Lefty

I'm with everyone else here.... They are trying to pull something over on you. I had a balance issue with my rims when I got them through Discount. When I took it back the next day, the tech said they were balanced incorrectly and needed to be rebalanced. Haven't had a problem since ! (with 13k on the tires now).

I'd suggest taking it to a different Discount.

Steve

rimpainter.com

Travis-

Good idea. We actually have it narrowed down to the rear wheels. In fact, one of the guys claims it is one wheel in particular. I am a bit disappointed with the managers response to my idea about getting one new wheel (see above).

I hate to go above people because I am a firm believer in following the chain of command, but part of me wants to call corporate and complain.

Should I raise that kind of stink, or give this manager a chance to make things right?

rimpainter.com

Funny you mention that, cause I did do that.

I had the wheels balanced at the original Discount (where I bought them), and 4 separate times at a location closer to me. They swear that the wheels are balanced as best as they can be.

Now the manager at the original Discount wants to “have a look.” Which, when translated means, “we want to try and balance them.”

shazaam

All this talk of balancing wheels ... I'm going to go have mine balanced today. Its been about 6K miles.

MTL_4runner

Balancing wheels is not that hard.....I used to do it all the time. Yes, the bigger the wheel the tougher they get but only the giant bogger tires were a serious pain (I think it was because the sidewalls were extremely tall and the tires so wide they had huge inertia). Anyway, there is no excuse at all for not being able to balance them if they have the correct adapter. They must use the bolt hole (hawk) adapter and not the standard cone adapter most wheels do. Go back there and watch them do it so you can see how they are balancing them. Even with a slightly bent rim, they should still be able to get the job done. You should be able to see if they bent the rim too badly. You should not incur any out of pocket for this crapola so take no prisoners when you go in to argue your case.

Lefty

Should I raise that kind of stink, or give this manager a chance to make things right?

Unfortunately, it will probably take you longer to get resolution in that manner than to let the manager(s) fix the issue for you.

A couple things come to mind on this issue also:

1. Have you checked your tire pressure ? All tires should have the same pressure and shouldn't be below normal. A low tire will definitely cause a balance problem.

2. You bought the wheels thru Discount, correct ? If all else fails, DEMAND they get you a replacement. They were the retailer, they should be able to work with the manufacturer to get you a replacement wheel. That is the retailer's responsibility. If they can't you COULD go to the manufacturer directly. I'm sure they would be very interested in correcting the problem.

Good luck !

Steve

rimpainter.com

Yes, tire pressure is the same. Thanks for the ideas!

rimpainter.com

I just spoke with an area VP. He is shipping a couple new wheels up from Tucson. They will put them on next week.

I guess I voided the manufacturer warranty by sanding and painting the red and blue stripe. My bad!
Oh well. Sounds like everything is going to be fixed for free.

I kind of wish I never went with a lug-centric wheel. Maybe I should have stayed with the stockers which are hub-centric…

Lefty

Woah.... Hold on there.... Based upon my understanding, you MUST go with a non-hubcentric wheel on Toyotas. When I did the research on my wheels, I was told by numerous sources that hubcentric wheels will not fit on a Toyota. From my understanding, hubcentric wheels transfer the weight of the vehicle to the center hole, or hub, of the wheel. Non-hubcentric wheels transfer the vehicle weight to the lugs. Besides these differences, I believe the hub of the wheels are different sizes based upon the design of the wheel.

Of course, this is based upon some brief research I did on the topic last summer. Experts in the area, feel free to chime in and .

Steve

Hyperlite

sand in the tires will balance them out perfectly. I know I guy that was having trouble with 44" boggers so he put golf ball in and the drove like a dream

Cebby

My understanding is that the Toy wheels are hubcentric. That's the whole reason for the hawk-thingie adapter. I can testify to how tight they get around the hub - I couldn't get mine off!!

I bought lug centric MT II's and they've been great. Keeping the weights on is my problem... :pat:

4Paws

MT II & Revos balanced well at a hillbilly shop in the hood.

oscarz

Lug vs Hub centric. What confusion! We need to get to the bottom of this issue because I keep hearing differing views on this, even from tire stores with "so-called" experts. Some say Toyota wheels are hub centric and others say lug centric. Who is the authority on this?

P.S: Christian, I'm probably not gonna use the CHOU SEIKI wheels I bought from you after all (even though I had them polished to a "mirror finish"). I just don't want to use spacers. If you want them back, or if anyone else is interested, let me know).

Fahrenheit 451

Are the Pirellis new? I could swear I came across posts somewhere recently where a number of people were complaining about Pirelli tires and vibration.
I got some black steelies from Discount a while back with 31x10.50 MTRs and haven't had any trouble with them so far.
The only real problem was getting the rims in all black! They only had two in stock so the guy kept trying to upgrade me to black centers with chrome outers and a variety of other wheels. I simply kept saying to him, "Black, just plain black." They finally wound up getting a couple more from another store so I wound up looking like this:
http://members.aol.com/mfinja/ben/85.jpg

KING

I also have a vibration with my black rims but I think it's an axle shaft although it occurs at 60-63 MPH.

One rim seems like it's defected. It has a wierd finish - something really out of the ordinary.

mike_d

this thread is too long and i didn't read it all because i'm lazy, so i'll probably be dispensing advice that other have already said. but anyway....i have those exact same wheels, and i got them at discount tire this fall for my '89. i bet that they just balanced them wrong. as was probably mentioned in this thread, toyota balances wheels by the lug, lots of other manufacturers balance by the hub. even though my local discount tire has the hunter balancer, they were using the hub adapter to balance the wheels. i ask them to do it with the lug adapter, the tech doing the work said that it's not supposed to be done that way. so i told the manager how i wanted my wheels balanced and they did it the right way. the wheels run so smooth. they're even better than my stock wheels which currently have my winter tires on them. i'd say go watch them balance, make sure they use the lug balancer, and watch the machine and make sure it reads 0 before you let them put it on your truck. it sucks that you actually have to watch and make sure people do the job correctly.

hillbilly

My understanding was that Toyota OEM wheels were lugcentric, whereas most other wheels were hubcentric?!?

Totally confused.

hillbilly

Toy OEM's are lug centric

KING

CHRISTIAN,

DISCOUNT TIRE on 51st AVE & MCDOWELL has a GPS-9700 though I don't know if they have a HAWEKA.

You ought to give them a call.

DISCOUNT TIRE #AZP04
5131 W MCDOWELL RD
PHOENIX, AZ 85035
Phone: 602-233-2290

rimpainter.com

PM me your cell again...

I just might need those back. Thanks!