New Continental tire problem

[Joyce]

Bought 4 continentals at Town Fair tire. At first I had a shimmy on the wheel so I had them rebalanced. The shimmy got better. Then I had a shimmy in the passenger seat. They rebalanced again and the shimmy got better.When the tires first start to roll and are cold, I feel that something is still not right. Also,I still hear a slight flopping sound when I travel 60 or so on the hightway. Is it me, or should I expect them to be better than this. I bought continentals because I had them on my Volvo and loved how quiet they were. I don't remember any problems on my old tires. Of course being female does not help. They are beginning to think I am loopy. Thanks for your help.

 

[Passepartout]

Having a shimmy after being balanced is not a good sign. I think I'd get a 2nd opinion. Maybe from a trusted mechanic. It wouldn't be the first time a tire (or tires) had separation of tread to cord, or between cords internally. This is serious and should be investigated.

You mentioned 'being female doesn't help'. I am not sure this is valid, as you can tell something isn't right. Tire guys have terminology for when something isn't right. For instance a 'shimmy' would mean side-to-side involuntary movement. Like the steering wheel moves back and forth regularly independent of road surface. Bad balance would be indicated by 'bounce' or vibration that increases with speed. A way to test whether it's a tire is to rotate the tires to different positions and see if the car performs differently. If it's the same, you might be looking at shocks/struts or other mechanical stuff than the tires.

Good luck and get it checked out.

Didn't you ask here for tire recommendations recently and were Conti's suggested?

Jim Ricks

 

[Joyce]

Yes, Conti's were recommended. I'll go back to the tire store. I wonder if Town Fair was not a good choice.

 

[Joyce]

Finally got the tires switched . They exchanged them for the Cooper Mastercraft touring LSR tire with a 60,000mile warrenty. The car is behaving fine now. It is too bad that proper service isn't given the first time around.

 

[ricoba]

Good to hear it worked out well for you! Happy Motoring

 

[Htoo0]

I'm a little surprised. I had this problem years ago with a set of Continentals. After several rounds of complaining one of the employees admitted they were having problems with that brand because of the internal belts separating. Changing to another brand fixed the vibration in my case as well. To hear the problem may still exist after several years is discouraging to say the least. Guess I will continue to avoid them.