. Over this it shows the reading and FAIL.
One of my rear tires read 34 lb. and the other 29 lb. One of my fronts was at
24 lb. and the guy said not to worry. It was acceptable and very common.
I was told that one of the few tires that came through as being as close to
perfect as possible was Michelin. Apparently they do some hand trimming and
balancing before they leave the factory?
Okay, so that's what I learned about my vibration and the Hunter balancer.
Now it's just waiting for the replacement tires. And, by the way, Tire Rack
is covering the cost of shipping the new tires and the cost of picking up the
defective ones. Sounds like I have to eat the cost of 2 new remounting and
balancing.
Mark L.
**************It's only a deal if it's where you want to go. Find your travel
deal here.
(http://information.travel.aol.com/deals?ncid=aoltrv00050000000047)
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