Attention all you wheel and tire experts!

Driver8 · #1 03-24-2005, 01:42 PM

Hi guys - I just got my 18" Style 37s mounted up to the new Pirelli P-Zero Nero M+S tires last week. I had a vibration so I took them back in to have them rebalanced. No luck.

So, I had them checked on the Hunter machine at Bobby Rahal BMW Tuesday when I was there for service, and it appears that all four of the tires are displaying excessing road force. The service advisor told me that the numbers indicated to him that all four tires were so far out of spec that nothing could be done to bring them into reasonable tolerance. The machine was calibrated and the tech was trained and knowledgable, so I'm not worried there.

I called the tire dealer that sold them to me (no names, but it rhymes with FireSmack) and faxed them the report data. They called me back yesterday and told me that, while it appears that the tires are out, they want me to have the tires broken down and rotated 180 degrees and rebalanced to see what it will do. When I mentioned that I was told they couldn't be brought into reasonable tolerance, she told me that I needed to do this before we could address any replacement. Her reply to me was, "Pirelli would not take back all four tires, but they might take back two," and added that they would reimburse me up to $20 per tire for costs incurred for balancing and resolving the problem.

I've had them balanced twice already, and the cost of the Hunter exercise was another $60, with at least another $60 or more to have them broken down and retested again on the Hunter machine (and Bobby Rahal BMW is about a 200 mile round trip for me). Finally, in my experience, it doesn't take too many mounts/dismounts/remounts before your beautiful new wheels start to look like they've been through a chipper/shredder.

After purchasing roughly $2000 in tires (4 summers, 4 winters, 1 spare) from them in the past three weeks, I would think their customer service would be more accomodating. When I initally called my sales rep, he laughed and told me that I should buy a lottery ticket since it was almost impossible for all four tires to be that far out. I posted on the Roadfly tire board with my data, and Jim's not yet addressed my questions (http://bimmer.roadfly.org/bmw/forums...401847-1.html). I'd imagine he's searching on my username/IP and their customer database before he commits to anything! Anyway, if anyone's had any issues like these I sure would appreciate some feedback or advice. I think I'm getting the runaround.

Thanks - Mike