Nuke

I recently bought new wheels on ebay and tires from tirerack and my local Ford dealership quoted the best price of all the shops I called to mount and balance including swapping over my TPMS sensors. I watched them spin balance all 4 wheels and paid close attention for any signs of run-out. They all looked great and balanced fine. Out the door and onto the highway and I had severe shimmy at about 60 on up. Off the highway and the car felt like it was on oblong wheels rolling from about 10 mph on up.

Back to the dealership where they then RoadForce balancedall 4tires to find one of the tires was defective. All 4 wheels and remaining 3 tires were within tolerance. Tirerack shipped a replacement tire (no queations asked, btw) and back to thedealership whobroke down the defective tire, mounted the new and RoadForce balanced that one fine. All's well and the dealership didn't charge me one extra penny for the additional 2 trips.

OK, now that you have some history... Since I know the tires and wheels are "good", the next time I go for a wheel balance, is a regular spin balance or RoadForce balance preferred?

shooter23

Doesnt matter. The tech shouldve been able to pick up the bad tire the first time it was balanced, it wouldve been walking on the balancer if it was that bad.

As long as the machine is calibrated regularly and maintained, all the balancers will do the job. In saying that, an old machine could have difficulties, but in saying that, the Ford dealer should have the most up to date equipment.

It happens, I own a tire shop and I see it every now and then, and im glad to hear that TireRack sent the new tire without any questions or problems, thats some good customer service!!

Im glad to hear everything worked out and your back on the road.

And for the record, the chance of the same customer running into this twice, is HIGHLY, HIGHLY unlikely if you are buying good band name tires. Defective tires are becoming more and more scarce nowadays and when it does happen, its not the balancer that will make the difference.

Nuke

I watched them balance the tire the first time when they did just the spin balance and I watched the tire closely for ANY lateral or radial movement. Which is why I was so suprised when they re-spun it. It came up goose-eggs on the spin but, with the same machine performing the RoadForce, it failed. They printed the results off the machine's computer screen so I could send it to Tirerack if needed. The way they explained it to me, the Road Force balance exerts force on the tire as if it was rolling with the car's weight on it. It detectsthose sections of thetire that don't have the same amount of "spring" which translates to theride as a hard spot as the tire rolls,causing the bounce I felt. You'd never see it on a traditional spin balance.