Steering wheel jiggles at speed

tire bouncing up and down from being out of balance, one side takes a load, the other doesn't, it can cause undo stress to the tire, add the fact it was also recall tire it is a recipe for shredding...maybe the OP didn't know it at the time, but Discount would have more than likely...

if he had taken it in for the free rotation and balance, maybe, just maybe, Discount Tire would have done the exchange because they would have been aware of the recall, thus avoiding the shredding and damage to wheel well area....

Jeesh....

 

Tire bouncing up and down from being out of balance, where did I say that? Nobody has even confirmed the tire was out of balance, that is conjecture on your part.

Had I known the tire was part of a recall, I would have had it replaced immediately. I only found that out yesterday.

 

OP, the vibration you had could only be caused by one of four things, maybe I should have covered that...

1. out of balance
2. hard spot one side of tire (road force balance can sometimes correct that)
3. separation started and small air pocket formed...
4. bad suspension parts, which, obviously, wasn't the problem as things smoothed out with the rotation....

If your tire 'wiggled' on the front and you rotated them to the rear, the rear is a more solid position (no steering linkage and associated parts to confound the problem) so the vibration is minimized on yer butt cheeks, doesn't mean the tire magically got better...

this is simple wheel physics...

Anyway, did Discount Tire do an exchange, more than likely it will be a prorated exchange, hopefully they stepped up..

 

Yes, the OP should have gotten the tires balanced, he made a stupid mistake by not doing that. But you're trying to imply that it is HIS fault that the tread separated from the tire. AND that it is BECAUSE he failed to get the wheels properly balanced that the tire exploded, as it was ALREADY known to have a habit of doing.

Your claim is faulty unless you're willing to claim that every single case of that particular tire exploding is due to poor balancing. So many people had lack of tire balancing that they actually managed to shift blame and invent an issue and blame a company that actually had no fault in the manufacturing of the tire? Are you willing to take that claim on and battle an entire federal recall?
Didn't think so.
It's unfortunate the OP demonstrated poor maintenance of his vehicle (something we're all guilty of), but he is not at fault for a tire company selling a poorly designed product. He is only a victim. It's also unfortunate his vehicle suffered damage due to this, but this is not at all a risk he took.
"Well, if I don't get these tires balanced for several months, I knowingly run the risk of having the tire explode and damage my vehicle" yeah....no

 

well it was either dumb to not balance the tires that were clearly out of balance or it was dumb to buy tires in the first place that were confirmed to have issues with the tread separating. Either way, the OP could use a little better judgement. Claiming to be the "victim" is flat out irresponsible. Products have defects and still make it to market sometimes. As you both have pointed out, the issues with these tires had been reported. Crossing your fingers and hoping that you would not be one of the people who had the tread separate is your own fault and the makes the OP a self-inflicted "victim". A victim of his own choices and neglect. Pointing the finger at the tire company is fine had it been handled correctly in the beginning, like once you knew there was a problem with the tire, have it checked, balanced, or even replaced if it was known to be defective. Neglecting to do that does not make you a victim.

Lame.

 

Agreed.

Man. Maybe he shouldn't have bought a Tacoma with such awful rust problems. Whatta dummy!

 

"But you're trying to imply that it is HIS fault that the tread separated from the tire. AND that it is BECAUSE he failed to get the wheels properly balanced that the tire exploded, as it was ALREADY known to have a habit of doing."

Well, yes, I was implying that it was his fault he waited so long that the tire shredded and caused damage, whether or not he knew about the recall...this is why you take advantage of the FREE krap Discount Tire includes with any tire purchase, waiting 7 months is just not prudent when it comes to tire problems...any normal thinking human would figure that the tires rotated to the rear and the rears moved to the front stopped the steering wheel shaking, first thing I would do is visit the tire shop and see what is up with the tires swapped to the rear...ignoring a problem doesn't make it go away...

there is nothing magical about tires, they are either balanced, or not, swapping them does not magically change the balance, although, as shown in this case, it did solve the front end vibration...if he had not swapped, think of what could have been if the tire was still on the front shredding away...

7 months, give me a break....

Good grief, I just reread the OP's postings, the tires in question are like 5 or 6 years old according to him, I doubt seriously that Discount will do anything with that much time on the wheels, but it is worth a try, maybe they will, I have found Discount/America's Tire to be fairly reasonable at keeping customers happy, one of the reasons I have been with them for the last 20 years....

 

I take my steering wheel off when it jiggles. Mainly because Im getting the jiggle on in the front seat


image by Tanner Tucker, on Flickr

Thread deeerailed hahaha

 

That is a good one...

 

They told me tire balance was not the cause, so you can cross that off the list. It wasn't a full replacement but I was happy with the deal they gave me.

You guys seem to enjoy pointing the finger, but stop for a second and consider what you would have done in my situation. The problem went away after rotating the tires last year. I watched it closely for several weeks, and then months, without any sign whatsoever that the steering wheel jiggle had returned and there was no evidence of vibration. Are you guys honestly telling me you would have taken it in anyway, even though it was impossible to reproduce the symptoms at that point?

That's like going to your doctor feeling great because -- MONTHS earlier -- you had the flu. Nobody does that.

 

I've kinda been defending you because you were unrightfully attacked, but you aren't blameless here. All you did was move the wheels with problems from the front to the back. It's not your fault that the tires blew up, but you had to have used common sense to realize that the problem still existed, it just couldn't be felt as easily.


When it is obvious that the issue is out of balance wheels, NOBODY's first thought is "hmm. I betcha the tread is about to separate and fling off". BUT, I personally would have put it on my to-do list to get them re-balanced. Honestly, even me being a lazy-ass that hates going to shops and paying too much money for simple services, I would have gotten them rebalanced.

AND you have some shop that does the balancing for free? I would have been there like..the next day.

 

Yes, but as I just explained, the shop said tire balance was not the problem. That idea came from certain people in this thread, not me or the tire shop. Besides, there's no guarantee balancing the tires would have accomplished anything.

If anything, I blame myself for not researching potential problems with that specific make/model of tire. That would have been quick and painless via Google, and I failed to do it.

 

You're actual missing the point. The thing is if you took the wheels in for balancing, they would have been like "oh. These are those shit tires that were recalled"
Even if the tire guy wasn't looking for recalled tires, he probably would have had a hard time balancing the wheel and investigated further.

 

You're also missing the point that because the problem wasn't that the wheels needed balanced, there was STILL an issue with the wheels/tires. Just because you moved the issue, doesn't mean that it never existed. You're getting "not needing balanced" confused with "no problems whatsoever"

 

There's no guarantee any of those things would have happened. As it was they had a hard time locating my records in the computer, which might be why I never heard about the tire recall in the first place.

It's easy to point out defective reasoning in retrospect, and say hey, you screwed up here, but I have a feeling most of you would have responded just like I did.

 

Do you have time in your day to have your truck examined for symptoms that no longer exist? Using your logic, why not take your truck in tomorrow for a possible blown head gasket or defective airbags even though nothing appears wrong?

 

Yes I would have taken it in anyway. The problem was not resolved just because you moved the tire to the rear axle. You just couldn't feel it through the steering wheel anymore. It's kinda like saying "oh my rear diff is leaking oil" and then all the sudden it stops leaking because it's empty and thinking "cool, the leak stopped, it must have fixed itself".

 

Yes. That is called maintenance. You check things and monitor them BEFORE symptoms show up. Once the symptoms show up, something is already wrong.

 

My wheel starts to wiggle too, at around 125mph. But that could be the lift...or the tires...or God telling me to slow the **** down.

 

Well, it's a good thing you did rotate. Popping a steer tire at freeway speeds is NOT GOOD!.