[Tigers] Vibration report

[CoolVT at aol.com]

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.



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