Wheel Balancing problem - Even after silver / Gold on Car Balance on New Kakadu

[Bear63 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bear63]

VXWesty , i see that you weren't happy with the sidewall damage , but Yokohama did do a pro rata claim on the damage , i am not sure of any other company who does this free of charge usually you have to pay for the insurance

[VXWesty Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close VXWesty]

The damage was multiple "bruising" around the sidewalls of all tyres, basically bumps in the sidewall where the rubber had delaminated resulting in bulges and weakened sidewalls. It's not that I'm unhappy with the warranty side of things, in fact it's admirable that Yokohama provided the warranty. What I have found out is that the GO12's are not up to the task of serious 4WDing and their sidewalls seem to be their weakness, so in my mind they're not suitable for my needs.

I'll most likely end up with a set of Mickey Thompson 4-Rib ATZ which have thicker, 3ply sidewalls and deeper tread.

VXWesty

[winniliss Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close winniliss]

Sorry for the high-jack but I cannot praise Bob Jane enough in Spring Hill QLD who fitted my Geolanders AT/S. They aligned the yellow dot with the valve but also used the stick on weights that go on the inside of the rim. Other tyre shops have used the external weights which maybe better but the rim is scratched up. The tyres were fitted to my new camper trailer and I even scored 4 prado rims for $600. The trailer studs had to be changed and they supplied and fitted the new ones with no extra charge. I just paid $640 for two tyres and they were even prepared to work after 5pm to get my vehicle done as I was leaving 6am the next morning. Best customer service ever. I did however pull up the young fella who was going to use the rattle gun on the alloy rims.

Winston.

P.S They have a good waiting area for customers and a good coffee machine. I also forgot to put in the word 'enough' at the start of my sentence.

[Corigator Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close Corigator]

And of course you need to have all the dirt off the rims before balancing, or it will come off later and cause unbalance :{

[Bawky Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bawky]

Update - Problem Fixed - Defective Tyres were the cause!

Hi everyone, thank you all for your help through this problem. I followed your advice and today BJ received the new Yokohama tyres and removed all tyres and weights from the rims. They checked the rims and they were all within 0 - maximum 15 grams out of balance. They said the rims were not the problem, infact the Kakadu rims were excellent.

They started by fitting all tire yellow dots aligned with the valve stem and their match mounting machine only requested 1 tyre to be rotated on the rim a small amount. The wheels balanced well and quickly. All done in 45 minutes. Everyone said the balancing went as expected, not as previously experienced on the 4 prior attempts of up to 2 hours on 1 balance. We all expected the test drive to be a success, which it was.

The synopsis:

1. The Roadforce machine stated that 3 tyres were marginal not a pass - They should have been replaced after first balance failed.
2. When the Roadforce machine was moving the yellow dots far away from the valve stem, the rim could have been checked and then the tyre could have been viewed as being suspect.
3. Every tyre brand can have a defective tyre, regardless of history. 'There is a first time for everything'.
4. As a post suggested in this thread, no amount of balancing will fix a defective tyre.
5. Excellent advice received was to check the rims for balance first and if they are ok, then it must be either the tyres or balancing procedure. If the rims are ok, then either they replace the tyres or give a refund. This was very true.
6. Stand with the tyre fitter and understand the process. The 5th tyre was only replaced because I asked if it had been done, they said it should be ok from yesterday, and I insisted it was replaced as it was from the previous batch. The tyre was supplied by Yokohama, so no additional cost to the tyre fitting company, except 10 minutes labour.
7. Be persistent and ramp up your frustrations if you need to so that you are taken seriously.
8. Consider the customers inconvenience when dealing with problems, they have better things to do with their time than to be revisiting the same issue 5 times.
9. Thank you to BJ for following through, Yokohama for immediate agreement to supply new tyres free of charge without any issue.
10. Thank you to Prado Point and all members who shared their input and gave me the direction not to refit the OEM tyres and pin point the issue must be the tyres. What a great Forum with great members

I was worried about where the problem was coming from as I had not driven the original tyres on the freeway or at speed. I am now very relieved it was the new tyres and thank everyone for their advice. It really helped.

Now a 2 hour one way drive north from Sydney to Newcastle on Saturday morning will be nice and smooth. Stockton beach and dune drive on Sunday and a return trip without vibrations will be the first time since new (2,300km) that we can drive at speed and enjoy a smooth new car. I now feel good about our 3 week young vehicle

Photos of balanced tyres below for amts:

[Bear63 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bear63]

Great result then , Yokohama's aftersales service is one of my reasons they are one of my preferred brands

[Anth120playdo Banned Find all posts View Profile Close Anth120playdo]

Good stuff.

Remember, if the steering or vehicle vibrates, it can be balance.
If you get your steering wobbling its usually something out of round.

Don't be confused with steering wobbling due to D.T.V (disc thickness variation) brake pulsation or shudder.
You will know the difference as you can only get that while applying brakes or if you have a faulty master cylinder.

[Bugalugs Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Bugalugs]

Great that you have resolved the issue. I have 12,000 km on the OEM tyres and still running smooth and vibration free.
Learnt alot from reading everyone's comments, I was particularly interested in the balancing beads, never heard of them before and no-one else commented on these beads.
Are they worth trying or do they work?

[Bear63 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bear63]

Be very carefull with the balancing beads Bugalugs , i owned a tyre shop for 16 years ( i would never use them in one of my vehicles)
This is how they work , you do the initial balance on the tyre , then put the beads/powder inside ,they then distribute them selves around the tyre, note that the air has to completely dry or they will lump up inside the tyre and cause all other issues
Now ...... when you take your car in for a rotate and balance and forget to tell them the beads are inside , what happens

well the first thing the guy does is rip all the weights off the tyre before he balances it , then trys to rebalance it , but it wont balance because the powder moves around inside the tyre and keeps putting the balance out !!

so now they take the tyre off in frustration and find the powder inside, clean it out rebalance it and you good to go , but with no balance beads

In my experience (30 odd years in the tyre game) if they need those beads in you car or 4x4 there is another issue

EDIT , Just to add , dont put that never flat , puncture proof stuff in either !!!!

[Bugalugs Lurker Find all posts View Profile Close Bugalugs]

HI Bear,
Thanks for the reply.
Sounds like good advice to stay well clear of them.

[Craigo72 Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Craigo72]

Couldn't agree more, if your rims are straight and your tyres are good you should have no need for balance beads. Some tyres are just crap and need heaps of weight to get them right. Some times a wheel that needs a lot of weight just needs to be peeled of and refit again because its not quite sitting right. I've fitted a lot of tyres over the years, sometimes you can have three that go fine and one that needs a bit of a tweak on the rim to get it right. Very unusual to get dodgy Yokis though, they're normally really good.

Just goes to show, sometimes you just never know.

[Bawky Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bawky]

Update - Still Perfect!!!

Update - Replaced Yokohamas are still perfect and what a relief!!!

[vichel Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close vichel]

Someone mentioned that you should not be using a rattle gun on alloy rims. Why?

[Bawky Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bawky]

From what I saw, rattle gun is ok for removal and after nuts are carefully put on to the studs by hand then nuts can be nipped up. From there the tyre shop used a torque rench to ensure they were not over tightened.

[Steve M Addicted PP Member Find all posts View Profile Close Steve M]

I wouldn't use a rattle gun full stop, I always tell them DONOT use a rattle gun on my cars. Nine times out of ten they scratch the shit out of them or over tighten the bloody things and you need a breaker bar to undo them like I've come across before. Probably don't recommend it due to possible cracking ?? Not sure why .... Cheers Steve