Samba

I received my winter rims/tires from TireRack. The set arrived in perfect condition. I noticed that one of the wheel has a lot of weight attached. I was a bit surprise. I never saw a wheel required so much weight to balance. Please see the photo. Does it look normal to you?

There was some vibration at highway speed. I will need to redo the balance.

Costco

Some wheels may not be completely uniform when they're cast so one part may need a lot of weight, so that could be normal. Keep in mind these are only ounces or even less being added to your wheel. I would still get them rebalanced by a reputable shop though, since even half an ounce can matter.

Spud35

I'd definitely get that re-balanced and maybe even get them to take the tire off and rotate it 180. I've never seen so many weights, usually they break them in the middle and would put 2 rows.

StuartMMVITL

iTrader: (1)

It does seem a bit excessive. Another vote for a local shop to re-balance, especially if your noticing vibration you didn't have before mounting these.

BTW, nice choice with the WinterSports I have them as well and find they perform really well in the snow & cold.

BDoggPrelude

^^^Good advice right there.

Honestly, I can't believe TireRack shipped those to you like that. They all have quite a bit of weight on them IMO...but that one in particular has tape weights going around nearly 1/4 of the wheel. I would never let something leave my shop like that. Another strike for online wheel/tire vendors.

prepreludesh

I have always been told that a problem with the balance could lie with the tire itself. Rubber isn't as easy to mold and make perfect like metal is, and sometimes a tire manufacturer will sell off less perfect tires of a particular model of tire to discounted chains (probably like the one online place you dealt with).

So if wheel manufacturers do the same thing, you could've got a double whammy of imperfection where it necessitated 1/4 of the wheel receiving weights, haha. Probably not...

BTW, off topic here, but why have I seen nothing but improperly mounted tires to wheels? What I'm talking about is there is always a colored dot on the outside face of a tire where it is supposed to be lined up with the valve stem of the wheel. This is because the valve stem of a wheel is one place where the wheel is going to be off balance from the rest of the wheel and that colored spot in the tire is supposed to compensate for the off balanced-ness of it all. Has nobody else noticed this?

George Knighton

Yes, I have noticed that!!

I have also noticed what I'd normally consider to be too much weight added to my factory 18" wheels, but I haven't said anything about it since they are evidently balanced well.

George Knighton

To me, it looks like all those wheels have too much weight. :-)

Kingmeow

I have never seen the red dot over the location of the valve stem. So much for information trickling down to the guys who actually do the work. Where's management????

BDoggPrelude

Every wheel has a high and low, (or heavy and light), spot and every tire has the same. Optimally, the high spot on the tire should be mated with the low spot on the wheel for the best balance possible using the least amount of weights. Road-force or ride-matched balancing can usually detect these high and low spots and show the tire technician exactly how to mount the tire for the best balance. TireRack supposedly does this on all of their wheel/tire packages...or at least that what they advertise. I've personally done a lot of this type of balancing and I'll tell you right now that the colored dot on the tire rarely lines up with the valve stem on the wheel thus dispelling the whole lining up the dot with the valve idea.

George Knighton

Okay, then.

Hmmm. Do we suppose that the extra weight of the TPMS transmitter causes them to have so many weights?

I've never seen so much weight on a wheel, but this is also my first car with the 5x120 TPMS.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

^
It's possible. I'd get them rebalanced, and have the tire shop turn the tire 180 degrees as mentioned above.

BDoggPrelude

I doubt it. TPMS sensors don't weigh very much. TireRack, like many tire shops in the country, are in the middle of their busy season. I'm sure they were probably in a hurry and just rushed it out the door like that. If I were you I'd first contact TireRack about the issue so that they know there is a problem. They'll probably send you to one of their recommended installers in your area to have the work done. If you're lucky the shop might be able to just bill TireRack for the work. If not you'll have to send the bill to them to have them reimburse you. Either way, you should not have to pay to have it fixed no matter how little it costs.

Just so that everybody knows, this is my big issue with buying wheels/tires from online vendors. You don't have somebody that you can take the vehicle to if you need to have service or warranty work taken care of. It's a pain in the ass to have to jump through all the hoops of talking to TireRack, then taking it to a shop, then having to report back to TireRack, etc.

You are also responsible for forking over the money to have regular servicing like rotations, rebalances and flat repairs. Look at it this way, the average tire shop is going to charge you $40 for a rotation/rebalance and $10-$20 for a flat repair. Let's say you have a set of tires that lasts for 35,000 miles. In that time you probably have them rotated 5-7 times and have at least 2 flats. That's up to $320 in servicing that you have to pay for. Hopefully you saved at least that much money by buying online. I wouldn't even get into the hassle that you'd go through if you need any warranty work taken care of.

FYI, your local Discount Tire will match any online vendor's price after shipping. In fact, you'll find that most of the time if you look at Discount's tire price it's just about what TireRack's price+shipping is. On top of that you get free lifetime rotations, rebalances and flat repairs...and a free pro-rated road hazard warranty, (something that you have to pay extra for when you purchase tires from TireRack). I know you already purchased this set of wheels/tires so this is a kind of a moo point...just something to think about the next time around.

prepreludesh

I hate those moo points...

Six Shifter

If it were me, I'd contact the sales person at TireRack who sold those to you ... get an email address, and send him the pictures and express your concerns. Maybe you can get them to agree to have one of their locally recommended shops check out the balancing at TireRack's expense. Worth a shot

Kingmeow

And do let us know the outcome if you go that route. Curious to see how would Tire Rack handle this situation as I was thinking of them for my next set.

StuartMMVITL

iTrader: (1)

I don't work for Discount Tire, but I can attest to the competitive price matching. I've bought four complete sets for three different cars over the past year or so, all from Discount Tire. They matched the Tire Rack prices and in one instance they actually beat the price. Each purchase was actually less than I would have paid through an online retailer (adding the shipping costs and installation costs).

I take care of my own rotations and repairs, but if you don't that's a nice bonus to have contained in the cost.

All in all I've been very pleased with their service & pricing here in the Denver area!

rondog

iTrader: (1)

have the wheel balanced on the machine by itself to find out the culprit.

Samba

Thanks for all your inputs. I did contact TireRack before the X'Mas. They will reimburse upto $25 for the rebalancing. I can live with the other three as they are not that bad. Now I need to get the rim/tire re-balanced and worry about scratches/marks on the rim after re-balancing. That will break my heart.

Samba

A quick update.... I had the wheel rebalanced at a local tire store. They put on even more weights to balance. A total of 5.75oz (23 x 0.25oz) of tape weights spread around the rim. The tech told me that there was still issue with the wheel.

Anyway, make the story short. I called TireRack again. They said that 90+% of the problem was the tire. They agreed to ship me a new tire and cover the cost of switching the rubber.

The customer service at TireRack was good. The lady answered my call was very professional and helpful.

Samba

StuartMMVITL < I am very happy with the feel of the wintersport 3d. It is quieter than the OEM tires. I am yet to try it on the snow. We have not get much snow in this winter yet.

Pete2010

I don't know how the 3D's are different than the M3's that I have, but I've driven in some deep stuff, packed, slick, etc... and my car has been GLUED to the road. Let us know how you like them once you get to play around in some snow.

StuartMMVITL

iTrader: (1)

I had the WinterSport 3D's on my '06 TL and they performed quite well. Other than a slightly different tread pattern and size availability I haven't found too many other differences. I think only the M3's are available in the stock size of 245/45 R18, as I wasn't able to find the 3D's in that size.

The M3's I have now perform as well as the 3D's I had on the '06 last year. We've had a fair amount of snow so far this year, and the M3's have done quite well, in the deep snow, hard packed snow, ice & the wet.

princelybug

iTrader: (16)

for Tire Rack CS!