| jimb |
Guys - you CANNOT balance the wheels on a Murano on a standard wheel balancer as we know it. Took me 65,000 miles to discover this.
NTB attempted to balance my tires three times this past Friday. I left in disgust. At 45 the shaking of the wheel began. Ran all the way through 65. They told me they couldn't do anything else for me - told me to take where I wished and they would pay.
Dealer knew right away what the issue was. Said the tires needed to be balanced on a Road Force machine. The dealer said they send Caddy's over there all the time (to the tire shop across the street who has such a machine. Why NTB doesn't invest in these, I don't know.)
Anyhow -
Took Murano for a spin last night and my God. What a difference. I called the guy and told him I was so happy with the outcome (vibration GONE!!!) he said, "You know, I hear a lot of that!"
Anyhow - certain Acura's, GM auto's, Nissans, etc., have too much "computer" crap on board - everything is supposed to work harmoniously - a standard balance, as we know it, just doesn't cut it any longer!
The name of the machine is called "Road Force." Murano currently has NO weighs on any of the tires. Shop guy told me a gentleman came in last week with 7 ounces on one of his tires (A Caddy... a-hem!!!) - put the tire on machine, guy left with ZERO weighs on the tire.
Absolutely ZERO shimmy, vibration - unbelieveable!!! I asked if I needed to get tires Road Forced at every balance, and was told NO. Tires should "balance" on traditional balancers now - needed a quarter or half ounce or so after a few thousand miles -- if any weights are needed at all.
A fantastic system - not many people have it. Worth every damned dime! NTB picked up the tab - as they do not have a Road Force machine. The cost was $67.80 for all four wheels.
Here's the executive summary of the machine - http://www.tiretrends.com/HunterRoadForce.php
I hope this can help out some other Murano owner's who have experienced a similar issue.
Have a nice Labor Day weekend folks. - Jim |
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| BikerJohn |
Hi Jim;
Having wheel shimmy is definately not any fun...not to mention damaging on other components.
I don't know what system my local tire shop has, but they have been installing my winter and summers without any problem. My summer tires are the stock Eagle LS and the winters are Toyo G-02 Plus Open Country: http://www.toyo.com/docs/tires/tire...category=winter . Which; buy the way are super winter shoes for the MO.
I do have weights installed on all my rims and they are all very well balanced and smooth rolling. The weights are stuck on the inside of the rim(you can see them if you look through the rim spokes) and they are the double-sided sticky kind of weights used for MO's kind of rims.
I don't think that I have ever heard of any tires not needing weights. Are you positive that your wheels don't have any? What kind of tires are you running-BTW?
Cheers:) |
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| jimb |
GoodYear Eagle LS (pair #2 - put on around 42,000 miles).
No weights... :2: |
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| BikerJohn |
| I'm on my second set of LS and have been very happy with them. Wow, no weights! How do they do that? Did they remove the tires from the rim and re-mount the tire to the rim at such a position to cancel out the "run-out" from rim to tire? Very interesting machine. I would imagine that it would be used for "high-end" manchine...:D Thanks for sharing that with us Jim. |
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| muranomax |
Quote:Guys - you CANNOT balance the wheels on a Murano on a standard wheel balancer as we know it. Took me 65,000 miles to discover this
That is absolutely right. The 18 inch and above wheels are difficult to balance on the standard balancing machines. The Murano wheels have stick on weights for the outer weights and standard tack on weights for inner. Most tire places get it wrong because they dont have the proper balancing machine. Its better to get it balanced at your Nissan dealer or at Discount Tire etc.
Thanks |
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| muranomax |
Guys - you CANNOT balance the wheels on a Murano on a standard wheel balancer as we know it. Took me 65,000 miles to discover this.
Update:
It took me less than a thousand miles to figure out that Murano tires need to be balanced using the proper balancing machine. The local tire guys tried repeatedly to balance the tires and could not get it right. I finally took it to Discount Tire yesterday and within 15 minutes they had all four tires re-balanced with stick on weights and mounted the tires. All the vibration and wheel shimmy is gone and the MO feels brand new again. I like the local tire guys because they offer excellent service at reasonable price but no matter how hard they try its difficult to balance these tires without the proper equipment.There are few things that you have to rely on the dealer or someone who has the proper equipment.
Thanks
Muranomax |
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| Kris |
Got my new GDY LS from Discount Tires a year ago or so. They did bad job with balancing. It took me only a couple miles to realize it. Had to go back. After that no shimmy.
Had a puncture a week ago. Discount Tire repair it and rebalanced the tire (only the punctured one). They did a poor job - need to go back and have it done again. To be fair the young fellow who did the repair was learning. Still balancing should have been done better...
I am prepared to pay extra but have job done right the first time. Unfortunately there are no places that do it anymore....poor quality of service is the norm now. Sad.:( |
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| hfelknor |
I covered this a long time ago.
The Hunter 9700 series is the way to go.
Although we don't have Discount Tire down here, I believe that they have the Hunter (But maybe not all the shops). It is imperative to FIND this machine.
The FIRST thing that needs to be done is the Road Force adjustment.
This is where they rotate the tire on the rim to match the high point of the tire to the low point of the wheel.
And you thought your tires (and wheels) were round?
Au Contraire.
No tire and no wheel are perfectly round.
If you get the high point of the tire aligned with the high point of the wheel.......even tho both are within spec.......the chances are you will NEVER get a good balance on that tire/wheel. And the wheel will always "hop".
In fact, if they are TOO far "out of round" the rest of the procedure is just a waste of time and you need to replace the severely out of round tire or wheel.
The Hunter 9700 can tell you this.
AFTER the tire/wheel has been Road Force matched.........THEN they can be balanced!
And BTW, once a tire is Road Force adjusted, it takes a lot less weights to dynamically balance the tire/wheel. MOST of the time it takes only 1 weight (Compared to two, using older technology)
It is my opinion that Road Force balancing should always be done on replacement tires.
BTW, it is ALWAYS done at the factory.
Homer |
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| muranomax |
quote:
Originally posted by hfelknor
I covered this a long time ago.
The Hunter 9700 series is the way to go.
Although we don't have Discount Tire down here, I believe that they have the Hunter (But maybe not all the shops). It is imperative to FIND this machine.
Homer
Thanks Homer
I did not know that balancing the tires was so tricky.I agree that it needs the proper balancing machine to get the job done right.My experience with the local tire guys was that they could not get the balancing right after several tries. They thought that the weights were slipping somehow because everytime they mounted the tires on their machine it would give them a different reading! The vibration and wheel shimmy got better but never really went away. It made the MO feel like an old car! I finally took it to Discount Tires yesterday and the guys were closing up for the long weekend. It was 5 minutes to five and to my surprise they took the MO in and within 10-15 minutes all four tires were removed,balanced and mounted back again.I have no idea what type of balancing machine they have but it was incredibly quick. I paid them their dues and took it for a spin and it was perfectly balanced. Not even a little vibration or shimmy. I noticed that they had used the stick on weights just like the factory wheels. I felt bad for my local tire guys who tried so hard to get it right but could not due to the limitations of the old balancer. I guess it takes the right tool to get the job done right. Next time I will buy the tires from the local guys who are so much cheaper but get it mounted and balanced at Discount Tire.
Thanks
Muranomax |
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| muranomax |
quote:
Originally posted by Kris
I am prepared to pay extra but have job done right the first time. Unfortunately there are no places that do it anymore....poor quality of service is the norm now. Sad.:(
Kris
My experience with Discount Tire was excellent. I took the MO to get the tires balanced after the local tire guys had tried repeatedly to get it balanced but could not due to their older balancing machine. I pulled into Discount Tire five minutes before closing time before the long weekend and I was surprised when the guy said he would do it. Sure enough all four tires were balanced within 10-15 minutes and I was on my way. The tires are perfectly balanced and with a great service!
Thanks
Muranomax |
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| Gonzo |
From another post I had my MO Road Force balanced... and baby it is smoth. My wife's RX300 needed a balance so I did the same... unfortunately not so smooth but good enough as the wife is happy but I still see some balance issues when I drive her car... minor though. It helped after I checked the tire pressure which as at 15 and NOT 30PSI as required! After adding air it helped out a bit.
At any rate my MO is a smooth baby as performed at Nissan with Road Force. Recommended! |
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| muranomax |
quote:
Originally posted by Kris
Try this reading from Discount Tires
Thanks Kris
That is very helpful. I did not know that balancing a tire is much more than just sticking on a few lead blobs to make the wheels spin without vibrating. It does make a lot of sense why the local tire guys could not get it right despite trying hard.
Thanks
Muranomax |
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| zebelkhan |
quote:
Originally posted by muranomax
I did not know that balancing a tire is much more than just sticking on a few lead blobs to make the wheels spin without vibrating.
I remember my local shop had a "bubble balance" machine. They put the wheel and tire horizontally on it and then added weights until the bubble centered itself.....:D |
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| bob1 |
This thread is great!
BTW, welcome back Homer!!:D
I had my MO rotated and balanced a couple of months back at a local auto chain store.
Right away I knew the #$^& it up. I found they put weights on the exterior inside by the bead. Brought it back again and on the third time I insisted they use stick on weights. That solved it for the most part but I still feel a very minor vibration.
Bob1 |
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| special-k |
I've been trying to get the balance corrected on my MO's tires since I bought the thing. It's been through my Nissan dealer's balancing procedure about a half dozen times. Finally they said they were going to stop doing it for free. Considering they never got it fixed, that kind of irked me. I went to a local Goodyear dealer, they did an OK job but it still wasn't perfect. The I went to Les Schwab (pretty big tire chain in this area) and again, they gave it the ol' college try but didn't get it fixed completely. I too suffer from the 45-65mph vibrations. My oh-so-helpful Nissan dealer basically tells me I'm imagining it. I figured at this point, after I've spent about $150 trying to get these tires balanced, I'd just wait until I replaced the tires and pray that they'd be able to balance the new tires properly.
I didn't know about the Hunter balancing machine, I will be sure to look for that. |
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| Kris |
quote:
Originally posted by special-k
My oh-so-helpful Nissan dealer basically tells me I'm imagining it.
My personal experience is that Nissan dealers are great with that - what ever they cannot fix it is the customer imagination! |
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| Corin |
quote:
Originally posted by special-k
I've been trying to get the balance corrected on my MO's tires since I bought the thing. It's been through my Nissan dealer's balancing procedure about a half dozen times. Finally they said they were going to stop doing it for free. Considering they never got it fixed, that kind of irked me.
...
I too suffer from the 45-65mph vibrations. My oh-so-helpful Nissan dealer basically tells me I'm imagining it.
That really sucks. That is the worst excuse I've ever heard. "We've tried to fix it x times and can't, so you'll have to pay for any future tries we do."
I suggest making them go for a ride WITH YOU so you can demonstrate it. If they say it's normal, then insist on taking the service manager for a ride in a brand new MO on the lot. Have him try to repro it on the new one, then insist that they fix it under warranty as they should. Suggest that they might need to get new tires, perhaps the tires are defective in some way. Also suggest the machines mentioned on this thread.
Have I mentioned that I hate nissan service yet? |
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| special-k |
quote:
Originally posted by Corin
Have I mentioned that I hate nissan service yet?
Hahah... well at least I know I'm not the only one who thinks Nissan service leaves a LOT to be desired. I used to think it was just my dealer who was absolutely terrible -- but plenty of people here have similar experience. Of course, that makes things worse, not better.
Their excuse now (the last time I tried getting them to fix it) is that the car is now 3 years old, and well past the 1 year "adjustment period" and they can't be responsible for wheels going out of balance on a car that's driven daily for 3 years. I tried to explain that this problem has been going on since the beginning, and in fact they have it on record that I had problems with balance starting from the first year. They said it didn't matter, and if I wanted to have "perfect wheels" I would have to pay a tire shop to do it. And I did. And they still shimmy like a hula girl.
*sigh* |
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