I purchased 4 brand new Hercules Avalanche Winter tires on steel rims a couple months ago. Right from the start I felt there was an issue with the tires, like at least 1 was out of balance. Basically excessive road noise and some vibration.
The tires have been rebalanced, the tires taken off and all seasons back on (issue disappears) and I even had a second garage check the car over and they also thought there was an issue with a tire. Finally I was told to take the car to another garage that used the Road Force balancing system. They tested all 4 and found 1 wheel to require balancing using their system but even after that the issue persisted. I took the results of the Road Force test back to the place I purchased the tires and they replaced the 1 tire.
I still feel there is an issue. Basically the place I purchased the tires feels they have done all they can and are done with me. So what should my next step be, do I have the wheel RoadForce tested again to compare the result to the 1st time or logically if the tire replacement did not solve the issue do I replace the rim?
Road Force results on the tire prior to replacement Tire: 27lbs, assembly predicted: 19lbs, Current assembly: 19lbs.
The other 3 tires were current assembly of 10, 11 and 12 lbs.
You just have to live with it or buy better tires.
Vibration, is dynamic balance issue OR then a road force issue…both of which you did. The tire was replaced but the road force was still 75% or so higher than the other three. 19 lbs is on the high end of acceptable which is why the tire store gave up on you.
At this point, since the tire has been replaced, you are only left with replacing the wheel as your next option if you just can’t stand the vibration.
Seeing as how you seem to be more sensitive to to both noise and vibration (many are not), to avoid this headache in the future, buy better brand tires.
I’ve used Firestone winter tires…cheap and noisy as heck but effective. Michelin Alpin, expensive, quiet and very effective, Blizzaks, expensive, quiet and very effective and finally Kleber winters, medium priced, medium quiet, effective. I am VERY sensitive to tires as I used to evaluate cars as part of my job and I’ve never had issues with any of these tires.
It might be expected that an off-brand winter tire would be a bit noisy. When I search the web for reviews of that tire, that was mentioned more than once.
Although this would be an expensive experiment, you could switch these tires to your other rims to see if the vibration follows the tires or not.
Hercules and Ironman are tires we install on budget used cars to save money.
Sometimes saving money is not worth the frustration that comes with a mediocre product.
I buy Michelin tires.
Next step is to call the tire manufacturer. Explain everything you told us. What they ought to do is send you to a dealer (original or another) and give the tire replacement one more chance. It’s statistically possible to get high roadforce tires twice.
If you have to, threaten a small claims court action. That ought to get them to replace the tires with another brand. (You’ll have to pay the difference.)
If that doesn’t work, put on a better tire and sue.
And for those who couldn’t make sense of the roadforce values, the OP has a 23# tire and a 4# wheel. The wheel adds or subtracts from the tire to get the assembly value. 23# is a bit on the high side for a tire on a Hyundai Santa Fe. 4# is OK for a wheel.