balancing help..

T

TAMPA_4RUNNER

New member
I've been banging my head against the wall lately. I recently changed to BF Goodrich A/T's and love them on my stock 2006 wheels. I had to get them road forced balanced and ran them for about 10K miles and they ran great at all speeds.

Now i just rotated and i'm getting a vibration at 60 - 80 mph, that wasn't there before. I had them road forced again just in case some weights fell off and the tech at the toyota dealer said the wheels are balanced. I requested that he put the wheels back on in the same spots since i just rotated, and he said that they are not in the recommended spots that the road force machine prefers. (that would be the pre-rotation placement)

my question is why would they run perfect, but then not when i rotate them? I shouldn't have to balance after each rotation, and if i did the road force machine would want to put the wheels back on the way they were before the rotation. i've read up on balancing issues on others posts, but haven't really seen anything to help me out.

should i just go back to the pre-rotation setup where there are no vibrations at all? my alignment is fine and i'm not chopping up my tires. It just doesn't make sense not to rotate tires.... Or will the vibration go away after the tires are accustomed to the new placement.

Thank you in advance for your help!!!

:thanks:
 
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You took the vehicle into the dealer and told the tech you had a vibration issue and the response was " the wheels are balanced?"

On the face of it, a tire rotation should not create the problem you are having.

Regardless of what the issue is, I'm skeptical. The dealership allowed you to leave after telling them you had a potentially big safety issue? Are we talking about vibration/shaking/death wobble or a hum? If it's a vibration and they let you go without troubleshooting it, they opened themselves up to a rather large liability issue.
 
cabowally said:
You took the vehicle into the dealer and told the tech you had a vibration issue and the response was " the wheels are balanced?"

On the face of it, a tire rotation should not create the problem you are having.

Regardless of what the issue is, I'm skeptical. The dealership allowed you to leave after telling them you had a potentially big safety issue? Are we talking about vibration/shaking/death wobble or a hum? If it's a vibration and they let you go without troubleshooting it, they opened themselves up to a rather large liability issue.
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the tech road forced them again and said they are balanced. They didn't just reply they are balanced. I asked that they didn't put the tires where the road force machine recommends because i just rotated. I can rotate back to the old positions and the shimmy/vibration is gone. it just doesn't make sense to me..

it's not a safety issue. they recommended running it for 7000 miles to break in the other 2 tires, then honored to re-balance them again. I'm bouncing it off the forum to see if anyone else has had a similar problem.
 
so ur saying that after being on the hunter machine the last time, it recommended the tires needed to be rotated on the wheel itself, then balanced & u told them not to rotate on wheel but just to balance as is? if so, that may be ur problem, one of the things that machine gives is recommendations for hard to balance setups, thats one of the reasons for getting a road force balance in the first place.
 
chaz said:
so ur saying that after being on the hunter machine the last time, it recommended the tires needed to be rotated on the wheel itself, then balanced & u told them not to rotate on wheel but just to balance as is? if so, that may be ur problem, one of the things that machine gives is recommendations for hard to balance setups, thats one of the reasons for getting a road force balance in the first place.
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no, sorry for the confusion. The tech meant moving the whole wheel to recommended spots on the truck (front or rear). He says each wheel checks out fine balancing wise on the machine, but i guess any irregularities cancel each other out in certain placements on the truck. (front or rear)

I told him to leave them in the same spots since i just did a rotation. If i let him change them to recommended spots i would be back to the old setup before the rotation, resulting in no rotation at all.

lol... it looks like i may be S.O.L.
 
i am having the same exact problem and with the same tires. i took them in to the tire shop to have them rotated and check the balance. i have now gone back 3 times. i lost the rotation and now is smooth due to the roadforce machine telling where to place the tires. i can tell where they are, the ft tires are on the rt side of the vehicle and the rears are on the left so now my wheel is slightly off center now(very slight) im fed up with this. im at a loss too.
 
its really frustrating... I'm going to drive another 500 miles on it to see if it goes away then I think I'm going to switch the tires back to where they run better. My buddy says he never rotated tires his tires since his alignment is fine... i guess ill take a chance.
 
The steel belts in the tire adjust to where the tire is, give it 1000 miles your vibrations should be gone.

Had the same problem before, not a big deal.
 
How bad is this vibration? Is it a slight vibration? Severe Vibration?

I went and googled for issues with BF Goodrich A/T tires and a common complaint seems to be that they do not like to stay balanced and they vibrate alot. Granted you are saying that the dealership balanced the tires and found them to be in balance, it was just something to note.

As for the tires themselves, when the technician says he Road-Force Balanced the tires is he paying attention to the Radial Runout? You should be able to request a printout of the Hunter's readings (granted this may be a PITA for the tech, but it may be worth having), I am going to assume the technician actually knows how to use the machine as he is using the more advanced features, (some of our guys still can't understand that it has an AUTO feature to measure what type of weight to use in sizing!) I suspect that there may be an issue with radial runout.

I would try to run the tires for another 500~1000 miles and see if the tires settle in their new placement, they may just have that characteristic.
 
MICA4R said:
The steel belts in the tire adjust to where the tire is, give it 1000 miles your vibrations should be gone.

Had the same problem before, not a big deal.
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lol, i went about 600 and just rotated back for the smoother ride. I got some interstate driving coming up so maybe i'll switch them back after the road trip to take your advice. Thanks!
 
BlackWorksInc said:
How bad is this vibration? Is it a slight vibration? Severe Vibration?

I went and googled for issues with BF Goodrich A/T tires and a common complaint seems to be that they do not like to stay balanced and they vibrate alot. Granted you are saying that the dealership balanced the tires and found them to be in balance, it was just something to note.

As for the tires themselves, when the technician says he Road-Force Balanced the tires is he paying attention to the Radial Runout? You should be able to request a printout of the Hunter's readings (granted this may be a PITA for the tech, but it may be worth having), I am going to assume the technician actually knows how to use the machine as he is using the more advanced features, (some of our guys still can't understand that it has an AUTO feature to measure what type of weight to use in sizing!) I suspect that there may be an issue with radial runout.

I would try to run the tires for another 500~1000 miles and see if the tires settle in their new placement, they may just have that characteristic.
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it's slight, and enough to see the steering wheel shake. I assume the tech knew what he was doing.. he sounded like he did until he blamed the road we were on during the test. I'll keep the print out idea in the back of mind for down the road. might be good to check out. Thanks!
 
I have heard of that a few times and it was always with the BFG AT's. I would put them back where they ride best and leave them there til they wear out then get a different brand. They won't last quite as long, but it will save you a bunch of frustration.
 
I've had BFG A/Ts on several vehicles, and they were always the hardest tire to get and stay balanced. I remember once a conscientious tire guy at sears (if you can believe that) went through 8 different A/T's just to get 4 that would balance correctly on a Wrangler I had.
 
SC Joe said:
I've had BFG A/Ts on several vehicles, and they were always the hardest tire to get and stay balanced. I remember once a conscientious tire guy at sears (if you can believe that) went through 8 different A/T's just to get 4 that would balance correctly on a Wrangler I had.
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Been there, done that! BFGs are always the hardest to balance and stay balanced. On my silverado with BFGs, I had discount tire rotate and balance after about 10k. They felt way off balance. I live about 100 miles to the closest discount so going right back isn't always an option. I had to take the truck off road in some deep mud and rough roads. After a good wash the BFGs were smooth as butter. Fast forward to last month, I didn't drive the truck for almost a whole month and guess what now the BFGs feel off balance again. No rotation, flats, rebalancing, just sitting in the drive way. On the 4runner I went with Hankooks. Right off the bat I can tell they are a smoother running tire. Well I just rotated the 'kooks last week and now I have a slight vibration. I think I may ride it out for 700 - 1000 miles to see if they wear in a little better. Toyos seem to be the best for balancing.
 
Gatafly said:
I have heard of that a few times and it was always with the BFG AT's. I would put them back where they ride best and leave them there til they wear out then get a different brand. They won't last quite as long, but it will save you a bunch of frustration.
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yeah, i think that's my plan.
 
gm350reratliff said:
Been there, done that! BFGs are always the hardest to balance and stay balanced. On my silverado with BFGs, I had discount tire rotate and balance after about 10k. They felt way off balance. I live about 100 miles to the closest discount so going right back isn't always an option. I had to take the truck off road in some deep mud and rough roads. After a good wash the BFGs were smooth as butter. Fast forward to last month, I didn't drive the truck for almost a whole month and guess what now the BFGs feel off balance again. No rotation, flats, rebalancing, just sitting in the drive way. On the 4runner I went with Hankooks. Right off the bat I can tell they are a smoother running tire. Well I just rotated the 'kooks last week and now I have a slight vibration. I think I may ride it out for 700 - 1000 miles to see if they wear in a little better. Toyos seem to be the best for balancing.
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i feel for you ! I hate buying tires... i always get shafted.
 
Had this same issue on my wifes deville with Dunlop tires. We finally scrapped the Dunlops and went to Michelins, problem solved, for us it was a quality / brand issue.
 
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