Vibration with winter tires on CX-5

I have bought new Michelin snow X winter tires and installed from a dealership. Then got vibration on the floor and seats on highway. Went back and they tried several times to rebalance the tires including road force balancing. It’s better but I can still feel vibration from time to time. Vibration can be felt on the floor and seats, although not very much. The vibration is not there when speed is low. Also it’s not consistent, some time it’s better and some time it’s worse while road is similar. I have the tires on steel rims. Anyone has experiences on this? Is there always some small vibration? Or maybe it’s very difficult to balance them with steel rims? I really don’t understand why the dealership couldn’t balance it well. I have spent quite some time and drive test with the dealership and don’t want to waste more time on this
 
I have bought new Michelin snow X winter tires and installed from a dealership. Then got vibration on the floor and seats on highway. Went back and they tried several times to rebalance the tires including road force balancing. It’s better but I can still feel vibration from time to time. Vibration can be felt on the floor and seats, although not very much. The vibration is not there when speed is low. Also it’s not consistent, some time it’s better and some time it’s worse while road is similar. I have the tires on steel rims. Anyone has experiences on this? Is there always some small vibration? Or maybe it’s very difficult to balance them with steel rims? I really don’t understand why the dealership couldn’t balance it well. I have spent quite some time and drive test with the dealership and don’t want to waste more time on this
Can you isolate the corner it is coming from. I remember having a set of Yokohama UPAS tires and I could feel it in the passenger rear I moved the tire to the front and felt it in the front. Turns out the tire was defective. The shop tried moving the tire to different wheels and could not fix the vibration. I think they called it runout but I cannot quite remember.
 
I have bought new Michelin snow X winter tires and installed from a dealership. Then got vibration on the floor and seats on highway. Went back and they tried several times to rebalance the tires including road force balancing. It’s better but I can still feel vibration from time to time. Vibration can be felt on the floor and seats, although not very much. The vibration is not there when speed is low. Also it’s not consistent, some time it’s better and some time it’s worse while road is similar. I have the tires on steel rims. Anyone has experiences on this? Is there always some small vibration? Or maybe it’s very difficult to balance them with steel rims? I really don’t understand why the dealership couldn’t balance it well. I have spent quite some time and drive test with the dealership and don’t want to waste more time on this
I agree with Chas. Your Michelin Snow X tires could be defective and out of round. Road force balance should give you a number and if it’s greater than 20, the tire is out of spec and Michelin or your Mazda dealer should replace the tire under warranty.
 
While I agree you should go back to the dealership as they initially did the install, perhaps a second opinion from a dedicated Tire shop if all else fails and you're not getting anywhere with the dealership.

Tire shops deal with one thing alone while the dealership may not have the specialty to diagnose/fix the situation. Great to hear that they used a Hunter Road Force balancer. There's so much that tool can do including match mounting if the tech knows what he/she is doing. As mentioned above, this balancer can determine run out and if there is an issue with the tire it should be present with the roller on the tire simulating load of a car.

You should not feel any vibration and there are too many reasons why it is present.

Keep us updated on your progress.
 
With modern tires from a respected company, you'd expect a good design, but there are trade-offs. It's possible that the tread design excites a frequency that induces the vibration.
 
I have the same tires on 17" steel wheels and no vibration at all and by the way I love the tires, best compromise of dry/wet/snow/ice/noise/comfort I've ever had! I've had steel wheels for winter tires for over 30 years and never had any vibration. There are 3 types of steel wheels, OEM, hub centric and lug centric; I've had all 3 but some reported having vibration with lug centric type. Lug centric are also called multi fit as the same wheel can fit different makes and models since the hub opening is larger. Bad tire or bad wheel, that is the question but good luck with this frustrating problem.
 
If runout is bad enough you might see at home with the car jacked up. The rear wheels can be spun by hand. It might get tricky to spin the fronts.
 
Were you able to fix the issue or had it replaced?
Nope. The dealership tried a few times even with different technicians and still didn't work. They didn't find any issue with the car either. It'sbetter with summer tires but vibrates a bit as well. I feel it's just the car itself and don't want to waste too much time on this any more.
 
If your stock/non steel rims and tires don’t have this issue, I’d have them mount the snow tires onto your stock rims. If they are fine afterwards it’s likely a steel rim issue, if they aren’t, then it’s likely one or more tires as others have suggested. Try to isolate the problem and then you’d likely have more success at fixing it. Hub centric vs lug centric generic steel wheels can be cheaply made as well and lub centric, if not installed precisely can cause vibration issues. Good luck.
 
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