New Michelin Defenders Vibration?

Just had my stock tires replaced at Sams Club, went with Defender LTX tires. Drove home and when I got to the highway (20 miles away) I noticed a steering wheel shake at 65 mph. When i got home and started checking front wheels I noticed left front had a lot of weights. I then moved it to the left rear and took it for a ride steering wheel steady. My question does this look like a normal amount of weights (1/4oz segments) and positioned for a proper balance? They also way over torqued the lugnuts.

 

Great tires by the way , good luck . If you want to put this to bed there are special adapters that need to be put on these wheels before they go on the balance machine. I hate to,say this but if you get them balanced at the dealer they will be perfect . As far as torque on the lug nuts that is very important . You could damage the front rotors

 

Thanks, I think I will take this wheel/tire to a local tire shop and have them check the balance as is and see what they say. I am not happy with the ribbon of 1/4oz weights, I am guessing they did not have heavier weights to reduce the amount of weights because all the wheels have only ribbons of 1/4oz weights just not as many. Do not want to go back to Sam's they are a 50 mile round trip they lost my trust. All wheels are now torqued to spec.

 

Well now it has just got worse, went out to garage and the right rear tire is going flat 14 psi, checked sensor with some soapy water and it is leaking. Checked for proper toque on sensor nut and it was under spec, tightened to spec and no luck. Not sure what they have done. Ordered a new sensor incase this one is damaged. I forgot to mention they also said they cannot program the sensors, only capable to program their sensors.

 

Rebalanced wheel/tire was out 2 1/4oz. as done by Sam's. In the picture you can see the tape from the original weights.
The leaking sensor on the other wheel has the washer that goes under the cap/nut on the inside the of the rim instead of outside, so back to the tire shop to have that repaired.

 

^Do you still have the 9 year-old factory sensors?

 

I would make Sam’s pay for any extra charge you have to pay . I’m sure the tires were not inexpensive .
I feel bad for you. Nobody wants to do the right thing anymore
Terrible

 

Yes, they were still functioning.

 

So True, I have pictures and documentation of what I am having to do to correct their screwups. $1,157 out the door at Sams.

 

They're on borrowed time. Typical battery life on the sensors is about 7 years.

 

Truck sits a lot, only 35,000 miles on the clock. Not sure if it affects life span. Hoping to get a scanner to activate the new sensors and will be interested what the battery levels are on the old sensors. Will let you know.

 

Follow up, called Sams they will reimburse me for my expenses for the repairs and the new sensor. They were actually very nice and apologetic.

 

Tested my 9 yr. old sensors with my new

$219 Autel TS501 PRO, 2025 TPMS Programming Tool Same as TS508, Up of TS501 TS408S, Relearn Activate 99% TPMS Sensors, Program Autel MX-Sensor 315/433MHz, TPMS Reset & Diagnostics, Lifetime Update

Autel TS501, 3 sensors tested with OK battery level one tested low battery level.

 

Michelin sending 2 new replacement tires, for the 2 that were very high on the road force balance. Keeping my fingers crossed that when this is over the truck rides as good as it did before this all started.

 

I really pushing it at 12 years.

 

How many miles on those 12 year old sensors?

 

130k. Have new wheels to put on so going to replace sensors then.

 

I think that would be a wise decision. I went with the Denso sensors from Amazon, had to program the sensor codes into the truck.

 

Well I will update this thread for those who have been keeping up with my tire issue. First my vibration issue has been solved. After contacting Michelin online they opened up a case file, I was instructed to have tires inspected by a authorized Michelin dealer (no I did not go to Sams). Found a local dealer in the town near me. They road force balanced my front tires. Found one at 40 lbs. and one at 30 lbs. Dealer contacted Michelin and they authorized 2 new tires. When I took the truck back in I had the dealer road balance all 4 tires to be sure we would be replacing the worse tires. Those were the worse, the other 2 were low 20lbs. After replacing the bad tires, and re-balancing (low to mid 20 lbs.) my vibration and steering wheel shake is gone. I did have to pay tire mounting and all the rebalancing of the other tires, just happy it is over with.

 

@VaGlock so glad you where able to resolve the ride issue. There is nothing like an ongoing annoying vibration.