sb65

After reading mostly rave reviews on this forum and the tirerack site, I ordered the Avids and had them installed. This past Saturday, I was back for my 3rd trip to the installer to try to get them balanced due to vibrations in both the front and back. After their third try at high speed balancing using the Road Force balancer, they told me that they are unable to balance them and despite remounting and balancing for a 3rd time, there is still wobble. That points to a tire issue.

Has anyone had this before (i.e. tires out-of-round)? I left the warranty etc info at home but I plan to contact Tirerack tomorrow to see what can be done. I am going to request that the tires be replaced under warrantly, but I don't want another set of bad tires. I guess I don't have much choice but to go with the same tire.

Besides the vibrations in the steering wheel and the seat (due to rear wheels), they seemed to flat spot pretty bad in the cold weather, and they also seem to transmit every little bump and road imperfection, which is not what I want. I really don't like the OEM Michelin's, but the ride was a sh*tload better. Better traction with the Avids though.

death

Sounds like a manufacturer's defect. Contact the company that you purchased the tires through and have them send you a replacement set. This is an issue that happens to a small percent of tires produced.

As one of the people who probably recommended the AV4's I hope this works out for you. I have had no problems with mine.

implayaz9

iTrader: (1)

thinkin about ordering these tires soon.. where is the cheapest place to get them?

speedbawlinTL

x2 to essentially everything you said


good luck resolving this

death

tires.com or tirerack.com

I got mine at tires.com with the additional tire warranty. So far I've had 2 tires replaced with no hassle. One from hitting a curb and ending up with a bubble, and one from a flat where the tire needed to be replaced.

sb65

Guess I'll give the Avid V4s another shot, though I am hesitant to do so.

2003TL-S

I would have to agree that they do seem to flat spot very easily in extreme cold weather...........if they don't have just the right air pressure in them, do a tad higher than 32psi and you'll be fine. I had an issue soon after I got my second set of V4s' on my '03 TL-s with the exact vibration scenario you talk about, it went away after putting some miles on them. Love this tire and would buy them a third time. I just have to remember to rotate them a little more often!!!

sb65

If a tire will not balance, why would the vibration go away? I have maybe 1K miles on these tires. Terrible ride. I've tried 32 up to around 35 psi, and it is the same ride.

Tire rack is currently saying that they want to identify which tire(s) are bad as Yoko will likely not just replace a full set of tires. The installer just said that "we cannot get the wobble out of them", so I think all are bad. I need to call them again and get more information.

If vibrations are common with this tire, including severe flatspotting, maybe I will re-think this some more. Hate to put the crappy and expensive OEM michelin's back on, but at least they rode smoothly and never flatspotted. Ditto for my Dunlop SP2s on my Accord.

implayaz9

iTrader: (1)

what other tires run do you guys recommend?

Flyboy4yang

Hmm...that's weird. I ordered mine from tires.com they balanced just fine. Been riding on them for at least 10,000 without any problems.

I previously had continetal contisport tires and they weren't bad either.

dcostatl

pirelli p zero nero m&s all the way.....

speedbawlinTL

you have to have defective tires if they'e having that much trouble with them... I've had at least one pair of Yokohamas on my car since I bought it (for some reason the fronts were OEMs and the rears were Yokos when I first gor it... ??? ... I've got a full set on now)... I've loved them because for their price, they're awesome and until I get my car to the point where it's fully loaded, I don't really have a need for higher quality... I look at my car as being in the R&D phase until I've finally got all my major mods on, so there's no sense in wasting my money wearing out expensive tires until I truly need the improved performance... Yokohama Avid V4s and Khumos are inexpensive, but high quality... I think Suitomos are alroght and pretty cheap, too... I can't say anything about the other tires you all mentioned...

implayaz9

iTrader: (1)

does it perform well over every weather? cause above someone mentioned tht it flattens in winter?..not sure what that means//

2003TL-S

I believe it was me mentioning the flat spotting in cold weather. But that was fixed at least for me by making sure that the air pressure was a tad higher than 32 psi. I happen to think very highly of these tires as an all season tire. I have had no problems getting through 8+ inches of snow in them. My opinion that definitely out perform the OEM Michelins in all seasons

sb65

The Yoko Avid's have great traction and are very quiet, but the ride is extremely rough compared to the POS OEM Michelins, but much of that is probably due to the balancing issue causing constant vibration. I have been driving for over 20 years and have had all kinds of tires on my cars, and I have never experienced flat spotting, but that does seem to be an issue with the Avids and many other high performance tires.

indoMFP

I am running the Yoko Avids and have had them for almost 14k miles... these tires are hella awesome... better than OEM and the price is unbeatable... I bought them from Tirerack.com and got the warranty on them too... still way cheaper than OEM....

I haven't had any problems with them, i think the ride quality is better than stock, but will change as the tires starts to wear....

If you are having issues balancing, ask the car shop to spin just your rim with no weight and see if that comes up double zeros (00.00).... it sounds to me you might have a rim issue, not a tire issue...

lokee99

iTrader: (3)

True cause I have that issue. One of my rims is bent and I have a slight vibration at high speeds. I need a new rim and I should be good.

sb65

I asked the guy today if it could be the rim and he claimed that the roadforce balancer would indicate if it was a bent rim. I am going to swing by tomorrow and will inquire again though, as it didn't make much sense to me either.

The vibration wasn't there until I put the Yokos on, so I am doubting that is the issue. Also, I don't drive my car hard, and haven't hit any outrageous potholes/bumps or anything, so I don't think I could possibly have bent both a front and rear rim. I have a whole car vibration thing going on. I bought the TL-P over a TL-S precisely for a smoother ride, so that is a major issue for me.

implayaz9

iTrader: (1)

so let me ask this.,. majorityof people who have had this had problem of just flat spotting in cold weather? how can i avoid this if i get the tires?.. i am planning to order these next week so.. wanna make sure if these are the ones i wanna order!

speedbawlinTL

^^it's already been said at least twice- inflate the tires to a little over 32 psi when it's cold out (gasses compress as they get colder)... if you do ever get flat-spotting (I've only had that happen to me once), driving around for a few minutes takes care of it as the tires warm up and putting a little more air in should fix it

take your tires in to somewhere else for a second opinion... either whoever you talked to is a fool who thinks he knows better or you have defective tires... once you get a second opinion, you should know for sure

sb65

Yeah, I considered running by another shop and seeing if they could balance the tires, but balancing tires isn't rocket science ... I would think any competent shop with a road force balancer could do it. Might give it a shot, but I hate to fork over any more money on this. Might be with $40 or whatever balancing costs though.

speedbawlinTL

well if the guy tells you something and he turns out to be wrong, take it up with management and make sure that they know what happened and that you aren't happy about how you got treated... maybe you can get a refund out of them or something if you argue your point well... if that's not the case, take it up with tirerack and see if you can't get the defective tire(s) replaced

sb65

Just got off the phone with tire rack cust service and sales. The cust service person said that they are hesitant to send the same tire (Yoko V4s) again if the current ones are not giving a suitable ride and eventually transferred me to sales. The sales guy asked lots of questions and stated that the Avid V4s are THE tire he would recommend (he said he runs them on his vehicle) and that they are the softest riding performance tire for a 2003 TL that they carry. He said I could go for a touring/softer tire, but the choices were fairly limited. We discussed the Turenza LSV, a Kumho (forget the model) and the Sumito HTR, but in each case he said the Avid V4S is a better tire.

He thinks that the issue could be with one or more bent rims and that the issue could have been masked by the MXV4 tire, which has softer sidewalls. He said that a shop with the Hunter 9700 Roadforce Balancer who know how to use it should have checked the rims if the tires wouldn't balance and offered that I may want to try another shop vs the one that had tried 3X to balance the tires before concluding that it was bad tires.

When I bought the car (certified Acura), there was 1 bent rim that had to be replaced (after 2 trips to the dealer complaining of a vibration at 75 mph), so if 1 or more of the other rims are bent, that would not be a surprise to me AND would sort of make sense that the installer said that they were able to get one of the wheels balanced better than the other 3.

Now I am trying to decide if I want to fork over $60+ to try a new shop (who knows what they are doing) or if I want to take it back to the same shop for a 4th time and suggest that they verify the rims are NOT bent. I'm thinking about sucking up the cash and going to a different shop. God I hope it isn't bent rims. I don't feel like shelling out $600 for new rims (assuming I can find the OEM rims for $200/each).

death

Sorry to hear your still having issues with your tires & possibly your rims. I see that your in VA... if you do end up going the route of replacing your rims SoyBoy26 has a set of 5 up for sale in the private sales forum & he's local.

Good luck with getting this worked out and keep us posted.

Jchick

I've got a 2000 TL 3.2

These were great tires for the first 2,000 miles or so. Then the TL started pulling to the left, especially on highway driving at 75mph. Took it in for alignment, was off a little, no change. Took it back, they tweaked alignment again. Tires rotated. No change. Took it to another shop, alignment right on, rotated tires again. Same problem.

They finally replaced the V4S tires with Yoko TRZ and problem solved. Something about the V4S was too aggressive/too grippy or something.

The Yoko Avid TRZ tires are awesome..so far..at about 5,000 miles.

I'd avoid the V4S tires.

implayaz9

iTrader: (1)

are they about the same price or?

implayaz9

iTrader: (1)

finally i decided to go with the yokahoma's and man.. they so much better the oem michellins... great tire for a decent price!

sb65

Update on my balancing issue. I went back and chatted with them over the weekend and found out that they had NOT been using the Roadforce balancing. Why the hell they would not have tried that or offered it up on the 3rd balancing try is beyond me. I was under the impression that they were doing it already.

I just got a call from the shop and they said that 2 tires were off by 9 lbs, which is apparently fine, and one was off by 14 and one by 22. He said that they detected a small "hop" in the latter 2 and that it seems to be that the tires are out of round. They took it out and said that it was smooth up to 80 mph.

I asked about a bent rim and he said it was possible (but not likely) that the rim could be bent on the 2 tires that were registering 14 and 22. I asked if they tried those tires on one of the rims that was registering only 9 (which would be logical, I would think) and they had not done so and would not have time at this point to do so today. I will have to assume that it is 2 bad tires and get replacements from tirerack and try again. Currently the left side tires are the good ones and the right side are the bad ones. However, when I rotate, I believe the proper rotation is move the front to the back and then cross the backs back to the fronts, so that could reintroduce the vibration I would think, so I want to get all 4 tires to be in-balance perfectly.

What an utter pain in my arse.

death

Good to hear your making some progress in getting your tire issue resolved. FYI with tire rotation on the Yoko's they only rotate front to back. This is due to the tire being directional. If you move the right rear to the left front the tread will be pointing toward the rear of the car. Hopefully tirerack will hook you up with two new tires to test out.

sb65

Ahhhh, I forgot that these are directional. Thanks for reminding me. I was thinking of the Dunlops I had on my Accord for a few years.

I called the tire installer back and told them that I'll pay the money to put the bad tires on the good rims to verify that it is not bent rims, and this time the guy on the phone conferred with the guy who ran them through the road force balancer and said that 2 of the tires were bad and I had one slightly bent rim. I plan to check it out after work and probably contact tirerack tomorrow about getting the 2 bad tires replaced. They have been very responsive so far, so hopefully this will not be an issue.