Falken at4 won’t stay balanced

I recently installed Falken at4ws. 285/70/17s, SL. I’ve had them balanced 6 times now in less than 10k… they will not stay balanced. Within 200 miles it’s shaking again and every tire will be out of balance.every road trip I have to stop and have them redone. I don’t know what to do at this point. I’ve rebuilt the front end, just recently put in a new rack to combat steering shake. But it’s every tire.. has anyone else had issues with these tires? It’s really pissin me off.

 

Take em back.

 

Typical falken junk. I had that problem with the AT3Ws. I drove them a month and had discount get me something else. Terrible. I don’t know how people like them, most must just be a lot luckier than I.

 

Are you on the same rims as your old tires?
Have you had different shops do the balancing?
How often do you drive the truck? My Miata, that sits undriven for long periods, gets flat spots on the tires that make them feel unbalanced and it takes a few miles of driving to get them smooth again.

Find a good tire shop that does road force balancing, they should be able to tell you if the tires or rims are out of spec.

 

4 different shops.. road forced. Mostly discount tire. They’ve done it free a couple times even though I didn’t buy them there. My shop ba ok ancestry them, 2 weeks later I went to discount and one was 9 oz out. . the thing is, I’m on a road trip, just had them balanced at discount in Denver, went 200 miles and it’s back. Did the same thing on a hunting trip, drove 200 miles, stopped in okc and had them balanced.. had to gave it redone on my way back.. every tire will be out of balance… and it’ll drive perfectly smooth after a rebalance. I’m at a loss

 

Do you have the oem tpms sensors that are part of the valve body?
Maybe if you have an aftermarket sensor that wraps around the rim it is slightly loose and slowly moving on the rim causing the wheel to loose balance.

 

No these are SCS wheels. Just the valvestem hole factory one’s transferred over

 

Have you tried marking the tires and wheels to see if they are maybe slipping?

What pressure do you run the tires at?

 

Are the weights falling off? My rims have a very slick inside and when they used sticky weights they would fall off very quickly (and I would usually hear them hitting the caliper before they came completely off.) I would have discount clean and burr the spot they were putting the sticky weights and that solved the problem..I have also switch over to just inside weights..and I have no balancing issue.

Think logically about this...you leave the shop with 4 tires balanced and they all get out out balance 6 times? The rubber is not morphing or changing shape after you leave the shop, the rubber is not slipping into a different position on your rim. Next time you get them balanced, photo and document the weights on all 4 tires and compare next time you take them back in to be balanced.

 

That sucks, had mine so long no one would touch them because of age. Had to replace unfortunately

 

This
Ask for another set or something else

 

I haven’t photoed, but I have considered it… going back tomorrow to try again and I’m going to mark and document everything.

 

This is exactly what I was wondering. I've never heard of it, but your situation sounds peculiar. I'd put a paint dot by the valve stem and drive it a few days. See if it moves.
I have the AT3Ws on my truck now, 265/75-16 in the lighter load flavor and other than wearing a little faster than I think they should, they have been fantastic.
I probably only have 10,000 mile left on them but during our last snow, people were getting stuck everywhere. My truck was like a tank.

 

Had them balanced again… all 4 off again within 900 miles. One was 3.25 oz out. Here’s the result including road force….

 

You'll probably have to balance them again and again. See if you can swap them for another brand.

 

This doesn't even make sense... How does an already balanced tire suddenly require several ounces to balance them again?? I'm not suggesting you are lying or anything. But from a physics standpoint that doesn't add up. Either the tire is moving on the wheel, or you are suddenly losing weight from one spot on the tire like a lug falling off or some crazy thing. <1oz here and there to re-balance, maybe. But not 3oz or 9oz at a time. There's no way that's the tires wearing like that.

Have you checked to see if you have water inside the wheel somehow??

 

Contact Falken with ALL the info......
maybe they have seen it & will swap them out.
Thats where I would start.....
Didnt have an issue before these tires?
Pretty simple....

 

Agreed with the others, something fishy here. If weights aren't falling off, tire isn't slipping and wear isn't a factor then how on earth is it possible for the tires to become unbalanced? The rubber and carcass materials don't just redistribute themselves causing a different balance. This does not seem like a tire defect to me. I know some have had balance issues with Falkens but I've had 3 sets and all have been fantastic.

Water in the tire is an interesting idea. Should be a rare occurrence but this did happen to me once. The shop was able to balance it and thought everything was normal. But it caused vibration so I had to have them dismount, remove water and remount/balance.

I'd mark or tape your weights and mark your tire's position on the wheel and then monitor that. And I'd consider having the next shop completely dismount to inspect then remount.

 

This is exactly the problem I had with a set of Badyear tires (that's Goodyear, in case that went over anyone's head).
For me it was every time I aired down for a trail, all 4 tires would wind up in different positions on the wheels (I actually had marked the tires for if I ever lost a wheel weight, I could just simply pop a new one of the same weight on there).

A 2nd set of Badyears I had started out nice & smooth, but then over time (11K miles) became out of balance... Tried to have them rebalanced and then all hell broke loose (they became 5× worse than when I went in)... Turned out all 4 tires had become ⅛" - ¼" out of round. They took the tires back under warranty and so I replaced them with BFGs. Of course the Badyears wore at a rapid rate too, so I didn't get as much back on them due to being pro-rated.

Agreed. I'd definitely take them back and go with another brand.

 

Shit all 4 tires slipped on the wheel? how far did you air down?