Has anyone had there tires replaced and had trouble getting them to be balanced properly? It seems as though the shop can never get it right, I want to know whether it is them or something with the rims design (17 inch) or maybe a little bit of both. At first it was the front, then the back, then everything seemed okay and it is back to shaking again. They used the normal metal weights all around at first and the back now has the low profile stick on weights.

btw. I took it to the Goodyear shop so it's not like tire balancing is something new to them.

I think its a little of the both. My 06 LX had the same wheels and never held a balance job long. I have a 09 and put new 09 se wheels like the 06's wheels on it and same problem....

it is a common problem with all makes and models. My sister-n-laws Mazda 6 has the same problem with her new Yokohamas.

Make sure they are being balanced on a DYNAMIC tire balancer.
Took care of my vibration problem. :clap:

I'll ask about that. They used the type that spins the tire, is there something I should look for there?

Get them road force balanced on a Hunter GSP 9700. You also might have 2 issues. 1) The stick on weights don't always stick if the rim wasn't cleaned real well first. 2) Proper balancing requires weights possibly be placed on the inside edge and/or outside edge. The stick on ones only go in the middle to try and hide them so might not be perfect.

Any balance issues I've had, the road force cleared up. My most recent was with my snows on the factory steel rims. The shop tried twice and was adding more and more weight. They removed all, started fresh and kept having same problem (2-3 oz or more per wheel). After road force 1 has .25 oz, 2 less than .5 oz and the last at about .75 oz. Car is very smooth with them done.

Tire choice also plays factor. Love em or hate em but Michelin is one of the best for consistent round and pounds of force to flex. 2 of my stock Michelin MXV4 S8 have NO weights at all on them. This was before and after swapping rims (with road force balance)

i think a lot of it is a problem with the guy running the machine. i did it for a couple years and there are a lot of tricks that can make a tire balance out with less weight needed. I had very few tires come back for a recheck, mostly oversized truck tires which are a pain in the **** to balance.

roadforce is best, but i would bet that most places still don't have them because they really aren't cheap machines.

try to make sure they have a Hunter balancing machine.. those seem to be the best balancers.. (like Supra_Devil said.. Hunter is a roadforce machine- which is the best method)

although, i suppose you are at the whim of the machines your local people have

BINGO! The machine is only as good as the guy running it. I would try a difference tire shop if they can't get it right after that many attempts.

I am going to give them one more shot at it, unless they decide to charge me money. Then I will just take it to another shop. The said I could come in tomorrow.

I just had my tires replaced at Firestone. They balanced them perfect the first time. They also fixed my alignment issue the dealer screwed up...I cannot BELIEVE the difference!

Sounds like the guy running the machine needs more training!

I have this problem every time. I feel ya pain!

I always ask for zero gram balance. Usually when I ask for that the manager goes out and does the balance. I think because the normal shop guys don't know how to change the machine form ounce to gram. Also zero gram has less round off error than zero ounce. I have had guys slicing small amounts of lead off of the balance weights to achieve the correct balance before. This always works great. But here it costs a little more... :P

They said they would have to charge me if I went back because they think there balancing is good. They say I have a bent rim, not sure how that would happen because I am the only driver and never hit anything. I am going to take another Sonatas rims and try to replace one tire at a time to see which one is bad. Or just take it to a shop that knows what they are doing....

Try to find a shop with Hunter equipment. Try this link. On a previous car I had a shop across the street from my job do a balance and it rode like crap on the way home. Then I went to a shop with a Hunter machine and they said they "were going to go fishing" with all the weights they took off my wheels. It is possible the first shop was geared toward trucks/SUVs and not them there fancy furrin automobiles.

I'm not sure if you have to ask for a Road Force balance or if all balance jobs done on a Hunter GSP9700 are of the Road Force type.

Scott

This post has been edited by scotthershall: Oct 14 2008, 12:29 PM

I had to laugh, i work for Goodyear and I refuse to let them work on my cars for any reason. THEY SUCK when it comes to the stores, take them somewhere else. I don't work at a store, i actually work in a test lab testing tires. Last time i had issues with balancing at a Goodyear store, I went back and did the balancing myself. Like an above poster said, balancer iss only as good as the person operating it. :57: