S60 Wheels Won't Stay Balanced

I have a 2007 S60 which is driving me nuts because the wheels won't
stay balanced. Any ideas as to the cause will be appreciated.

The car was riding fine for a half year or so until I took it in for
the 30,000 mile maintenance. They rotated the tires, balanced the
wheels and aligned all wheels. About a week later, I started noticing
some vibration which got increasingly worse. I hadn't hit any
significant bumps on the road in this time.

After a week of this, I took it to my local Goodyear shop. I've dealt
with them for years and the guys are top notch mechanics. They found
that the front two wheels were slightly out of balance so they re-
balanced them. They thought that maybe the wheel weights shifted or
something.

Everything seemed fine but after a week of smooth riding, it's
vibrating again, minor at first then getting worse. I'll take it back
to the repair shop and ask them to road test it but I'm getting tired
of having the balance checked every couple of weeks.

Paul

 

Did the weights shift? What kind of tires are on it? Is there perhaps
foreign matter in the air space inside the tire? I've seen cheap tires
that were not well balanced.

 

Hi Paul,

I've had tyres that refuse to balance properly. You had the tyres rotated -
presumably front to back. Try putting things back to how they were.
Perhaps your rear (now front) tyres are faulty (for want of a more exact
term!). This is assuming there is not something going wrong with one of
your front tyres - like a bubble developing (ply separation). Examine them
both very closely - you should remove them to do this.

Regards
Barry

 

When I took them to Goodyear, they thought that the weights might have
shifted but couldn't tell for sure because they were new.

The tires are the Michelins which come standard with the car, a fairly
reputable brand. The wheels are the standard alloy wheels, which were
checked for roundness or deformation. I'm taking it in on Tuesday and
will report back any findings.

Paul

 

Out of interest, what would you consider to be a "more reputable brand" than
Michelins?

When I took them to Goodyear, they thought that the weights might have
shifted but couldn't tell for sure because they were new.

The tires are the Michelins which come standard with the car, a fairly
reputable brand. The wheels are the standard alloy wheels, which were
checked for roundness or deformation. I'm taking it in on Tuesday and
will report back any findings.

Paul

 

Michelins tend to be quite good, I suppose you could have got a bad
batch, so it's worth inspecting them carefully, but I would expect the
problem to be somewhere else.

Wheel bearings in good shape? Alignment good? I can't think of much else.

 

No bearing problems that I can tell. The car has only 31,000 miles and
the problem surfaced after rotating the tires, so had it been
bearings, I would have noticed it earlier.

I took it to the shop and they checked the balance on all the wheels.
One was very slightly out of balance so they rebalanced it. The
alignment was set on the first visit and is good. No irregularity in
the tires or wheels, everything round and smooth. The guy at the shop
took it up to 80 mph on a test run and noticed no vibration.

Maybe I'm just being too sensitive but I really don't like the road
feel of this car. It just doesn't seem smooth and even enough for its
size and quality. Last year I had to rent a Chevy Impala while on a
trip out of town and it had a much more even ride than my Volvo.

Paul

 

European cars in general tend to have much tighter, more responsive
handling than domestic cars like the Impala. A consequence of this is
more vibration and road feel transmitted to the driver. I like this
personally but it sounds like you may prefer more of a luxury car. It
has little to do with the quality of the car, it's how it's set up.

 

I used to experience this when I was over-inflating my tyres. What air
pressure are you using?

 

My 1990 740 Turbo Volvo has Fulda tires which are not round .In guess the
Germans have problems making any thing round but tires need to be .When I
jacked up the whells in gear the tires were wobbly.This explains why my
sterring is uncomfortable with no vibration but a shimmer and odd sound when
coming to a stop.I have seen tires not settled on rims do the same .

 

Please excuse my spelling I have hay fever thats my excuse