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defective drag radials?


kirks5oh

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background---just mounted 345/19" nittos for my '09 z06. they are the NT-05r's. nitto invo's up front. they've been on the car less than 100miles and i'm pretty sure they're toast. the first drive consisted of about 10 miles of highway easy driving to retorque the lugs and break the tires in. then i did a few easy launches with hard acceleration. the tires have two first gear burnouts, and 5-10 first through third gear pulls. all in all not even 100 miles. i noticed some vibration yesterday. drove the car today and the vibration seemed worse. i figured the tires weren't mounted properly and went to take them off the car. this is what i found. see the results below.

 

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4307/dsc00295iw.jpg

 

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/6715/dsc00294bl.jpg

 

 

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/8514/dsc00292oq.jpg

 

 

at this point i'm beyond frustrated. $750 for tires that saw no track time, and nothing like the burnouts i've done in the stock run-flats. what's my recourse?? the tires were purchased from discount tire. what's worse is that i have another set of these sitting in my garage waiting to go in my cobra once it gets back from the shop. thankfully, i have all 4 runflats still mounted on the stock wheels and was able to swap them back---car drives smooth/straight again. even when doing the first couple pulls, it almost felt like the rear of the car was 'loose' and that the tires weren't secure on the road. either way, i'm done with nittos---assuming they're going to tell me 'tough ****'. sad thing is, i drove my 600rwhp cobra with 555r's for 8k miles with countless first gear infernos. even had 555r's on my GTO and they lasted over 10k miles of normal driving.

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My last set of Mickey Thompsons always had a vibration at higher speeds and never did balance very well, so any of these tires aren't immune to being too heavy on one side. Try rebalancing them, on a road force machine if possible because it will show how much pressure is in the heavy spot, a good tire tech would be able to tell you if its excessive.
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Id call nitto direct if you want anything taken care of, tell them youre a regular customer 10 nittos in the last Cpl years and they need to take care of you.. nittos always seem to be a little heavy on weight so get em redone and go from there
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Tires look fine to me from what I can see....

 

As far as the vibration, depending how bad....my bet is on the knock off wheels. I think they are the same brand as several that have come apart at the Texas Mile. Personally, I wouldn't run them but if you keep the speeds down (1/4-mile only) they may be ok for what you want...

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i'll get them rebalanced. i never had this happen with the other nittos. they were never quite perfect as far as balance goes.

 

Try to find a place that offers a Road Force Balance....

Those are big tires and rims and for the best results, you can't beat a road force balance.

 

Chuck

 

PS--getting the pair done should cost around $45.00 + tax

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tires are getting rebalanced. the guys on the vette forum think the markings are just fine---apparently the tire is soft enough that this is common. took the wheels into the shop and they're getting rebalanced. guy at the shop thinks the tire may have even spun a bit within the wheel, throwing things off, since both tirea and wheels are new
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