Tyre problems - Falken 452
Tyre problems - Falken 452
Author
Discussion

mitchk

Original Poster:

109 posts

221 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Hi Guys - can anybody offer any advice as I seem to be going round in circles.

The mrs car went into Audi a month back for a MOT and at the same time had 2 Falken 452's fitted that we had bought from Camskill. These were fitted to the front replacing the worn out Mitchelin Pilots, Falken 452's were already on the back and had done 8K already no problem.

She then tells me a couple of days later that the car judders at around 60mph - sure enough seems like balancing to me so back to Audi it goes.

They then spend an afternoon trying to diagnose the problem and lend her a car. They told her they moved the rears to the front and the problem got worse, rebalanced the tyres still the same and then replaced the wheels with another car and the problem was sorted. Verdict was that the original Falkens on the back which had done 8K were unevenly worn and although they still had lots of tread on them they would need replacing.

On Monday last week we had these rears replaced with another pair of Falken 452's asking the fitter to return them to Falken for investigation - sure enough judder is still there although at 70mph this time ?

any idea's to what it could be ? still seems like balancing to me as it is exactly at the same mph everytime but how can they keep getting it wrong ?

never had any problem before until they changed the front tyres - feel a bit bad also as I recommended the tyres frown


Jonnas

1,004 posts

186 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Buckled wheel?

Frances The Mute

1,816 posts

264 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
You can forget a buckled wheel is there was no vibration beforehand.

It's all too easy to balls-up the fitting and balancing procedure. Audi's are very sensitive to any discrepancy in these area so I'd suggest getting them fitted by a firm who really know their business. There must be someone well regarded near to you.

The first thing which is easily overlooked is fitting pressures. Most dealers will pop the beads on then inflate to the required pressure. Jobe done.
In fact, you should take the pressures up to around 4.0 bar and reduce them after a few minutes to correctly seat the beads. However, this takes a little time and most places aren't interested in doing it.

The other critical area is balancing. I've seen several commercial machines that have ben set to read over any discrepancy of up to 10g e.g. the tyre requires 8g of weight but the machine registers as zero.

Balancing (and fitting) can be done by literally any yahoo out there - getting it done properly is another thing. You can have the best machine on the market but if there's a monkey at the controls...

Jonnas

1,004 posts

186 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
So in the intervening two days the Mrs couldn't have driven through a pothole? I would still check them for a buckle. Doesn't take two minutes......

Justin S

3,658 posts

284 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
See my thread in suspension and brakes on 452's. Get ready for a long wait for a result...........

mcbrun12

26 posts

215 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Strange question, but are the tyres still perfectly round?
I had similar problems with Goodyear F1's on the back on my ST170. Transpired normal load tyres were fitted as opposed to XL ones. After around 8000 miles the inside edges turned from being round to a 50p shape. It made one hell of a racket, sounded like a wheel bearing.

The garage first diagnosed worn shocks, and new tyres... I then discovered they were not XL, changed them and the next set ran fine for 20,000 miles.

Trevor450

1,910 posts

171 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
^^^ Tyres that are stored badly or damaged in transit can also cause these sort of symptoms. I had it many years ago. It balanced fine but the tyre was not round when you saw it spinning on the balancing machine.

Jimmytno1

465 posts

192 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Frances The Mute said:
You can forget a buckled wheel is there was no vibration beforehand.

It's all too easy to balls-up the fitting and balancing procedure. Audi's are very sensitive to any discrepancy in these area so I'd suggest getting them fitted by a firm who really know their business. There must be someone well regarded near to you.

The first thing which is easily overlooked is fitting pressures. Most dealers will pop the beads on then inflate to the required pressure. Jobe done.
In fact, you should take the pressures up to around 4.0 bar and reduce them after a few minutes to correctly seat the beads. However, this takes a little time and most places aren't interested in doing it.

The other critical area is balancing. I've seen several commercial machines that have ben set to read over any discrepancy of up to 10g e.g. the tyre requires 8g of weight but the machine registers as zero.

Balancing (and fitting) can be done by literally any yahoo out there - getting it done properly is another thing. You can have the best machine on the market but if there's a monkey at the controls...
This is excellent advice, I'm in the trade and this is exactly what I would have said

poo at Paul's

14,552 posts

198 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
OP what wheels do you have and what size are they? Aftermarket or genuine?

David87

6,962 posts

235 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Frances The Mute said:
You can forget a buckled wheel is there was no vibration beforehand.

It's all too easy to balls-up the fitting and balancing procedure. Audi's are very sensitive to any discrepancy in these area so I'd suggest getting them fitted by a firm who really know their business. There must be someone well regarded near to you.

The first thing which is easily overlooked is fitting pressures. Most dealers will pop the beads on then inflate to the required pressure. Jobe done.
In fact, you should take the pressures up to around 4.0 bar and reduce them after a few minutes to correctly seat the beads. However, this takes a little time and most places aren't interested in doing it.

The other critical area is balancing. I've seen several commercial machines that have ben set to read over any discrepancy of up to 10g e.g. the tyre requires 8g of weight but the machine registers as zero.

Balancing (and fitting) can be done by literally any yahoo out there - getting it done properly is another thing. You can have the best machine on the market but if there's a monkey at the controls...
Makes me want never to get my tyres changed. hehe

Billy_rfc

587 posts

278 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Missing spigot rings? Worth checking.

Billy.

Frances The Mute

1,816 posts

264 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
David87 said:
Makes me want never to get my tyres changed. hehe
Exactly - which is why I now do it myself!

davepoth

29,395 posts

222 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Frances The Mute said:
You can forget a buckled wheel is there was no vibration beforehand.
And you're 100% sure Audi didn't buckle one while changing the tyres around?

Riley Blue

22,942 posts

249 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
davepoth said:
Frances The Mute said:
You can forget a buckled wheel is there was no vibration beforehand.
And you're 100% sure Audi didn't buckle one while changing the tyres around?
Car judders around 60mph so maybe car was only used around town or didn't reach 'judder speed' for a while after Falkens were fitted then damage done to wheel? I still reckon buckled wheel after same thing on O/H's Fiesta which we use as a shopping car - took it on the motorway for the first time about a month after new tyres fitted and found vibration due to a buckled rear wheel. No idea how or when it happened but a new wheel sorted it.

mitchk

Original Poster:

109 posts

221 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
Thanks for all the replies - think our fist port of call will be Audi who fitted the first set of tyres to the front and said that it was the back ones causing the vibration.

As for the wheel buckling she drives the same piece of dual carriageway every day and noticed it the Monday morning she drove the car. Possible that she did it on the way but would have thought she would have noticed a reasonable impact that would cause the buckling.

To be fair to Audi, they loned her a car and spend about 3hrs messing with it and charged her nothing.

Curios though, I would assume that if the wheel or tyre was out of shape then the balancing machine would have picked it up right ?

s3fella

10,524 posts

210 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
What wheels are they? Genuine or aftermarket?

mitchk

Original Poster:

109 posts

221 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
s3fella said:
What wheels are they? Genuine or aftermarket?
Genuine mate - 225/45/R17

Ozzie Osmond

21,189 posts

269 months

Sunday 5th August 2012
quotequote all
This is an excellent, if unfortunate, example of why you should have your tyres supplied and fitted by one company. If ypoiu buy from one place and get them fitted by another there's endless scope for each to blame the other when problems like this arise.

Frances The Mute

1,816 posts

264 months

Tuesday 7th August 2012
quotequote all
mitchk said:
Curios though, I would assume that if the wheel or tyre was out of shape then the balancing machine would have picked it up right ?
Not necessarily. Not all balancing machines have the ability to measure RFV or are able to do a rim runout to check if the wheel rim is straight and true.