mixterk, was the shop's equipment capable of performing a "road force balance?"

 

Not sure what this is...can you clue me in so that i can enquire with them, and keep it in mind for the future...still need some summer wheels!!!

 

My OEM Dunlop RF's have been noisy since about 7,000 miles and have severe cupping since 12,000.

The stealership has agreed to split the cost with me for replacement tires. Choice of tire is mine. I'm leaning away from RF's this time.

 

Hoping for 2 new replacements FOC...I know that RF's have had a mixed reception depending on manufacturer, but these are the first ive come across from Goodyear (based on what I read on this forum) that are really bad.

 

Road Force Balance is a technique used by some of the better tire mounting/balancing equipment. I think the phrase "Road Force Balance" is a trademark of Hunter which is a company that makes the equipment. (I'm not sure what the technique is called in the industry or by other mounting/balancing equpment manufacturers.)

In the old days, tires were balances with a bubble level system which was very primitive and only balanced a wheel/tire on a side-to-side axis. After a while, computerized "spin-balancing" became more popular. Spin-balancing actually spun the tire and measured not only side-to-side variations but also up-and-down variations. Now, there is road-force balancing which is a step beyond the traditional spin-balancing. Road-force balancing simulates a "load" on the tire/wheel just as if it's attached to a car and driving down the road. It is able to determine many more things about the wheel/tire pair. For example, if the wheel or tire isn't perfectly round (which is pretty common), it can determine at what position the wheel and tire should be mounted to minimize this condition. As far as I know, it's one of the most avanced ways to do a balance and it helps to eliminate some of the nagging vibration issues that people have.

Here's a link that provides much more detail than I'm able to give:
http://web.archive.org/web/20060430045534/...com/balance.htm

Here's a link to the Tire Rack's page explaining things as well:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=40

And finally, here's a link to a .pdf file about the Hunter GSP9700 machine:
4159T.pdf

It's interesting to note that both articles feature a Hunter machine -- the same machine that my BMW dealer has...

If your dealer doesn't have the Hunter machine and you want to get your car balanced with Road Force technology, you can use Hunter's finder website to help you find the nearest shop that has the equipment:
http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/FindGSP9700.cfm

 

Summer wheels in Newcastle ?

 

After 64 miles I should jolly well hope so

Anyway, back to the topic. Goodyear must replace them, no question. This is clearly a fault in the product and they are legally obligated to do so. They also have a manufacturers treadwear rating and have no lived up to it.

BMW supplied the tyres and should go in to bat for you on this with Goodyear, any decent dealer would do this.

By the way, Michelin tell me that ZP's for the e60 will be on the market soon. Thank goodness

 

Michelin ZP. What's that?

 

What Mixterk described does sound like a manufacturing defect rather than the other posts on the forum which seem to be about poor alignment and short lifespan.

Tyres just don't crack or lose chunks of tread.

This almost sounds like the sort of effect you see on REALLY OLD tyres that have sat on hardly used cars in the sun for years.

Deffo something wrong here.

 

I have 3500 on my GY NCT 5 RF and they are holding well and they entertain when I have my radio-off. (what noise) ? I thought that was a newkind of newage music!