Last week I took the Excursion into Discount Tire for some, you guessed it, new tires. That first time I left the store with some Cooper all terrains. The drive home involved plenty of highway driving. By the time I got home I decided to take the tires back because there was terrible vibrations (vibrations is still a problem I'm having) and there was actually sway and whole lot of play in the steering that was very noticeable while just changing lanes.

That was the first set of tires. My second set I got that day were Pirelli STRs, what I had on originally. The dreadful steering was gone but the vibrations persisted. I figured that maybe it was just my luck that I would have had a bad balance job done, so I took it to the local Ford dealership who has one of those nifty Hunter GSP9700 balancers. The vibration improved slightly but was still quite noticeable. I took it back to Discount Tire that same day. They balanced the tires again and told me whoever balanced them before had done a poor job..nice, my luck again. This second balance job got rid of more of the vibrations but it was still not where it was at even with the old tires. The tech actually told me that dealership counterbalanced the tires and that this is counterproductive..is this true? He also had to remount the tires on the rim because it was not centered on the wheel. Two tires were out of spec and messed up as well.

A few days later and after some talks with a regional manager of Discount Tire, I had Michelins new LTX M/S2s put on. These tires definitely are nice. But there's one problem, the damn thing still vibrates...This leads me to my issue.

After three sets of tires, I have a constant vibration that begins at about 65 mph. Am I just cursed with crappy balance jobs? Is it possible that even these Michelin tires are out of round and causing vibrations like the Pirellis? Or is it something with the front suspension that has recently had work done to it?

The front suspension has new driver side ball joints, new front rotors, brake pads, and bearings. I plan to do the passenger side ball joints as well as new shocks all the way around here soon.

I really am at a loss here. And I hope I didn't completely put you to sleep with this long winded post.

Any suggestions would be MUCH appreciated.

 

Find a shop that has a Hunter Road Force balancer.

 

"nifty Hunter GSP9700 balancers."

I took it to my Ford dealership who has one and that didn't fix the problem. Discount Tire has one as well.

 

Yes, counter balancing CAN be bad, but it doesn't always cause problems. All weights should be touching one another on any given bead. Counter balancing is a sign of laziness and lack of pride of workmanship. If any of mine are counter balanced, I make them redo it. Reminds me of what my father always told me, if you do a job half-assed, you'll be doing it twice. Do it right, do it once, the first time.

As far as the vibrations, check your u-joints and carrier bearing. Tire vibrations should be consistent with all speeds, getting worse as speed increases. Driveline vibration can be induced by harmonics at certain speed ranges. I know it would be a coincidence, but you never know.

Does the vibration come through the steering wheel in the form of steering wheel shake? I have experienced steering components cause "vibrations" or oscillations at certain speeds as well. New tires can influence this.

One last idea, although it is pretty far out there. A bent/damaged wheel. Two ways to go about this. Have your tires rotated, and see if the source of the vibration shifts. The second, and most direct way, is to have all the tires dismounted from the wheels, and watch over the tech's shoulder as they spin the wheels, by themselves, on the balancer. Watch the bead mounting surfaces, not the wheel flanges. Check for any wobble/defects that indicate the wheels are not rolling straight. If that all looks good, have them mount up the tires, and check the tires the same way, make sure they spin true and straight on the balancer. I had a 2001 Mazda pickup that I spent 50k miles hunting down a vibration on since it was new. I happened to bend a wheel slightly (too much air time), and the wise, old man I took it to to have the wheel straightened and others inspected, found the problem -- something Mazda nor any other tire dealer could: A wheel that had the lug holes machined off-center to the bead mounting surface. If I had watched over the tech's shoulder the very first time I complained about the vibrations, I would have caught it, but I didn't. I foolishly trusted everybody I had look at it.

 

x2 on the u-joints or bent wheel. I have experienced them both.

 

X3 on the bent wheel/s, I had the same problems last year when my truck started vibrating. Mine ended up being the BFG where out of round, but since you have had three sets of tires I would have to go with the wheels.

 

Thanks for the informative post. Your suggestions are appreciated.

The vibration comes from everywhere. The entire vehicle shakes at speed. It's not just isolated to the steering wheel as the steering itself doesn't feel to bad.

 

I had a 1988 Mercury Cougar XR7 "How I miss her" and I had a vibration while only going over 40mph I didn't know what it was so I took it in and turns out that someone dented my drive shaft. Maybe when I took it for tires a few months ago something happened? Looks like some one tried to jack up the car by it. So my mechanic replaced the drive shaft and the vibration was totally gone.
~Gage~

 

Hmm, interesting. I'll take a look at that.

 

i would definately check the u joints i lost most of the pins on one side of my rear u joint and the truck vibrated something awful around 50 miles per hour as i went faster it got worse.

 

Take the truck to a "professional" alignment shop that has experience with trucks. They are far and few between though. They will let you know what issues you may have. When was the last time you had it properly aligned?

 

I had it aligned at the local Firestone late last week. The driver side was way out of spec and they got that squared away for me. Vibration was still ever-present.

The passenger side ball joints still need to be replaced so I know I'll need another alignment once I get those replaced.

I'll be on the look out for an alignment shop like that.

 

I took mine to a local truck tire shop (after 3 balance shop trips), and had them put balance beads in all 6 tires. (dually).. 2 new Michelin LT MX/2.. and this thing rides like a dream.. so it was balance all along..
even just the two front Michelins were amazing

Sam

 

Yeah, I've been thinking about those as a sort of last resort if I just can't do away with this vibration.

 

$15/wheel installed..
amazing difference.. Discount tire couldn't do it..

sam