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Where should I go to get a proper tire balance on my 07 Q7?
Cross posted for a quicker response...
I bought 4 new Pirelli SCORPION AS PLUS 3 tires from tirerack and had them shipped to and installed by a tirerack authorized local repair shop. The first time I drove on the highway and hit 60mph the steering wheel shook pretty bad. So I took it back and had them re-done. They said they re-did the balancing and drove it and it is fine, but still when I get to highway speeds the steering wheel shakes a little. Mainly around 65mph, but goes away at higher speeds. I'm hesitant to take it back to the same shop again. I have 20" factory wheels on my 07' Q7. There was no vibration from the old set of tires, even though they were in very bad shape when I bought the vehicle.
Just wondering if i should go to an Audi dealership or if there is a good tire dealer that can do the job right? I've read some threads that say Tirerack gets secondhand tires, but I've probably ordered 10 sets of tires from them in my lifetime without any problems.
I live in Central Ohio if anyone can point me in the right direction...
2007 Q7 20" Factory Wheels
Last edited by bg_2007Q7; Apr 10, 2022 at 03:21 AM.
Find a specialist who can check alignment and balance. All my cars are aligned by a specialist with Hunter balancing and alignment equipment.
Google found a found a specialist in OH with the same equipment, maybe other members can recommend or advise.
State Street Tire
460 West Park Ave
Barberton, OH 44203
(330) 745-7000
and
3276 Manchester Road
Akron, OH 44319
(330) 645-7000
Find a specialist who can check alignment and balance. All my cars are aligned by a specialist with Hunter balancing and alignment equipment.
Google found a found a specialist in OH with the same equipment, maybe other members can recommend or advise.
State Street Tire
460 West Park Ave
Barberton, OH 44203
(330) 745-7000
and
3276 Manchester Road
Akron, OH 44319
(330) 645-7000
Thanks, I appreciate it, I found out that the local Discount Tire uses the Hunter road force elite balancer. I'm pretty sure the alignment is good, since the car no longer pulls. I just want the vibration gone.
They are probably balanced fine, but this car requires a special mounting procedure to eliminate all vibrations.
I find getting the whole car in the air so you can put it in neutral and spin the hubs the easiest, so you might not be able to pull this off in a driveway like a normal tire rotation.
Have them check for a bent wheel. A bent wheel will balance fine but when at speed cause vibrations. I had this issue for a few months last year and took the wheels back to the same dumb dealer who would balance the wheels but did not mention that there were slightly, and I do mean slightly bent. Got it straighten and the issue went away. Smooth as glass all the way between 40 - 135mph. Braking issues went away too.
They are probably balanced fine, but this car requires a special mounting procedure to eliminate all vibrations.
I find getting the whole car in the air so you can put it in neutral and spin the hubs the easiest, so you might not be able to pull this off in a driveway like a normal tire rotation.
According to that TSB they should be balanced with the Hunter road force first. That's what I'm going to try. The tire shop should know how to mount a wheel properly. This is frustrating considering there was no vibration when I bought the vehicle and the front and rear had 2 different brands of tires.
We put new tires on a utility trailer. Car shakes at highway speeds when unloaded. Loaded it's fine so I thought frigging odd. I jacked it up so the wheel was off the road. Turns out the tires are not round per se. When rotating them, one side is higher by 1/4 inch. What that means is they are out of round. Wheel could be 1/8 inch off pavement but will hit the high side and not spin freely. I suggest you lift the car tire so it is off the pavement. Put a brick within a millimetre of the tire and rotate to see if your tires are perfectly round.
Some of these cars can be tricky to balance. Others balance out on the first try.
Problem with the Hunter Road Force system is that the monkeys in the shop don't want to run thru the entire process which could be time consuming. The majority of them bypass the initial steps of finding the high spot and low spot of the assembly and just jump to balancing the wheel. I guess they've figured out that they can get away with this much of the time even though Hunter intended something very different. You need to find a shop that's willing to run through the entire process for all four wheels without skipping any of the intended steps.
As an ex tyre design engineer I second your own thoughts. That is to have your tyres road force balanced - any issues with the wheel/tyre assembly will be picked up then. If that does not solve the issue for you then best to have the wheel/disc mounting checked and then the runout on the discs.
FYI, the red coloured dot on the tyres marks out the highest point in the tyre, or the “radial force variation first harmonic maximum” – where the centrifugal forces are at maximum on a rotating tyre. In most cases, your wheels will also have a dot – either drilled or marked out by sticker – to signify its lowest point. The red dot on your tyres should then match up with this marking on your wheel.
This is the most accurate method to optimise your tyres for your wheels, and that’s why they have a standardised red dot marking across the industry. This is how the tyre fitter should have arranged the fitment.
Road force balancing done well should give an even better result.
Here is a link that will help explain the road force process: https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...34843-9999.pdf
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Where should I go to get a proper tire balance on my 07 Q7?
