I`m hoping some tire "experts" can help me out with this issue.
My wife had General Tire winter tires put on her XC70 last January & in the Spring as we were appraoching the time to take off the winters I happened to drive the car & noticed a profound shimmy @ 65 mph. We took the car to a local tire shop(not where we bought the tires) to get them balanced & were told that they could not be balanced because of tread separation. My wife took the car & tires to place of original purchase, explained the issue & the tire tech put them on the balancer & said they are fine. So who`s telling the truth here?
The local tire tech told us that there wasn`t any visual indication of tread separation but inability to balance the tire was "proof" of T.S. The second guy maybe didn`t want to replace any of the tires.
I`m "spooked" now, not knowing if my wife is driving on defective/unsafe tires. BTW, I drove the car today & the shimmy is gone but there is distinct pull to the right which definitely wasn`t there with the all seasons which we just pulled off. Short of spending more $ on different tires, is there an answer?
All info appreciated!
Thanks,
Rich

You can feel a tread separation. Run your hands over the surface of the tire. The separation will be a lump or a low spot depending on how it failed. Sometime strands of the steel belt will be poking out of the tread, so you probably want to wear gloves. The kids mounting and balancing tires usually know which side of the wheel goes out...

I got lots of practice finding tread separations on Firestone radial tires in the mid to late '70.

Greg

Ok, so I stopped by to discuss the tire issue with my local mechanic. He seemed to agree that tires do not have tread separation as otherwise they would not be able to be balanced at all. Also, he said that at slow speeds the effect of TS would very, very noticeable.
I guess my next move is to take the XC to the city to have a wheel alignment done. The winter tires look almost brand new so I don`t anybody will be trying to sell me another set of tires.
Rich

Klaus,
thanks for your input as always. I`ve decided to take the tires to another tire shop in the city & have them rebalanced without mentioning the tread separation concern. Maybe I`ll have the tires rotated as well.
With all due respect, I don`t see why the XC might need a wheel alignment after putting the winter tires on when there was no "wandering" with the all season`s on the car. The XC had a WA last Spring.
Rich

Big simle. You should have gone to the original tire store to have them balanced. Perhaps a weight fell off? The second shop is also in the business of selling tires, so who is right? The shop that can show you the tread separation, like the one I went to when I thought it just needed a balance.

I suggest YOU rotate the wheels, front to rear, and drive it again. If the pulling to the right goes away and the imbalance comes back, go to the original tire store and have them balance the tires.

You might need an alignment, but do that after the tires are balanced and use a different shop for that. I found a very good alignment shop by asking a local garage where they send their customers cars - most Mom&Pop shops do not have the equipment.

Klaus
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