Tire Vibration Issues - which brands?

[The Critic]

I regularly hear about vibration issues with certain brands of tires. The tires will balance with a normal amount of weight, but the driver complains about a vibration while driving at highway speeds. Eventually the tires receive a road-force balance and supposedly the final road force value is still too high for the application. In laymen's terms, the joke is that the tires are "square" and "out-of-round."

Are there certain brands that are most prone to this issue?

 

[Lubener]

I never had a Cooper tire ever ride without a shimmy.

 

[IveBeenRued]

I regularly hear about vibration issues with certain brands of tires. The tires will balance with a normal amount of weight, but the driver complains about a vibration while driving at highway speeds. Eventually the tires receive a road-force balance and supposedly the final road force value is still too high for the application. In laymen's terms, the joke is that the tires are "square" and "out-of-round."

Are there certain brands that are most prone to this issue?

This is just from my experience and all of these have been roadbalancer verified:
Bought 12 Continentals: 0 OOR
Bought 12 Michelins: 0 OOR
Bought 4 Goodyears: 0 OOR
Bought 4 Generals: 1 OOR
Bought 8 Pirellis: 3 OOR

 

[skyactiv]

The Lost Art of Tire Shaving

www.caranddriver.com

 

[CapriRacer]

The Lost Art of Tire Shaving

www.caranddriver.com

Here's the problem with tire shaving: It only deals with the "Out-of-Round" part. It doesn't deal with the "Variable Stiffness" part. That's the reason it is "lost".

 

[DriveHard]

The Lost Art of Tire Shaving

www.caranddriver.com

I have wondered about that...

With some of the AWD systems, even a slight difference in rolling radius can cause issues with activation of the system. This is especially a problem when one tire is damaged or goes bad or needs to replaced. It often means replacing all four tires at a higher expense. Is shaving the new tire a possible way to use a brand new tire on one of these systems without replacing all four tires? Certainly could be more cost effective.

 

[SubLGT]

My Subaru is hypersensitive to excessive RFV (road force variation). Michelin tires have not given me any problems, but winter tires from Bridgestone and Nokian have given me vibration problems that were not fully eliminated with RF balancing. The Nokians were the worst of the 3 brands.

 

[Rand]

My Subaru is hypersensitive to excessive RFV (road force variation). Michelin tires have not given me any problems, but winter tires from Bridgestone and Nokian have given me vibration problems that were not fully eliminated with RF balancing. The Nokians were the worst of the 3 brands.

had to get 6 WRG2 suv tires to have 4 round ones.. this was out of their russian plant and IIRC there was some issues at the time.. might be better now.

 

[SubLGT]

had to get 6 WRG2 suv tires to have 4 round ones.. this was out of their russian plant and IIRC there was some issues at the time.. might be better now.

I had to go through 7 Nokian R2 tires in 2013 to get a decent set of 4. They were also manufactured in the newer Russian factory.

 

[meep]

2 tire paws hugely OOR
3 Firestone destination LE (Gen 1) OOR, and quickly replaced by the FS shop no questions asked.
tech told me once that a Bridgestone potenza took more weight to balance than he liked, but it was road forced and it runs smoooth.

 

[PandaBear]

Not sure about brand but more about rating. I think all my S rated tires have that problem and somehow they are all Goodyear or Chinese junk with above 600 UTQG. The T rated 440 UTQG tires I buy, even the cheap Chinese brands, do well on that department.

 

[SubLGT]

I regularly hear about vibration issues with certain brands of tires......

What are these brands of tires you heard about?

 

[JohnnyG]

Probably the worst set I ever had were from Cooper, but that was long ago and the tires were very cheap, so most likely were "seconds".

I also fought the RFV issue on my 1999 STS. I switched to Michelins and the issue was slight but noticeable. The tire shop worked with me and using a Hunter RFB machine, we were able to get the problem solved. I think we had to replace one tire in the process. They weren't the quietest tires, but they were smooth when we got the road force below 10#.

During that process I had a set of Yokohamas on, some sort of "rain tire" tread design that was fairly new at the time. The tires were VERY quiet, but would not road force balance. That's when I went to the Michelins.

 

[The Critic]

What are these brands of tires you heard about?

Pirelli seems to be the worst offender, by far.

 

[Sequoiasoon]

Pirelli seems to be the worst offender, by far.

Funny because the Pirelli P7 AS2 on my Accord and the Scorpion Verde AS2 on my daughters CRV are very smooth and very quiet.

My new Goodyear Winter Command Ultra have an annoying slight vibration. I brought them back for road force and still have it. I'm not paying again. They might get replaced for next winter. They are good in snow and ice though. I can't wait to get my smooth Pirelli's back on .

Worst set I ever had was some Dunlop Radial Rover A/T on my old Explorer. I bought the "lifetime" balance at Firestone and was back monthly. They always shook. I replaced them with Michelin LTX M/S and never had to go back, always smooth/quiet.