For those who are Costco members and frequent their tire center, I have a question.

What do you think of the job they do there, especially, balancing?

I've always blanced my tires at Costco ever since I got my 2K (almost 30K miles). Recently the car has developed a fairly strong vibration from 65 mph, as I can even see the visor and water bottle shaking.

Should go to the dealer and check it out? Is balancing at the dealer better?

Thanks in advance

 

I really don't know what kind of job they do, but I would take it to a reputable shop, or the dealer for a rebalancing.

 

Was there any specific event that you can remember at the time the vibration started? I mean, hitting a pothole, someone else driving the car with you not around (and hitting God knows what), etc.? If yes, it might also be a 'thrown' belt inside the tire that no amount of balancing will fix.

 

9700..also called a Road Force Analyzer & have them check & balance the tires/wheels.

This machine loads the tire/wheel assembly with a roller that applies 700 lbs of force on the tire while it's mounted on the machine itself and measures how much the tire/wheel 'kicks back' at the roller as a result of out-of-round conditions, bad belts, etc etc.

If the tire is within spec then it starts the balancing part of the process.

On this 'within spec' thing, I've found the machine will call a tire that has a road force imbalance of 21-25 lbs as 'good'..what u want to have is tires that have less than 10-12 lbs of 'road force' (your best tires) in the front...

Also make sure they balance the wheels with weights on the rear of the wheel... I believe the profile for the machine is 'alloy 2' which places weights right behind the spokes on the wheel plus the inner rim.

Good luck

 

Sounds like you threw a weight but it could be rotors too.

 

Never had a problem there, excellent service.

 

I went to my local Costco (Alhambra, CA) to mount and balance my new Michelin Pilot Sport A/S tire about 2 weeks ago. The first time they did it, I noticed they only put clamp-on weights on the inner lip of the 17" OEM SE rims (the side that you don't see). But, if you noticed, Nissan uses both the clamp-on weights on the inner rim lip and some sticky type weights placed in the middle part of the rim near the spokes.

While I drove the car on the following days, I noticed that speeds below 50mph, the car was fine, but going above 50mph, I had a slight vibration felt on the whole car, even on the smoothest highway. So I went back to Costco with a printout from my CD service manual in reguards of balacing the SE rims. The manual recommends both STATIC and DYNAMIC balacing with the use of both the clamp-on weights on the inner rim lip and the sticky type weights near the outer side in the middle of the rim. There's a alignment grove on the rim where it should be placed at. So I asked them rebalance my rims and to do a Static and Dynamic balance with both kinds of weights as a warantee work. This took care of my problem and the car is smooth again.

STATIC Balancing: Wheel balance that depends on an equal distribution of weight around the circumference of the wheel and tire assembly. Static balance can be achieved without spinning the wheel by using a bubble balancer. A wheel that lacks static balance will shake or tramp up-and-down

DYNAMIC balancing: Wheel balance that results from the equal distribution of weight on both faces or sides of a wheel. Achieving dynamic balance requires spinning the wheel to identify the heavy spots on each side. A wheel that lacks dynamic balance will shimmy back-and-forth.

I hope this helps. Costco is kind of lazy, but if you ask, they will do it for you.

BTW...Those without the Pilot Sport A/S, these are awesome set of tires. Much better than the Potenza RE92 that comes stock with the car. Better handling and traction (wet/dry) at a premium price. Highly recommended.

 

what size tires do u have?

 

Yes, got them from my parents this past xmas. Awesome tires, and a million times better than the stock potenzas.

 

I have the OEM size...225/50-17.

 

it depends on location I guess.
The Costco by me has a cheap balancer