I just installed two brand new Toyo Proxes 4 Plus tires on the front of my G37S coupe. I ordered the tires online and Merchants tire installed them. Over the past week I have taken the car back 3 times but I still have a steering wheel vibration when driving 50 MPH plus.

My old Bridgestone tires had no vibration issues and the wheels are not bent. One wheel has just a couple wheel weights while the passenger front has 11 on the spoke side and 3 on the inside lip. Could that be a bad tire? Merchants thinks it is and wants me to contact tread depot for a new tire. Thoughts?

 

It's possible. But it's more likely that they just aren't balanced properly. Using 14 weights on a wheel to balance it does not inspire confidence in their ability. If they completely dismount each tire and start from scratch and pay close attention to balancing each one as perfectly as they can, it'll probably fix it. My experience is that many techs aren't particularly skilled at balancing and are under pressure to get you out of there and on to the next customer as fast as they can. If it's in the acceptable range they quickly go to the next wheel rather than strive to get it as close as possible to optimum wheel balance using the fewest possible weights.

Yes, It could be a bad tire. But most times its not.

 

BlackBetty hit it on spot. Balancing issue. Had to take my Maxima in after getting new tires and alignment. Turns out they never balanced...steering wheel shook like crazy.

 

Any good wheel guy will shift the tire on the rim if he gets anywhere near 14 weights.

You just need a good wheel guy...

 

Stealership can fix that for you.
High Speed Balance or Road Force Balance.
It's your choice, but RFB more expensive.
Could be the tire, you should have warranty on it.

 

I took the car to Mr. Tire today for a road force balance. They also replaced the tire that was taking a lot of weight. The new tire still took 3.75 OZ's of weight and while the vibration has improved, I still have a vibration around 70mph. They lined the yellow circles up with the valve stems. I dont think they moved the tire on the rim, could that be an issue? I have no idea what else to try but i've already spent $100 just trying to balance tires and its getting annoying.

 

I would have the shop remove the tires, reinstall, and rebalance (with a senior/experienced tech on the job). As you noticed, there are indicators on the tires that show where the tech should mount. If you see that they are far off from the valve stem, that is probably not helping your cause. I would contact the corporate office if the local store can't address your needs. No way that buying new tires should net a downgrade in ride quality with regard to a vibration issue.

The shop also should reimburse you for the money you spent after you left their shop to correct their mistake. Don't let them tell you that there is a bent wheel or any of the other crap either, they need to fix this and stop messing around.

 

Are your rims OEM or aftermarket?

 

how much did they charge you to install one tire?

 

First of all good luck with those tires. I generally hate making blanket statements but I feel justified in saying that Toyo tires are just trash. Pure and simple. I once purchased 4 brand new Toyo Proxes4 tires and in the span of less than a year I'd replaced all but one multiple times to a tune of 8 BRAND NEW TIRES - YES 8. They ALL eventually got deformed (bubbles on the side wall). Toyo initially gave me two new tires at almost nothing (at the time both had less than 1200 miles from new) but the issues kept returning and eventually they would only prorate the additional tires.

They wanted to blame the road, my driving, over inflation, under inflation, road debris. I just gave in and bought some Dunlop tires. I WILL NEVER AGAIN buy their crappy tires.

 

Maybe you just had a bad run or something, they're consistently rated very high in overall quality. I'm on my third set (2 passenger and 1 truck set) and they've all been excellent.

 

the toyo's are very good tires.I would go get the road force balance and also check the production date on the tire, make sure there not old.
Good Luck.

 

This diagram is flawed. The first two numbers are incorrectly tagged as month- they actually reference the week in which the tires were produced. In that case, the tire was made in the 51st week of 2012