frickn' twin V-8's

 

I had Omni mount and balance my new tires and do an alignment. The alignment turned out great, but I was getting a lot of vibration at highway speeds and some even at 45mph.

I talked to Omni and they suggested putting some miles on the car and then heading back. They suggested 1000 miles, but I went and had them rebalanced after a couple hundred miles since I don't want to miss the summer driving season. Even after this balance, I'm still getting lots of vibration.

Has anyone heard of having to put on that many miles before being able to get a correct balance? I want to have the M3 driving perfectly so I can still enjoy what's left of the short Seattle summer. Plus I don't daily drive it, so it's tough to put on miles (and I honestly don't want to).

Thoughts?

 

Are they using wheel weights ? When I learned how to balance wheels, if the weight on each wheel wasnt perfect, it would wobble

Also you can try another tire shop, I use Discount Tires on Bel Red Road

 

I believe they're using the sticky wheel weights. Is that what you mean? I'm not really up to date on wheel weight options

 

Yeah, they stick them to the inside of the wheel. They have to be perfect when you use the machine, and I learned on some ****ty wheels and the clip on wheel weights, lol.

I would say try another place, or watch them re-balance the wheels.

 

they said after 1k miles of driving your vibration should be gone??? WTF... take it to speedware in redmond and you wont have any vibration issues and they take very good care not to scratch wheels.

sounds to me like omni did not do a proper job of balancing your wheels.

 

^^^^ what he said

 

I had a great experience with Discount Tire on 130th and Bel Red just last weekend. Talk to Nathan. Tell him the guy with the red m5 from last weekend told you to come in. He gave me a great deal on new tires and mounting and did a great job. I told him I know lots of high end car drivers in the area and I would spread the word around.

Cheers,
Rob

 

Thats why I like them too. I needed new tires, called around, guy said if I come in, he would give me a deal. Gave me 300 dollars off, and free installation and free warranty.

 

Last time I had my tires put on by them they dropped my car off the jacks and onto the side skirts!


Credit them for replacing the side skirts and unbending the jack point at the body shop. However after that, I'm going to have my tires changed at Cantrell or Speedware.

 

If the Eastside places are inconvenient for you, I'd recommend Group 2 near the locks (south side). Chris does an excellent job and tapes the weights down so they won't come off. They're a Tire Rack recommended installer.

 

Find a shop with a GSP9700 Hunter:

http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm

 

That sounds like a classic balance problem. You might want to take it to another shop & have them check the balance.

I fully trust Group 2 in Seattle, they do most of the local race cars & did my old track car. When your going 160mph, you need to TRUST your suspension guys!
http://www.group2inc.com/

 

Ya, those are tape weights.

So did you end up getting anything else from Speedware?

How did the balance turn out?

 

Speedware was extremely helpful. They balanced them twice, but it turns out that both a front and rear tire has "excessive run-out." ... basically I have two bad tires.

Unfortunately, I didn't purchase the tires myself (although they were brand new when installed). So now I'm trying to figure out what to do. They're Toyo T1R's, so I might try to call up Toyo and see what they say.

Otherwise I guess I need to snag another front and rear?? Makes me wonder if I should just buy 4 new tires from another manufacturer...