MerlintheMad
10000 Posts Club!
For months I have noticed a vibration in the floorboards, never in the seat or steering wheel. Did a road trip recently to Milwaukee and back and was continually reminded, because each time I pushed well over 80 MPH the vibration became impossible to forget or ignore: I saw into the one hundred and teens several times as I passed fast and this experience determined me to make this first world problem go away. I have been successful. Today's drive back from the Wheel Werks guys was a hundred percent satisfying: I'm sure I had that stupid grin back as I approached the offramp from northbound I-215 to Redwood Road and pushed the speed to 120 MPH: buttery smooth, not even any noise from the slight but noticeable feathering/cupping that has appeared on the inside tread of my rear Michelins.
Several months ago I ran over a chunk of uprooted (cut) cement at 40+ MPH and totally destroyed the sidewall of my RF Michelin, psi went to 0 instantly. I thought at the time that the rim would be damaged, but all I had to do was apply a little gloss black to the extreme edge and it was good. Later inspection showed that the wheel was still dead straight. The RR wheel, however, had at least a 3/32nd of an inch wobble, which I just had repaired (cost a couple of hundred bucks, including a wheel balancing that they didn't charge for as a separate item): I must have run over the cement chunk with the rear tire, that's the only time I've hit anything (I've never come a cropper in over four years of Stinger driving on any potholes). In addition to fixing the rim, they put my replacement RF Michelin on properly: Big O had mounted it with the "outside" facing inside and I had never noticed: did the c. 3K miles of the road trip on it that way, heh!
I asked Kelly at Wheel Werks what that means for the tire and he said it probably will only affect handling somehow when mounted facing the wrong way: well, I never noticed any handling issues (except maybe a small tendency to pull to the right, not enough to even require holding the steering wheel canted to the left), only vibrations, but he said a backwards mounted tire isn't going to contribute to vibrations.
So, in the last week, I've swapped my OEM wheels back on so that the repair could be done, had an alignment done yesterday (first one in all this time, yeah I know, bad boy, should have had one done right after taking possession: lucked out again I reckon), and had my TSW wheels and Michelins put back on and can say "score!" Happy am I. (Oh, another thing: Big O not only put the tire on inside out, they also did a crappy balancing job: Kelly said that wheel/tire combo was quite out of balance: why this didn't transmit through the steering wheel, I have no idea.)
Finally, an extra bennie/serendipity: I no longer have to look at the chunk out of my RF sidewall.
It is now (and forever) on the inside where it belongs: so, even incompetence can have it's blessings (for the Curbinator anyway).
Several months ago I ran over a chunk of uprooted (cut) cement at 40+ MPH and totally destroyed the sidewall of my RF Michelin, psi went to 0 instantly. I thought at the time that the rim would be damaged, but all I had to do was apply a little gloss black to the extreme edge and it was good. Later inspection showed that the wheel was still dead straight. The RR wheel, however, had at least a 3/32nd of an inch wobble, which I just had repaired (cost a couple of hundred bucks, including a wheel balancing that they didn't charge for as a separate item): I must have run over the cement chunk with the rear tire, that's the only time I've hit anything (I've never come a cropper in over four years of Stinger driving on any potholes). In addition to fixing the rim, they put my replacement RF Michelin on properly: Big O had mounted it with the "outside" facing inside and I had never noticed: did the c. 3K miles of the road trip on it that way, heh!
I asked Kelly at Wheel Werks what that means for the tire and he said it probably will only affect handling somehow when mounted facing the wrong way: well, I never noticed any handling issues (except maybe a small tendency to pull to the right, not enough to even require holding the steering wheel canted to the left), only vibrations, but he said a backwards mounted tire isn't going to contribute to vibrations.So, in the last week, I've swapped my OEM wheels back on so that the repair could be done, had an alignment done yesterday (first one in all this time, yeah I know, bad boy, should have had one done right after taking possession: lucked out again I reckon), and had my TSW wheels and Michelins put back on and can say "score!" Happy am I. (Oh, another thing: Big O not only put the tire on inside out, they also did a crappy balancing job: Kelly said that wheel/tire combo was quite out of balance: why this didn't transmit through the steering wheel, I have no idea.)
Finally, an extra bennie/serendipity: I no longer have to look at the chunk out of my RF sidewall.
It is now (and forever) on the inside where it belongs: so, even incompetence can have it's blessings (for the Curbinator anyway).
