Flat spot on new tires possible?

[#2!]

Long story. I planned on getting new tires before things got slick around here so I decided I had better get it done last week. I got them on Friday and things seemed fine until I got going around 50-60 MPH. So I figured they were a little off balanced and really wasn't too bad. I went back to the shop on Monday to get them to balanced again and they gladly did it. 15 minutes later they said it should be much better now. Made no difference at all. So the next day I drove down to the next to closest shop (same company franchise) thinking maybe the balancing machine they used was screwy or something. I told them what was going on and so they agreed to balance them and see whats going on. A minute later the mechanic came and asked me if I had stopped hard recently and I said I haven't. He told me all 4 tires have a flat spot on them and I told them it was impossible because Iv had the problem since the tires were installed. 30 minutes later of every mechanic in the shop looking and kicking the tires making phone calls they agreed they should and need to replace the tires which was great. And I was happy until they tried selling me on letting them replace the tires with a cheaper tire they had in stock which they tried to pull off as the same price and mileage and BS. But they didn't realize I had priced out everything before I bought my tires.
They should have my tires in today and I'm confident they will have everything taken care of by the end of today. But one thing sticks in my mind.

They seemed pretty quiet about the cause. Do you think they sold me used tires as new in the beginning or is it that a flat spot is a possible manufacturer defect?

[DarkMastyr]

Check the tread depth of the tires. New, they should be anywhere from 8/32-10/32 or possibly even higher depending on the tire.

It's possible to flat spot tires that have been sitting too long, but only if they were standing vertically on the floor.

Hard to imagine it's a manufacturer defect unless the flat spots are somewhat consistent on all 4 tires.

[islandboy57]

Probably old stock. What does the DOT stamp on the sidewall say? Should say something like "0109" which would represent a manufacture date of the first week of 2009. Glad you got it sorted out though - which tires did you go with?

[#2!]

Originally Posted by islandboy57

Probably old stock. What does the DOT stamp on the sidewall say? Should say something like "0109" which would represent a manufacture date of the first week of 2009. Glad you got it sorted out though - which tires did you go with?

Dang I should have looked at that DOT stamp. They just put on the new tires and I will find out in the morning how they handle once I hit the freeway. The tires I got are Wanli s1015. My choices were a Toyo Echo $80, Wanli $60 and Vortex $55. The Toyo's were out of the budget and plus had those on my wifes car and wanted to try something different. The Vortex just looked like crap. Vortex tires are what they tried to downgrade me to yesterday. Learned my lesson and next time im going to discount tire.

[JohnGD]

Are those the Chinese tires that's in the news lately? Don't know about those. Toyo tires have some problems too.

I always get Michelins at Costco. Good prices, good service, good road hazard warranty at all locations.

Cheap tires can be cheap for a reason.

Originally Posted by #2!

Dang I should have looked at that DOT stamp. They just put on the new tires and I will find out in the morning how they handle once I hit the freeway. The tires I got are Wanli s1015. My choices were a Toyo Echo $80, Wanli $60 and Vortex $55. The Toyo's were out of the budget and plus had those on my wifes car and wanted to try something different. The Vortex just looked like crap. Vortex tires are what they tried to downgrade me to yesterday. Learned my lesson and next time im going to discount tire.

[JohnGD]

Only Michelin runs on the world's fastest production cars (>250MPH Bugatti Veyron) and they came up with an aviation tire solution after the Concord accident in Paris that every other company is now using.

Why would anyone want anything less than a Michelin??

"Almost a year since the supersonic Concorde's first-ever crash, the Michelin Group said 113 lives might have been spared had the delta-winged jet been outfitted with the kind of technology in new radial tires the company has developed. "

Full Article:
http://www.swampfox.ws/michelin-push...aircraft-tires

[#2!]

Costco's around here have a reputation to sell off 3+ year old stock. A while back I had a co-worker that bought a new set for his Expedition from there and one of them blew apart on the freeway a month later. They then noticed 2 other tires had started to crack apart.