I find it very difficult to pick new tires. None of the "expert" test/comparisons bother to test the most important quality - roundness and ability to balance. All my cars seem to be very sensitive to this.
Every time I bought tires new tires in the last 20 years, I got front-end shaking that's new to the car. In almost every instance, balancing/rebalancing didn't help. I ended up having to pay for road force measurements, only to find out that the tires were in fact badly out of round from the start. Claiming warranty based on out-of-roundness is generally very difficult. Manufacturers seem to have proprietary standards of how much variation is acceptable. They also vary depending on tire size and most manufacturers keep this data secret. Plus, their "acceptable" variations are way too high, so even tires deemed as "acceptable" cause major front-end shaking and they won't replace them.
I've had this problem with many different brands: Continental, BFG, Good Year, Kumho, Falken, General, Federal, Barum, etc. From experience, country of manufacture seems to be more important than brand. Worst tires I ever had were from Discount Tire Direct, Continentals made in Brazil, all 4 totally out of round but only 1 of 4 met Continental's limit for replacement. Continental replaced it. The replacement was made in Czech Republic and was perfect, but it didn't do me any good with the other 3 shaking. Below is the Road Force report on 3 tires: they were 16, 20, 12 lbs out-of round, with Continental saying up to 18 lbs is acceptable! ***! For brand new OEM tires installed on new cars, most auto manufacturers do not accept tires that are more than 2 lbs out of round!!!
Due to this persistent problem, I have stopped buying tires online as dealing with warranty claims is nearly impossible. I also always ask to see the tires to find out where they were made and usually get the deer-in-headlights look. But even in brick and mortar stores the balancing/out-of-round is a major problem. Their first instinct is to claim that I have a suspension issue. They reluctantly replace the tires but it usually doesn't help. In fact, oftentimes the replacement tires are even worse than the original set. What I do, out of desperation, is I just swap the wheels around until I end up with the best two on the front end which eliminates the shaking and never rotate the tires.
The only replacement tires I ever bought that were perfect out of the gate were Bridgestones made in Japan and Michelins made in France. Both purchases over 20 years ago.
What is everyone's experience with out-of-round tires? How do you pick tires and which installers seem to be most knowledgeable and helpful about balancing/out-of-round problems?
My list:
BEST: Japan, France, Czech Republic.
Hit or Miss: USA, Germany, Korea.
WORST: China, Brazil, Taiwan.
Every time I bought tires new tires in the last 20 years, I got front-end shaking that's new to the car. In almost every instance, balancing/rebalancing didn't help. I ended up having to pay for road force measurements, only to find out that the tires were in fact badly out of round from the start. Claiming warranty based on out-of-roundness is generally very difficult. Manufacturers seem to have proprietary standards of how much variation is acceptable. They also vary depending on tire size and most manufacturers keep this data secret. Plus, their "acceptable" variations are way too high, so even tires deemed as "acceptable" cause major front-end shaking and they won't replace them.
I've had this problem with many different brands: Continental, BFG, Good Year, Kumho, Falken, General, Federal, Barum, etc. From experience, country of manufacture seems to be more important than brand. Worst tires I ever had were from Discount Tire Direct, Continentals made in Brazil, all 4 totally out of round but only 1 of 4 met Continental's limit for replacement. Continental replaced it. The replacement was made in Czech Republic and was perfect, but it didn't do me any good with the other 3 shaking. Below is the Road Force report on 3 tires: they were 16, 20, 12 lbs out-of round, with Continental saying up to 18 lbs is acceptable! ***! For brand new OEM tires installed on new cars, most auto manufacturers do not accept tires that are more than 2 lbs out of round!!!
Due to this persistent problem, I have stopped buying tires online as dealing with warranty claims is nearly impossible. I also always ask to see the tires to find out where they were made and usually get the deer-in-headlights look. But even in brick and mortar stores the balancing/out-of-round is a major problem. Their first instinct is to claim that I have a suspension issue. They reluctantly replace the tires but it usually doesn't help. In fact, oftentimes the replacement tires are even worse than the original set. What I do, out of desperation, is I just swap the wheels around until I end up with the best two on the front end which eliminates the shaking and never rotate the tires.
The only replacement tires I ever bought that were perfect out of the gate were Bridgestones made in Japan and Michelins made in France. Both purchases over 20 years ago.
What is everyone's experience with out-of-round tires? How do you pick tires and which installers seem to be most knowledgeable and helpful about balancing/out-of-round problems?
My list:
BEST: Japan, France, Czech Republic.
Hit or Miss: USA, Germany, Korea.
WORST: China, Brazil, Taiwan.
