Hey all, maybe you guys can help me figure this problem out.

1) car tracked perfectly straight, but i needed new tires.
2) replaced fronts with used pair of Dunlop SP Sport 9000
3) car pulls to the right, vibrations at high speed

4) replaced fronts with new pair of Dunlop SP Maxx
5) car pulls to the right, vibrations gone

6) got alignment, numbers are perfect.
7) car still pulls the right

8) switch front wheels left-to-right. (as a test, yes the threads were backwards)
9) car slightly pulls the left.

So, it seems that the wheel causing a pull? is that even possible? if the wheel were bent, I'd think there would be a lot more vibrations. But its pretty solid at high speed.

any ideas?

 

Ummm . . . Just to be sure . . . Where the wheels balanced after the tires were mounted?

 

yep the wheels are balanced.

actually i suspect the first round of tires (9000s) were not balanced. i didnt see any weights, and the tech really scratched my rims up. I used a different tire shop for the Maxx's. I didnt bother verifying since the 9000s were very loud anyway, and I didnt want to put up with that.

logically it seems i have a bent rim.

can you have a bent rim that is still balanced correctly on the machine?

 

It's a bad tire, plain and simple. I've replace many tires and have had bad ones out of the box. Get it warrantied and move on.

 

Always have a Hunter 9700 radial force measurement done.........Nissan says 14 pounds is ok a precision tire [Michelin] on a precision rim can be below 5 pounds.

Search "tire conicity"
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tirete....jsp?techid=12
http://www.aa1car.com/library/tires2.htm