New OEM Duelers Permanently Flat Spotting???

[dsc888]

Hey Guys,

I've had my new CX-9 since 8/30 and I think I may have permanent flat spots on my tires. The car was built in Feb 2011 and I got it 6 months later.

The first time I had the car above 45 mph, I noticed significant chassis vibration like my Acura TL after it's been parked for a few days in the cold. But unlike my TL, the CX-9's vibration never went away after 10-15 minutes of driving. The whole car vibrates but it's felt more so in the seat than in the steering.

I took it back at 300 miles and the tech said that "they are balanced" and dropped the tires from 34 to 32 psi that seemed to improve it a bit where the vibrations didn't crop up till 60 mph. I now have 900 miles on the car and it's no better on the highway at speeds past 65mph.

I have another appointment with the dealer again this week. Has anybody here experienced severe or permanent flat spotting with the OEM tires? Or has people had more issues with mis-balanced tires more?

I took a close look at the tires and the tire stems are all perfectly matched up with the little "yellow" dot put on by Bridgestone indicating the "low" point of the tire. So at least it looks like they were put on correctly.

Thanks guys!

 

[table5511]

This may be a shot in the dark: Look on the insides of your wheels, visually confirm there are wheel weights on the wheels. If so, there have been posts on here of people who ended up having un-balanced axle shaft(s), which unbalanced axle shafts are mostly felt in your seat. Unbalanced=defective. Another possibility is as you mentioned, the Duellers, as they are pretty worthless tires... The tires may be defective. Believe it or not, alot of tires are manufactured with the belts improperly manufactured into the tires. It takes a specialized tire store who really knows the ropes to spot it i.e. not the dealer. Because dealers will occupy so much of your time, and alot of the time give you a wrong prognosis, I would highly recommend a Road Force balancing. Some higher end dealers i.e. Cadillac, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, etc have a machine called the "Hunter Road Force Balancer" aka RFB. It may be the only balancer out there that will match each tire to the best wheel on the car, or even tell you that the tire needs to be rotated/turned differently on the wheel. It can also catch bead seating errors too. Now if the technician has not received the proper training for the machine, then they may as well just be using a regular wheel balancing machine. With the RFB, you will have 2 sets of wheel balancers, not just the usual "One Strip" that you see most tire shops put on. This will balance the wheels to triple digit speeds. If you have a road force balance done by a trained technician, and they tell you that your tires and wheels are good, and you still have the problem, then at least you can present that information to your dealer, and have them move on to something else to focus on besides the tires/wheels, because your Mazda dealer will not be able to see the forest through the trees and only focus on your tires and/or wheels. I'm not tryin' to knock all dealers, but at lowly ford/mazda/toyota etc car dealers, they don't exactly hire the best and brightest in the industry.

From my personal experience being neck deep in the collision and mechanical repair industry, I honestly can say that I have been knocked off my feet (impressed) with the wealth of specific knowledge and intelligence that some Mercedes/Audi, etc technicians have. They literally have blown me out of the water with some of the discussions I have had with them. Being in the line of work that I'm in, I get to go back into the shop and discuss specific issues with vehicle, directly with the technicians and bypass the worthless "service advisors." Now on the flip side, I have put several Ford, Toyota, Nissan Hyundai and Kia technicians to shame. One time I tracked a problem back to a Toyota technician at a Toyota dealer who overtightened head bolts and stripped the threads in the aluminum block, rendering the block worthless. It literally took an act of congress to finally get Toyota to admit they screwed up. You don't run into problems like this with high end dealers (a majority of the time). But at high end dealers you DO get to deal with some of the most cocky service advisors, managers and other personnel you've ever seen!

 

[dsc888]

helbigtw,

Thanks so much for you insightful and helpful reply. I'm hoping that it's not an unbalanced axle. I did check the rims and all the wheel weights appear to still be stuck on. I really had no idea that a RFB would put 2 sets of wheel weights on the rim. My local Mazda dealer does have the Hunter 9700 so I will ask specially for a "fine balance" if such a things exist. I don't drive faster than 75mph here in Boston but the fact the vibration starts between 65 and 70 is annoying when I do get up to those speeds. They seem to have subsided a little though over the last week so that may lend some credence to the idea of flat spotting working itself out.

I'll post my results after I go to the dealer tomorrow. I'm also going in to ask then to fix the vibrating driver's side mirror. I hope they can address it instead of telling me that they are all the same.

 

[table5511]

As far as the vibrating mirror, Mazda has told everyone that it is "normal." I've just learned to deal with it.

 

[dsc888]

As far as the vibrating mirror, Mazda has told everyone that it is "normal." I've just learned to deal with it.

Thanks again. I was afraid of that despite the fact that there is a news bulletin regarding the issue. That's just a shame.

 

[Antonio DiMarco]

You should still have them check the mirror. There is another thread dicussing this and Mazda did make some improvements to the mirror since 2007.

 

[ceric]

Have you checked
1) alignment
2) roundness of tires (some new tires could be out of shape due to poor QC)
Balancing won't cure that.

 

[dsc888]

UPDATE!!!

I just got back from the dealer yesterday and this is what happened:

1) The tech rebalanced all my rims with their Hunter 9700 and found one of the rims to be out by 15 grams. I've only had one chance to get up to 75mph for about 15 seconds so I will hold judgement till later. It felt good for those 15 seconds so I am cautiously optimistic.

2) The dealership didn't deny the mirror issue and intact had the repair kits in stock. I say the tech take off the mirror assembly and remount it with an addition bracket that had more rubber and 2 screws that had to be drilled into the door frame. The result...it made NO difference. So the fix either doesn't work, my mirror is actually defective, or the tech screwed up. I have no idea what to do. The dealership has been awesome so far and told me to go back if I am not happy. My mirror starts to quiver at speeds as low as 30mph and is awful by 65mph. I find it hard to believe that Mazda's fix is useless. I wonder if my mirror module is actually defective.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I read people having success with Dynamat. I might need to pursuit that route soon if the dealer has no more options. Do you think asking for an entire outside mirror unit replacement may fix or improve it?

 

[table5511]

I love it when a plan comes together. As far as the mirror...wonder if you do have a bad mirror. Mine shakes, but just annoying more than anything, I wouldn't say its horrible.

 

[dsc888]

I just called the dealer and my service writer will talk to Mazda as well as his manager who is out until Monday. He promised to get back to me then and give me an answer as to what they will do to remedy the issue. I'll post an update after the call.