Continental ExtremeContact DWS tire balancing issue at Discount Tires

[alia176]

This is a bit puzzling to me so maybe y'all can enlighten me on something. I bought a set of Continental ExtremeContact DWS few months ago at Discount Tire. The tires are slightly out of balance and I've returned to DT for three weeks straight. Strange thing is that every time I returned to DT, the same balancer showed the tires to be out of balance! I leave the store each time with a perfectly balanced set of tires!

Any speed over 65mph produces out of balance issues. While driving down a newly constructed part of the hwy, I can feel the car vibrating and the front pass seat vibrating on the same frequency. Steering wheel has a very slight shimmy on straight road and more noticeable shimmy on long sweeping turns.

The rims are true and no humps.
The tires have no humps.
New BJs
New tie rod ends.
New all struts, rubber mounts and isolators.

So, I took the car to another tire shop near my work. They balanced just the front tires and this time, the steering wheel is shaking back and forth after I hit the hwy. This steering wheel shimmy is the worst so far! I returned there few days later and had them put the tires on the spinner. Right front tire was still balanced and required no weight. The left front was out of balanced and it was re-balanced. STILL, the steering wheel shimmies, just not as much. During long sweeping turns on the hwy, the steering wheel shakes badly. This is very annoying.

So, I'm puzzled as to why there high quality tires not producing repeatable results on the spinners? When they leave the shop each time, they're perfectly balanced - I eye witnessed them each time. However, driving on the tires produces a different result on the hwy.

All suspension work was done by me so I know it was done right. Everything but the springs and the arms bushings were replaced. Car drives great, sounds fantastic (as in no clonks) and these tires really cut down on the road noise.

[1986nate]

Try swapping front axles side to side. A "worn in" axle can cause vibrating, which swapping them side to side will cause them to wear in the opposite direction eliminating vibration. This vibration is what could potentially be causing your wheel weights to shift possibly, really hard to tell. Just something that won't cost you anything but a couple hours of time. If that doesn't fix it, then back to square one.

[92snowmachine]

if the tires showed to be out of balance when respun then they were actually out of balance. this can be caused by multiple things. as simple as water in the air that inflated the tire to more complex things like shifting in the cords of the tire, or even just mounted incorrectly. water is easy to look for just unmount the tire, shifting in the cords can typically be seen by looking at the inside ribs on the tire. if the cords are shifting then the thin rubber on the inside that covers them will seem loose when you rub it. some tires (particularly bfgoodrich) actually have a particular way they want to be mounted relative to the valve stem. there will be a little circle that goes 180 out from it.
i would put money on a tire issue because no matter what else can cause vibrations when you rebalanced the tires they were out of balance. i have kept my mouth shut about these tires because many here seem to like them but i try not to sell them at work because i have had issues similar to this that was only ever solved by replacing the tires. they should swap out your tires with new ones and send the ones you have back as deffective. they may not be deffective but it would eliminate them as a possibility if you still have the vibration.

[1986nate]

Originally Posted by 92snowmachine

if the tires showed to be out of balance when respun then they were actually out of balance. this can be caused by multiple things. as simple as water in the air that inflated the tire to more complex things like shifting in the cords of the tire, or even just mounted incorrectly. water is easy to look for just unmount the tire, shifting in the cords can typically be seen by looking at the inside ribs on the tire. if the cords are shifting then the thin rubber on the inside that covers them will seem loose when you rub it. some tires (particularly bfgoodrich) actually have a particular way they want to be mounted relative to the valve stem. there will be a little circle that goes 180 out from it.
i would put money on a tire issue because no matter what else can cause vibrations when you rebalanced the tires they were out of balance. i have kept my mouth shut about these tires because many here seem to like them but i try not to sell them at work because i have had issues similar to this that was only ever solved by replacing the tires. they should swap out your tires with new ones and send the ones you have back as deffective. they may not be deffective but it would eliminate them as a possibility if you still have the vibration.

Very useful information on those tires being known defective issues.

[RojoRocket]

That's news to me, as the Conti DWS is highly recommended on three internet boards I frequent. I bought a pair for the front of my STS, much superior to the oem Michelins. Any more info on this? IE: efforts by the manufacturer to correct, etc etc.

Glenn

[immortal_suby]

Return the tires and have the dealer file a complaint with continental. They can take the tires back and x-ray them and run them on their uniformity machine to figure out if they have a build defect. Do not settle for them. Tire manufacturers do this routinely. Demand a new set of tires!

Not all tire manufacturers sample 100% of their tires for uniformity. Bad tires can and do slip through.

[Green1995SVX]

Originally Posted by RojoRocket

That's news to me, as the Conti DWS is highly recommended on three internet boards I frequent. I bought a pair for the front of my STS, much superior to the oem Michelins. Any more info on this? IE: efforts by the manufacturer to correct, etc etc.

Glenn

I had Conti DWS on my S8, and they're the best tires I've ever had. The last time around I switched to Pirellis only because the contis were on backorder.

Mike