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Brand New Tires Will not Balance Properly...WHY??


Dub City

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I have a 2014 Ford Edge with 20K miles on it. I have been dealing with a chronic vibration (felt in the seat not in the steering wheel) for the past year and a half now. I can not pin point a pattern of any type, it appears to happen at random speeds, no rhyme or reason. I have taken this car to every tire shop around, every Ford dealer around, and no one can find the issue. I replaced the tires about a month ago because the Ford dealer said that needed to be the first place I start in order to find the issue. I have had the new tires balanced about 3 times now and still get a vibration. The interesting thing is that every place I go says that all the wheels are in great shape (no bends etc), but when they put the wheels on the balance machine, they balance out differently each time. For example I took it to a tire dealer in my area, they pulled all 4 wheels and put them on the balance machine. They spun each tire 4 times consecutively...3 of the wheels each time had a different reading on the balance machine..1 was perfect every time. This same thing has happened at multiple tires shops/dealers etc. No one can figure it out! Very frustrating!

 

Can anyone shed some light on this issue???

 

Thanks!!

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Have you considered it might not be the wheels/tires? If it was and you've swapped the wheels front to rear you should get a vibration in the steering wheel at some point. The wheel balance issue may be a red herring. Check the rotors, calipers, tone rings, etc. next would be the drivetrain especially the driveshaft if it's AWD.

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Which wheels do you have? Not the 22's I hope? What tires did you have put on? Some of the "cheaper" tires have problems right out of the box. Heck, even the Pirelli Scorpions had bead leak issues! Also, I assume the wheel/tire were roadforce balanced? I would take them to a professional wheel repair shop and have them checked for true-ness.

 

Then move on to the excellent suggestions made by akirby above.

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A second vote for Hunter Roadforce Balancing.

 

I had a set of 18" Ronal's on my S4 that I had balanced twice at two different shops and they still vibrated at 60mph. both of these shops were using cheap weights that they would affix with cheap double sided tape. not even 3M quality.

 

Finally found a shop with a Hunter Roadforce high speed balancing machine and I advised the tech to please glue the weights on.

 

The car rides almost perfect now.

 

plug your address in this link and it will direct you to a shop with the high speed balancing machine.

 

http://www.hunter.com/gsp9700

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I have thought it was something more than the wheel balance, but when I take it places they tell me everything is fine...I am starting to think I am going to have to live with it until I get rid of it...

 

The wheels that are on it are 18" with Michelin Latitude Tour HP tires. As far as the road force balance...I am pretty sure this has never been done. I will have to look into a local place that offers that.

 

The last time they pulled my wheels they told me that my rear rotors had some "Low spots" but they said they didn't need to be replaced...Could these rotors be causing the vibration issue even without applying the brakes?

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I have one wheel that was out of balance when I installed the snow tires and it took 5-6 oz of weight to balance it. Then when I just had the new duelers installed that same wheel was out of balance by 6-7 oz. I am thinking the chrome clad wheels are hiding road grime and dirt and causing balancing issues.

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I have not had a chance to address the wheel that has the issues of balancing. I may take it off at the shop and power wash the HE double hockey sticks out of it and see if it re-balances better. If not then I am guessing that Ford let some out of balance poorly QA'ed wheel slip through. I may check out some junk yards for wheels also to see if I can find a match with less weights on the wheel.

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No. The wheels are balanced individually on a machine in my case an individual wheel does not balance well and requires an extraordinary amount of weight

 

I think he was referring to the OP's problem. It could easily be a driveshaft especially since he never feels it through the steering wheel.

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I have been doing some more research into this issue...As I am reading I am seeing people refer to a "Clunk" that is felt near the arm rest and it occurs when accelerating from stop lights etc. This has been happening on my Edge for a while now, didn't really think much of it. They are saying it could have something to do with the driveshaft slip yoke. Could this also be contributing to my vibration issue?

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I figured it out today!!! I am posting a video to show how to correct the problem and the fact that Ford has failed with the Chrome Clad wheels if this is what you have. Video should be up in a few hours.

I have a 2014 Ford Edge with 20K miles on it. I have been dealing with a chronic vibration (felt in the seat not in the steering wheel) for the past year and a half now. I can not pin point a pattern of any type, it appears to happen at random speeds, no rhyme or reason. I have taken this car to every tire shop around, every Ford dealer around, and no one can find the issue. I replaced the tires about a month ago because the Ford dealer said that needed to be the first place I start in order to find the issue. I have had the new tires balanced about 3 times now and still get a vibration. The interesting thing is that every place I go says that all the wheels are in great shape (no bends etc), but when they put the wheels on the balance machine, they balance out differently each time. For example I took it to a tire dealer in my area, they pulled all 4 wheels and put them on the balance machine. They spun each tire 4 times consecutively...3 of the wheels each time had a different reading on the balance machine..1 was perfect every time. This same thing has happened at multiple tires shops/dealers etc. No one can figure it out! Very frustrating!

 

Can anyone shed some light on this issue???

 

Thanks!!

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Another great vid Mac and great job figuring out the problem!!!! I also just watched your rear brake vid and it really helped me get prepared for doing the rear brakes on my 2011 next week. I've done brakes on all my vehicles for years but never had to deal with the screw in pistons on the rear calipers. Gonna be a heck of a lot easier then dealing with the drum style parking brakes!!!!!!! :)

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Thanks for the words of encouragement. Wait till you see the next video on what I went through to air up the Bridgestone dueler Ecopia's a couple of them made me feel like I it was the first time I ever mounted a tire. I bet Me, Bob and Rusty used that CHEATA bead sealer on those tires at least a dozen times. Even they were getting frustrated.

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Thanks for the words of encouragement. Wait till you see the next video on what I went through to air up the Bridgestone dueler Ecopia's a couple of them made me feel like I it was the first time I ever mounted a tire. I bet Me, Bob and Rusty used that CHEATA bead sealer on those tires at least a dozen times. Even they were getting frustrated.

The old school guys would have just used brake cleaner and a match......

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