[dstedman]

Hi all - I just got a 2013 3.6 Limited, and I've got a fair amount of pulsing vibration in the steering wheel on smooth roads. It's kinda weird - like it vibrates on and off in 1 sec intervals or so. I have an appt scheduled with the dealer on Tuesday.

My question - how many weights do you all have on your wheels? I looked at my wheels and I've got 5-8 weights on every single wheel - isn't that kinda weird for brand new tires?

 

[AWDFTW]

That doesn't sound right.

 

[1 Lucky Texan]

in the 'old days' people were encouraged to reject any tire that required more than 4 ounces to balance. but, that was before TPMS and alloy wheels were common.

are the weights in 1/4oz increments?

 

[wutbürger]

Is this your first set of Continental tires, especially ContiProConacts?

If so, get used to it. I've had these exact tires (different sizes) on 3 different vehicles, and all of them have NEVER had a perfect balance despite multiple road force balancing. And all of mine have 6+ weights on each as well, plus a weight on the inside lip on the Outback. They are about 98% balanced now after a great tech at my local Subaru dealership worked on them, but don't expect them to hold a balance well for more than 8,000 miles or so. It's quite a shame because every other part of this car is so smooth and quiet, these tires really hamper that a bit. I'm looking forward to the day that I can put another set of Michelin's on, they've never given me such problems and have always been smooth as silk, albeit slightly more expensive :29:

 

[subiesailor]

Is this your first set of Continental tires, especially ContiProConacts?

If so, get used to it. I've had these exact tires (different sizes) on 3 different vehicles, and all of them have NEVER had a perfect balance despite multiple road force balancing. And all of mine have 6+ weights on each as well, plus a weight on the inside lip on the Outback. They are about 98% balanced now after a great tech at my local Subaru dealership worked on them, but don't expect them to hold a balance well for more than 8,000 miles or so. It's quite a shame because every other part of this car is so smooth and quiet, these tires really hamper that a bit. I'm looking forward to the day that I can put another set of Michelin's on, they've never given me such problems and have always been smooth as silk, albeit slightly more expensive :29:

^ what he said. Don't expect to see more than 8000- 9000 miles before they start shaking the car pretty good again. Also do not be surprised that you have a tire or two that must stay on the back due to being out of round to the point that it will shake the steering wheel either way. I suffered for about 20,000 miles with this - finally replaced them at 40,000 miles with BFG touring tires WAY WAY WAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Better tire also a bit stiffer and has improved the handling just a tiny bit. Tread pattern is very similar so all weather performance will probably be similar. Mileage doesn't seem to be impacted possibly slightly better with the BFG touring tires. Too early to tell for sure. But BIG improvement!

I see Subaru listened to its owners and put Geolander tires on the new XV. Smart move

 

[Restlessk]

I just stepped outside and looked at my 2013 Ltd. Number of weights on each wheel are 6-0-1-5.

To me the bank of 5 or 6 does look like an awful lot of weight.

Mine rides perfect though. I'm hoping my Continentals wear better than yours, sailor...

On a slightly different topic, I noticed with my owners manual that I got warranty information for several (maybe 5?) different brands of tires. Does Subaru ever put anything but Continentals on Outbacks?

 

[subiesailor]

I did too back in 2010 got like three different brand warranty sheets. Not sure why they do that possibly more along the lines of advertising that tire makers pay to have their sheets included in the owners package.

My experience with both of my subarus is that 40K given the type of use we have the tires have been pretty much done with zero safe winter tread left. I wouldn't expect much more than that even with very light easy going use.

 

[EXMLowner]

Funny that you guys ask how mnay weights we have on our wheel, at first i thought it was a rims have a problem for not being round. Now I know that the problem is the tire, I have about 8 in one set and some are 3 , 4 and 5 for the rest ot the tire. Oh well hopefully when my tire worn out I won't see much of those lead around my rims

 

[subiesailor]

Funny that you guys ask how mnay weights we have on our wheel, at first i thought it was a rims have a problem for not being round. Now I know that the problem is the tire, I have about 8 in one set and some are 3 , 4 and 5 for the rest ot the tire. Oh well hopefully when my tire worn out I won't see much of those lead around my rims

A good indication of a crummy tire is how much weight change they need at the next balancing say 9000 miles. My tire shop said the weight change was very large between the prior balancing and the new balancing. Which they said was abnormal for most decent tires I recall he said even half the changed weight would have been a fairly large change for most quality tires.

 

[GasGuzz]

Also see the ylw/rd dots/guides on the sidewall? But no, they just ignore it and throw a bunch of wts to balance it. And that’s not all folks, there’s the wavy/bumps (defects) too on the SW.

 

[subiesailor]

Also see the ylw/rd dots/guides on the sidewall? But no, they just ignore it and throw a bunch of wts to balance it. And that’s not all folks, there’s the wavy/bumps (defects) too on the SW.

LOL I noticed those side wall defects I kept ignoring them and just reminded my self new tires soon. HA HA

You really want a case of the wobbles curb your front tires in SF on a hill so you don't get a $100 ticket. Yes they write those in SF. The car will shake like a wet dog for the next 100 miles or so. HA HA

 

[Green LTD]

Yep, those tires with a lot of weight will wear out even if you put them in back. Then you get to deal with them when you rotate them. And the noise they will create after wearing strangely will drive you nuts. I got about 31,000 miles on mine before I could not take it anymore. See if the Dealer can try rfb them and if they are really bad maybe Continental will replace them. The tire warranty folder says something about 2/32 of wear and then they will not cover ride issues. Good luck!

 

[BossMaverick]

Keep in mind that newer wheel weights look larger then older weights due to lead being replaced with less dense non-toxic metals. This may mean that a 1/4 oz weight may look like a 1/2 oz weight if the weight metal is something like steel.

Six to eight 1/4 oz stick-on weights isn't all that bad to get a wheel in balance when you take everything into consideration (mass produced wheels, cheap tires, TPMS sensors, etc). You also have to remember that stick-on weights don't go as far out on the wheel as traditional clip on weights, so it takes another 1/4 oz to achieve a good dynamic wheel balance then a clip on weight*.



*The Outback wheels still have clip on weights on the inside of the rim. The wheel balancer that I use doesn't have an option for a stick-on/clamp-on combination. I used the traditional dynamic balance mode that factors the weights being mounting on the outside edge of the rim. I discovered that the stick-on weight side needed an extra 1/4 oz to make up for the placement location.

 

[taiguy]

You can supplement your "normal" balancing methods by adding a few ounces of DynaBeads (or similar product). Unlike in motorcycle or truck tires, where I can use dynabeads solely, car tires are considered "low profile" and don't work perfectly on their own. They also don't account for any lateral balancing which weights can compensate for.

Love these

.

 

[OBnube]

Looks like there's a pretty good wobble until it gets up enough rotation to "balance" the beads. I wonder, with full size wheels, what speed it takes in real life to get past the vibration. Having all four wheels vibrate at slow speeds could be problematic. The concept is very cool.