Front tires out of round

[Nik691]

Hey all,

So I recently installed the Steeda trident wheels with the Continental Extreme Contact 02s and noticed recently that there was a very small shake in the steering wheel after reaching speeds of 50-65 mph. I took the car back in to get the balance checked and the technician advised that the front tires are out of round and that the rear tires took a significant amount of weight to balance. After this work was done, I got back on the freeway to see if it was any better. Lo and behold, the steering wheel was still slightly shaking at that speed. I am currently working on getting a warranty claim for the tires, but my question is on potential damage to suspension components, as I have already put about 500 miles on the car since getting the tires installed.

is this something I should be worried about? The car is going to sit until I can get the tires swapped.

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[robvas]

Your suspension is fine.

 

[smurfslayer]

This won't cause any collateral damage by itself over even hundreds, possibly thousands of miles unless you are WAY out of round / balance.

Unfortunately, you have >1 variable at each corner; tires & wheels.
Does your shop have a 'road force' balancer? This is much more precise and balances far better. If not, I'd go to this first. If that doesn't make it smooth as glass, then I would go about trying to narrow down the variables. It's a PITA, I've had to do this on a few cars, including a '90GT.

If it gets that far, can you swap the new tires onto your old wheels? If you do, and it still shakes, it's more likely to be the tires. If the vibration goes away with the old wheels/new tires, then you likely have wheels out of round.

 

[Sofa King]

Suspension is fine... wobbles, bumps, etc. are in its job description.

Even road force isn't going to help a tire that is bad.

I chased a bad set of tires on another car. Had a terrible wobble at freeway speeds. Original shop did not road force the first time so tried that... no difference. Turned out there was a large bubble in the belt on the inside of the tire. Even after replacing the one tire there were still issues... My tire guy questioned wheel bearings, suspension, etc., but all were good. He went ahead a warrantied the entire set and I went to another brand for the win.

 

[Nik691]

Suspension is fine... wobbles, bumps, etc. are in its job description.

Even road force isn't going to help a tire that is bad.

I chased a bad set of tires on another car. Had a terrible wobble at freeway speeds. Original shop did not road force the first time so tried that... no difference. Turned out there was a large bubble in the belt on the inside of the tire. Even after replacing the one tire there were still issues... My tire guy questioned wheel bearings, suspension, etc., but all were good. He went ahead a warrantied the entire set and I went to another brand for the win.

I’m hoping they warranty this set because I have a feeling it will turn into a messy chase to try and resolve it

 

[Nik691]

This won't cause any collateral damage by itself over even hundreds, possibly thousands of miles unless you are WAY out of round / balance.

Unfortunately, you have >1 variable at each corner; tires & wheels.
Does your shop have a 'road force' balancer? This is much more precise and balances far better. If not, I'd go to this first. If that doesn't make it smooth as glass, then I would go about trying to narrow down the variables. It's a PITA, I've had to do this on a few cars, including a '90GT.

If it gets that far, can you swap the new tires onto your old wheels? If you do, and it still shakes, it's more likely to be the tires. If the vibration goes away with the old wheels/new tires, then you likely have wheels out of round.

Unfortunately the tires are much larger so swapping won’t work. I think in the meantime, I will put my stock wheels and tires back on until I can get it all resolved.

 

[Sofa King]

I’m hoping they warranty this set because I have a feeling it will turn into a messy chase to try and resolve it

Unfortunately the tires are much larger so swapping won’t work. I think in the meantime, I will put my stock wheels and tires back on until I can get it all resolved.

Hopefully they will warranty them... most do within certain milage... the tires I had replaced had a 500 mile return warranty, + owner is a family friend.

I did have the option of running different tires, sort of, I had winter tires in the exact same size and swapped those in to determine the first bad tire. With continued issues after replacing it, I didn't feel like chasing the issue anymore!

 

[Aggie1999]

Y'all tell me if this is even possible, but would the tire shop run just the wheels without the tires through their balancer to check them first? That would answer the question of the wheels being out of balance to start with.

 

[D/\rK•650]

Y'all tell me if this is even possible, but would the tire shop run just the wheels without the tires through their balancer to check them first? That would answer the question of the wheels being out of balance to start with.

Good question? I wonder if that is a thing thats done to check rims out of true. Anyone know?

 

[D/\rK•650]

Hey all,

So I recently installed the Steeda trident wheels with the Continental Extreme Contact 02s and noticed recently that there was a very small shake in the steering wheel after reaching speeds of 50-65 mph. I took the car back in to get the balance checked and the technician advised that the front tires are out of round and that the rear tires took a significant amount of weight to balance. After this work was done, I got back on the freeway to see if it was any better. Lo and behold, the steering wheel was still slightly shaking at that speed. I am currently working on getting a warranty claim for the tires, but my question is on potential damage to suspension components, as I have already put about 500 miles on the car since getting the tires installed.

is this something I should be worried about? The car is going to sit until I can get the tires swapped.

Definitely contact Continental for warranty. I wonder if they might want to verify the rims are not out of round first. And no i dont think that would cause any issues. Goodluck !

 

[Sofa King]

Y'all tell me if this is even possible, but would the tire shop run just the wheels without the tires through their balancer to check them first? That would answer the question of the wheels being out of balance to start with.

Actually, yes you can see wheel balance that way (most don't do unless you ask, or there are issues), in fact, if you can focus your eyes on just the wheel, you can even see the out of round with the tires still on.

 

[MAT1955]

What did I miss. You swapped the rims and now there are shakes. Any decent tire shop can test and SHOULD test the NEW RIMS for run out (side to side movement) and rim truing (out of round or in layman's terms up and down movement). It is a insanely easy test to do. Conti Pros are great tires - I'd look at the rims.

 

[Nik691]

What did I miss. You swapped the rims and now there are shakes. Any decent tire shop can test and SHOULD test the NEW RIMS for run out (side to side movement) and rim truing (out of round or in layman's terms up and down movement). It is a insanely easy test to do. Conti Pros are great tires - I'd look at the rims.

Yes rims were swapped and the wheels and tires have now been balanced twice. Once at discount tire and most recently at Ford. I didn’t have the chance to talk to the Ford mechanic, just the notes about the two front tires being out of round and the two rears needing significant weight to correct.

 

[Sofa King]

Out of curiosity, what wheels are you using? If discount tire mounted them, did they line up the yellow dot with the valve stem, if not, that could cause the use of additional weight.

 

[Nik691]

Out of curiosity, what wheels are you using? If discount tire mounted them, did they line up the yellow dot with the valve stem, if not, that could cause the use of additional weight.

They are the steeda trident wheels. I’m honestly not sure if they did. The drivers side rear did need resealed because it was leaking from the bead. discount tire did mount them though.

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