Alin10123

Hey guys,
While reading one of the threads that moda_way participated in (thanks moda_way) i noticed he said something about vibration and the colored dots on the yokohama tires. Well... of course i just got yoko avid V4's put on and there's a little vibration on the highway that retorqueing the lugs didn't cure (but it did help).

Read this page on yokohamas website.

http://www.yokohamatire.com/utmatch.asp

It not only helps you balance out the tires but also in a way gives you a way to have a road force balance done without actually having to use a road force balancing machine.

Note where the page talks about the uniformity method. Do our stock wheels have a mark where it indicates the "minimum radial run-out?" as stated in the article? I noticed that my tires seem to be randomly mounted on my wheels.

I guess if the wheels dont have that mark... i'll have to use the "weight method" then. But does anyone know off hand if the wheels have the tick mark on them?

I thought about which section to put this in but i thought that it might not only be "tires and wheels" but it might also be "problems and fixes" so i figured i'd put it here to help more people out since the yokohamas seem to be a pretty popular tire around here. Hope that's ok with the mods.

Hope this helps some of you out and may be able to give you a smoother ride.

TSXdawg

Interesting you mention the vibration issue. I just had a set of AVID V4S's put on and did notice an ever so slight vibration in my steering wheel when I exceed 110 km/h. I wasn't sure if I experienced this with the OEM tires so I just ignored it. Now you have me thinking whether the tires were balanced properly. Although, I have to say that the vibration is very minor. Anybody else experience this with their tires?

I checked and could see the red/yellow dots on the tire although they are fading now. I don't know that our wheels have that tick mark on them or not but did notice that the tires appeared to be mounted randomly like yours (ie the yellow/red dots). I did re-torque the wheels but haven't had a chance to drive them on the highway again yet so I don't know if that was the problem or not.

Is this aligning of dots unique to Yokohama tires?

bz268

Interesting reading.

However, unless you are balancing the tires yourself, I don't think those guys in the tire place will care. They just want to get it done and kick you out.

Just ask if they can do a dynamic balancing for you instead. If you are lucky, they may actually do it for you.

Alin10123

Well... first things first. They have to try and line up the red dot to the mark on the inside of the wheel (if there is one on the inside of the wheel). Then do a regular balance. According to Yokohama, it should make a difference because it's like a cheap road force balance. My stock tires had a vibration problem at first, but after many attempts and even bringing up lemon law, the dealer sent it to a shop that does road force balancing and it fixed the problem. It road really smooth and 0 vibration until i got these new Yokos put on. Then i remember moda_way mentioning something about the colored dots so i looked it up on yokohamas website. I am going back to the place that installed my tires and having them redone the proper way. The manager was intrigued by what i had to say about yokos website. I hope they fix the problem. The vibration is just ever so slight in the steering wheel.

TSXdawg

So even your stock Michelins had a vibration then? Did it come like that from the dealer?

I have another problem, the red dots have faded away on a couple of my Yokos after 3 weeks.

Alin10123

Yea, a little bit. But they eventually fixed it somehow. They probably dismounted them, turned them a little bit and then remounted them.

Hmm... they faded? well... they aren't designed to stay on there. Most only mount once and then leave it. Not sure what to do there. You might want to mark them if they are still barely visible.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

I have the same tires on two of my cars with road forced balancing and no vibration. The dots were not used during the mounting process.

Alin10123

Well... obviously if you were doing the roadforce, the road force machine would measure the runout of both the tire and the wheel and tell the guy to adjust it accordingly.

Most shops dont have a road force balancing machine. Even my local dealers dont have one. So they would have to use the dots for an "educated guess". I still say it's better than nothing.

If anyone in the Atlanta area is having vibration problems with ANY tire, i know a place that will fix that problem 100% guaranteed. This place is awesome. They torque and untorque every single thing by hand and with a torque wrench. They've even got specialized machines to mount and dismount. With me watching them do it, there's virtually no chance that they'lls cratch you're wheel the way they do it. These guys are VERY professional. You dont see hand torqueing and lossening anymore. Everyone uses an impact wrench. But in their shop you dont even hear an impact wrench at all.

When i went there, i saw porsches, ferraris, mercedes, and bimmers there.
The guy there knows me, so he ALWAYS hooks me up. Let me know and i'll give you the name of the place and the name of the dude and i'll have him hook you up. Otherwise that place is a few bucks more than other places. But if he hooks you up, it's not so bad.

TSXdawg

Just thought I'd update. After re-torquing the wheels, the vibration seems to have gone away. I took it up to about 120 km/h and it was silky smooth.