I got a new set of 4 Nitto's from another dealer. Visually on the balancer the runout is undetectable to me but the tire guy said the rim had the slightest bend in it when he spun the wheels alone. He thought it would make no difference in ride. The other tires were very out of round compared to these....I couldn't see any run out really, but he said the rim might change the road force in that spot and there's nothing they can do about without getting a new rim. He described it as ..."think of a wheel having 5 springs holding the tire away from the rim. Even though the tire may be round and have no run out, one of the springs (the out of round spot) has a different spring rate that is slightly softer because it's not sprung as tight as the others in that one spot."....A picture is worth a thousand words alright!
The ride is nearly perfect except right at 70 it gets the very slightest vibration that comes and goes. I can't feel the rears at all and i drove on all kinds of crappy pavement between Sacramento and Roseville.
He told me to bring it back and he would spin the tire on the rim and/or switch the front tires on the rims and see if there was an improvement. If there is no change, it's so minimal I can live with it..... The difference is night and day and I'm very happy to have found this place. I took the bad set back to my long time tire guy and he refunded my money on the spot.
This ordeal has been quite stressful and time consuming but I'm glad there was a solution and surprised that 3 of the 4 tires were seriously out of round....not even counting the rim. I assumed runout was common but this guy says not in this era of tire tech. He runs across OOR tires all the time but it's usually just one of the batch....interesting!
I go back Thursday morn to see if the very slight vibration can be eliminated....If not, I'm still good....Not this anymore..
