Hi,
I just bought new Yokohama YK580 tires. I had YK520 tires but they're no longer manufactured. This new tire is the replacement and is suppossed to be a better tire.
I'm getting a small virbration or shake in the steering wheel when I'm driving on the freeway (around 60 to 70 mph). I went back to Discount Tire and they checked the balance of the front two tires. No problems and thus no need to rebalance.
Issue still persists. It may be coincidental that the vibration/shake started when my tires were changed. However, I'm focusing on the tires. The 580s are new and there are very few reviews. The tire tread is asymmetrical. I'm wondering if it is the tire itself maybe due to the tread or some other factor. Maybe the equipment, for balancing, at my local Discount Tire, is out of whack? All ideas welcomed.
Thanks, Rivdog

BTW, the tires are 'quiet' when driving
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It's worth fixin'

I bought the yokohama yk580 from discount tire as well and I had the exact same problem. I even went to check my alignment and my rotors/brakes, they were fine. Finally I went to my local honda dealer (I have an 09 honda accord 2D) and had the manager of the maintenance department take a look at the vibration/shaking of my steering wheel. He did a full inspection of all of my tires and steering column and anything else he could possibly think that could cause these issues. Yet there were no definitive results. He personally said that it must be a "bad tire". So I went back to discount tire and they replaced both front tires, because we could not pinpoint which was the "bad tire". Even after all of this I still have the same issue with vibration around 55-65 mph. BUT I did recently increase the PSI in my tires from 32 to 34 (trying to improve mpg) and this seemed to calm the vibration some, which is noticeable to me and much appreciated!!

Hooray! Problem resolved. Tires were not 'round'. (Egg-shaped). Third time a charm at Discount Tire. First time (after buying the tires) I got the tires balanced and then reported the issue to this log. Second time, they "road-forced" the tires. This was done using a Coates machine (they do not have a Hunter as one of the responders of this issue suggested). The tires were OK but off by a 1/4 ounce on the balancing machine. Problem still persisted, maybe just a wee bit less. Third time, today, I suggested moving the rear tires to the front and vice versa, as per another responder's suggestion in this blog. Instead, they checked all tires of which two were found to not be 'round'. These two tires were replaced. Now, they can't tell me which two tires, which doesn't help things out. But they said that all four were now round. (I think they probably know after all.)

However, the manager said that he only replaced the tires since I had been in a couple of times. So from that, I infer that they probably install these non-round tires on cars anyways. They probably don't check in the first place. I did call back and let them know that everything was OK. I may write to Discount since the manager didn't apologize at all. Instead I had to milk the info out of him. He was probably perturbed at me.

Thanks to all for the suggestions. I printed out your ideas and showed them during my first two visits to Discount Tire

Regards, Rivdog
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It's worth fixin'

Thanks for letting us know.

DEWFPO
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1998 S90 083,228 and 1995 964 154,100

I have been known to go back 3 time to get a good balance, and, I use Discount tire. Go to the manager and complain. If you do not get a good result, get on their web site and send them an email.

Either one of the tires is bad, or, the kid running the machine is out to lunch.

Klaus
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There is no present time, just the past and future

Hi! Thanks for the idea(s). Sorry for the late response. I thought I would be notified of replies to my forum question. (I'll have to check out my profile.) I'll report back after going thru all the suggestsions.
Regards, Rivdog
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It's worth fixin'

You can have the tires "road-force" balanced on a Hunter 9700(IIRC). This places a load on the tire as it's spinning and checks for dynamic balances. Most of the good tire shops have them. I've had a similar problem before and told the shop I'd pay for the difference in cost of the balancing if it was not the tires.

DEWFPO
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1998 S90 083,228 and 1995 964 154,100

Hi! Thanks for the idea(s). Sorry for the late response. I thought I would be notified of replies to my forum question. (I'll have to check out my profile.) I'll report back after going thru all the suggestsions.
Regards, Rivdog
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It's worth fixin'

It's very frustrating when that happens.
Most balancing machines can be set to a round-over function, so that any imbalance less than .25 ounce is rounded to zero, or the next higher. It makes the machine read "0.00" which if the customer is watching, pleases them more. But it can allow an imbalance to pass.
Ask if that's done at Discount.
Both tires should be released from the bead, spun 180 in relation to the wheel, and then rebalanced.
New tires will reveal small problems with the alignment - the old tires wear in to the progressive wear that the steering achieves, and hides the fault - to a small extent.
Hope you get it corrected.

Hi! Thanks for the idea(s). Sorry for the late response. I thought I would be notified of replies to my forum question. (I'll have to check out my profile.) I'll report back after going thru all the suggestsions.
Regards, Rivdog
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It's worth fixin'

I've had good experience with Yoko's, but no tire company is completely defect free over a production run. I had a similar problem to yours with some General tires and it was definitely a defect. Some error in manufacturing resulted in a stiff spot in the tires (where belts overlap??), so that they spun just fine on the balancing machine but when you put them on the road, the stiff spot would not flex as easily as the rest of the tire, so you got the vibration.

Being a new car it was a tough fight to get the dealer to acknowledge the faulty tires and exchange them, but in the end they did the right thing. I convinced them by putting a pair of snow tires/rims on the front and taking their service manager for a short drive, demonstrating that even the knobby winter tires were much smoother - night and day.
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Bob: son's XC70, dtr's '94-940, my 81GL, 83-DL, 89-745(V8) and 98-S90. Also 77-MGB and some old motorcycles.

Hi,
Sorry for late response. I thought I would be emailed when there were replies to my forum post. I'll have to check my profile.
I'll use your idea(s) and report back.
Thanks, Rivdog
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It's worth fixin'

Hi! Thanks for the idea(s). Sorry for the late response. I thought I would be notified of replies to my forum question. (I'll have to check out my profile.) I'll report back after going thru all the suggestsions.
Regards, Rivdog
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It's worth fixin'

Only a few possibilities. Defective tire, not balanced properly, suspension or bearing problem or a wheel problem. I'd go to another store and have them re balanced before going any further.

Hi,
Sorry for late response. I thought I would be emailed when there were replies to my forum post. I'll have to check my profile.
I'll use your idea(s) and report back.
Thanks, Rivdog
--
It's worth fixin'