Believe it, but all car mfrs. used to (stress: used to) use only the best-balanced wheels and the best tires (least-needy of weights). With a semi-handbuilt car like the Corvette, it truly is inexcusable that their supposed "final inspection" would let something like this out the factory door at Bowling Green.

Then again, if you've ever listened to the BS told by the tour operator (paraphrase: every Corvette is tested on our facility's test track and put on the dyno), and watched the overall process of assembly closely, you will see "anomalies".

Considering that the Z06 is the only "halo" car or truck GM makes, and that Corvette, in general, is the only heavily-desired car by the buying public, it is astounding to see what GM, Chevrolet and the Corvette plant allow to happen.

I cite the poor paint as an example on the first Z06s in '01, painted on the same assembly line as all Corvettes and allowed to be sold as is complete with paint peel and body bracing showing through base/clear coats.

So much for the vaunted factory inspection process, not to mention the dealerships and salespeople who must've been blind as they sold the cars.

 

[QUOTE=rocco16]The person who told you that was lying to you.

Nobody "told me that" I've seen it many times on heavy carcasses. I was a Firestone Service and Store Manager. Doesn't take long, but if I want to get balance perfect, I run a few miles and heat the tire up once. It makes a difference.

 

I've now been back twice to Goodyear since original similar noise (no vibration though) problem where for $600 they installed new ball joints, at 125K miles I'm ok with that but, I also had them do my tire warranty free rotation and paid for a 4 wheel alignment.

Result, I either had a new noise or part of the old noise still there, worse with speed, not RPM related; at 70mph + it's just plain scary, sounds like a wheel is going to come off.

Due to info found here in this thread, today they've agreed to pull the front wheels, switch tires/rims and/or rebalance those and see what happens. I'll have been on the highway when i get there so, the tires will be warm. Hope it fixes the problem.

 

Yeah, post a new thread since robert's problem has been solved. It will be interesting to see how yours turns out. Good luck.

 

I've read most of the posts here and scanned the others and I didn't see anybody address the issue of "Tire Roundness", only balance!
You can balance an egg so it will spin without any vibrations, but you can't ROLL it. There is a place here in San Antonio that checks and corrects (New or slightly used) mounted tires by shaving them until they are round. Then they are balanced, and man what a huge difference it makes. It's like you have a brand new suspension under the car and you are driving on a machined tabletop! They don't take much off, just the high spots, and it makes the tires wear much longer too, even though it looks like they're taking off some of your miles. One of the tech's explained to me that if the tire is out of round, it will try to launch off the high spots and then when it comes back down on the low spot it scuffs just a little each time it lands. After a few hundred miles of "launch and land", the tire is more out of round and you go get it "balanced" to take away the vibration it caused. If the tire was round to begin with it will roll a lot farther before it starts to get worn and out of balance.

 

I recently bought Torq-Thrust II's with new 315's for the back. Discount tire balance them 3 times and still had a vibration. Took them to another Discount Tire for rebalancing and now they are perfect. Guess it depends on the technician.

 

I would start a new thread as suggested but since others continued with this, I'll put the conclusion to mine here too.

It was brakes - I'd had brakes done previous to taking the car in for this noise, they did ball joints to fix it, and that DID get rid of some bad noise but perhaps 'revealed' the other wheel noise. Finally yesterday on the rack with wheels off, they could hear the scraping on both front calipers - bad job, crappy pads? I took it back to the shop (garage, not Goodyear) and he's redoing the work today, says he did use GM parts too, and they're not sleazy folks, something went or was done wrong.

Thanks to all~!

 

What machine did they use? The Discount tire and wheel main store/ warehouse here in Charlotte has the latest version (and software) on the Hunter GSP9700 road force balancing machine, does a great job, very high end machine. They also have the latest Hunter mounting machine, no metal touches the rim, and the machine even lifts the tire/ wheel onto itself. For that matter the balancer lift the tire/ wheel onto itself too.

 

Same at my discount tire. Butler tire here in Atlanta is a much nicer place and they do great work and work on ferraris labos etc but their pricing is out of hand.

Discount tire lets me in the bay to watch and learn and they get the same job done for less

 

Price of mounting, balancing, new chrome stems $105 for all four, same price if you buy from trire rack and have them send the tire to Discount. Also no rules about me watching and asking questions. The machines had multiple modes nad the tech took the time to explain it all. And this is the first place that took the time to look up the wheel bolt torque values and use a good torque wrench to do the final tightening.

 

It worked for myself as well, Motorcycle too , 130mph the first day with the new honda goldwing.

Enjoy The Ride, JC

 

Glad I read here about SHAVING tires which I'd never heard of. Sadly, though suggested also by the garage that finally solved my problem, (thank god I'd read about it here first or I'd thought he was pulling my leg) it doesn't apply to my problem.

Also that the Hunter Force wheel balancer is 'the ultimate' since it actuallys puts road force on the tire. And from "HELP PLEASE!!!" great info from Luke@tirerack about how the factory (used to) identify the heavy or light spots on their rims and tires so they could be matched up/balanced optimally by OEMs. Another thread gave me the best description/understanding of negative/positive camber and toe-in ever, maybe that one.

This forum is terrific.

So, I thought I too had balance problems, or cupping, or wheel bearing - but here's the resolution after 3 weeks of going to Goodyear and another garage to fix an awful road noise at 60+ miles an hour (noticeable at 40+ for that matter).

My Bridgestone Potenza's have hardened! They may have some very very mild cupping but after a rotation, re-rotation, several balances and a 4 wheel alignment, it was finally explained that - they only have about 12k miles on them but they're almost 4 years old, and they're just plain hard, thus the awful noise at 60+ miles an hour.

Save the grief about not driving it much, I have other vehicles and motorcycles that need riding too! Funny cause I just replaced the tires on my BMW 78 R100s this summer for a similar issue (handling not noise;, they were old not high mileage - Metzlers) and boy what a difference. Any way to 'seal' tires so they don't age???? It's air that ages/hardens them right, so shade etc not a fix, they need to be stored in a vacuum if that was feasible.