[diesellover]

I have found a problem with the standard Kumho tyres on my i30. I have had a vibration since new that would not go away even when rebalanced (paid for by me), the dealership said they could not feel it (impossible) so after 8000k's I had one of our automotive trained technicians (I only repair forklifts) put it up on the hoist in our own workshop and run it at speed and sure enough the problem was as plain as the nose on your face.

The tyres are not "round" and no amount of wheel weights are going to fix that, further more the sidewalls are uneven and probably dangerous. This goes a long way to explaining why it's so nervous on uneven surfaces even after wheel aligning (also paid for by me because I was told it's normal for i30's to steer all over the road  )

Anyway I have booked it in for Wednesday to show the dealership what I found, but they could not and knowing my luck I will get screwed and have to replace them myself, now where is my handbook it's time to read up and see how I stand with warranty
.

[Phil №❶]

They'll probably blame your driving technique for the out of round, I have heard of this b4 but usually on hard driven Commodores, accelerating & braking. Who told you i30's "steer all over the road" what rot.

Last week I had to travel on the freeway & then off into winding hilly roads. 5 people on board & we were running late. Driving legally, I didn't spare the horses & was impressed with the engine, handling & brakes. It was the 1st time I'd driven the car this way & I am impressed. Good luck with your tyre complaint. 

[Surferdude]

Diesellover,
Tyre warranty is handled by the tyre company.

Any chance of some pics demonstrating the wear on the tyres. Also of the sidewalls. And are all tyres like it or just the front ones. have you tried rotating front to rear?
It would be extremely rare for more than one tyre to come from a factory like that. Most major manufacturers these days have pretty good quality control.

Trev

[diesellover]

The workshop forman told me that the geometry of the i30 is to blame for the car wandering about and its normal, and that the vibration is normal for a diesel, I know all this is crap I am on the tools 60 hours a week but i don't say too much as i like to see how much they lie.

As for tyre wear you wont see any they look like new (only 8000ks of easy driving) but when you drive it wheels up on the hoist you can plainly see they are out of round and also weave side to side, i would say that 2 tyres are more a problem , but all have it .The sidewall dips in and out as if the windings are too tight and then loose,not sure if will show up on a picture.

And yes I had them rotated when I had it aligned and balanced, but it looks like the worse one has been fitted to the front 

[Phil №❶]

The greatest testimony to the i30s geometry is this forum, you won't find too many owners complaining about it. There is a "possible" issue with tyre wear on the diesel, which has been highlighted recently and is currently still a discussion in progress. surferdude is the tyre expert here & he will steer you right (pun). 

[diesellover]

Yep surferdude is the man, I read this forum much more than i post. Like I said I only repair forklifts I dont play around with cars if I can avoid it.

The main reason I started this topic was to put it out there to share with the members that may have a similar  problem, after all I have had this issue a while but kept quite so who knows i may not be alone.

[Phil №❶]

Thanks for sharing, the forum's wealth is in the collective knowledge and curiosity of it's members. 

[Surferdude]

OK. Firstly, running the car in gear on a hoist may show you the tyres wobbling all over the place but that's not to say the tyres are the problem. Rims, hubs drive shafts etc can all contribute to uneven movement at the wheel when there is no weight on the suspension.
You need to find a Kumho dealer and get him to remove each wheel and put it on a balancer, checking for run out in the tyre sideall or tread or poor mounting, or a rim issue.

Look here for a dealer near you.
http://www.kumho.com.au/dealers

Don't be too concerned about ripples in the sidewall. Unless there is an obvious bulge in one place (and it will only be one place) there's not really a problem. Michelin in particular ar notorious for it. Despite what some "experts" may tell you, they do not affect the tyre's ride or performance.

Please keep us posted.

[diesellover]

No problem surferdude , that's why I am going through the motions with the dealership i will let the experts have their say. By the way, the rims did not show any run out,but like you say it could be incorrect mounting that is a possibility. The sidewalls do concern me, however I don't fit tyres for a living so this as you say could be common place .

I should add that when the mechanic (ex Toyota/Mazda) looked at the tyre his comment was wow look at that followed by some things I cant type on here and he has been around cars for a while. 

[Surferdude]

OK. Fair enough. But I'm still concerned that running the drive train in the air is not the way to view this sort of problem.

[diesellover]

OK. Fair enough. But I'm still concerned that running the drive train in the air is not the way to view this sort of problem.

I think your right, i did it too look at the suspension and drive shafts, the drivers side shaft did have some movement where it enters the gearbox but i have heard of this before on Toyota's and would you believe the factory fix was to fill the splines with a heavy grease to remove any clearance.

We did spend some time running it at various speeds and feeling around for anything else but it looks ok, my gut tells me that it will be a tyre issue and if I need to I will replace them, maybe with the ones you are running they sound good and I like the idea of less road noise.
 

[Dazzler]

First port of call should still be the kumho dealer (rather than the Hyundai dealer) you might get some freebies 

[diesellover]

First port of call should still be the kumho dealer (rather than the Hyundai dealer) you might get some freebies 

I know what your saying but I want them to ok the drive train first.

[Lakes]

I'm on my second i30 CRDi both came with warranty booklets for the Tyres they are garanteed, i was thinking this is the first new car i've bought that i could remember getting a garantee on the tyres.
& after 46 years driving & millions of K's covered also riding Motorbikes, & racing. i think i have only had two tyre failures. one on a Toyota in the outback the cases on the tyres started to go or something? but you could plainly see it there were big lumps like big blisters on the walls & tread. lucky i felt it & stopped got replacement tyres. another time, in another Toyota i had a retread fail the tyre went out of round big time!! i was crawling in traffic near Anzac bridge Sydney the rear of the van started to go up then down them bang the tyre exploded.
to me a all new cars and trucks these days steer and handle great. if you were driving back in the 60's & 70's you would think so too. ask Surferdude. cars & trucks have came a long way so have tyres!!

[eye30]

Can you detail the code on the tyre so others can check and report back their findings if same code.

[2i30s]

it would be interesting to know what the production date is on those tyres. 

[diesellover]

Tyre code, DOT YO9P YA3G 5110    Size 195/65R15 91H

[2i30s]

its possible your tyres are older than your car.     old stock.    eye30 [lester] had a problem with his tyres,it turned out to be old stock tyres. i think. 

[diesellover]

its possible your tyres are older than your car.     old stock.    eye30 [lester] had a problem with his tyres,it turned out to be old stock tyres. i think. 

Who knows, I got the car in May but I think the build date was Dec or Jan from memory

[Surferdude]

Tyre code, DOT YO9P YA3G 5110    Size 195/65R15 91H

Your tyres were made in the second last week (51st) of December 2010

Which fits with the car's build date. So they aren't old.

[Surferdude]

The workshop forman told me that the geometry of the i30 is to blame for the car wandering about and its normal, and that the vibration is normal for a diesel,

Just re-reading this. I assume the workshop foreman is at a Hyundai dealership. If so, he really needs to be reported. Those sorts of misleading and inaccurate statements are totally irresponsible and unprofessional. Even if they were genuine problems, to admit them to a customer is unforgiveable.
If for no other reason than to  prevent him using such an excuse with a customer who has no mechanical knowledge, he should be reported.
I'd be e-mailing the dealer principle and copying Hyundai Australia - regardless of the outcome of your problem.

[Phil №❶]

How can a workshop foreman have a critical opinion about the geometry anyhow. He designed the car I suppose. I think the dudes in Korea might know a bit more about the geometry than he does. Still, he's going to have a crap day if he is reported. 

[diesellover]

The workshop forman told me that the geometry of the i30 is to blame for the car wandering about and its normal, and that the vibration is normal for a diesel,

Just re-reading this. I assume the workshop foreman is at a Hyundai dealership. If so, he really needs to be reported. Those sorts of misleading and inaccurate statements are totally irresponsible and unprofessional. Even if they were genuine problems, to admit them to a customer is unforgiveable.
If for no other reason than to  prevent him using such an excuse with a customer who has no mechanical knowledge, he should be reported.
I'd be e-mailing the dealer principle and copying Hyundai Australia - regardless of the outcome of your problem.

To be more accurate, my car was pulling left most of the time and  because I had to load the wheel to the right to compensate any change in camber or series of ripples would make it dart to the right, I would need to be ready catch it so i did not cross lanes.  That is pretty much how I described what was happening and was told that the problem was the electric power steering and the geometry of the front suspension, that it does not track as well as the old hydraulic systems. When I pointed out that my VW golf has a similar system and that worked fine he smiled and said well this is no golf.

Anyway this has mostly been addressed by me getting a wheel alignment and balance ,as he said they cant warrant that because I had too many K's on it ,around 1500K's at that stage I think. But as I was in and out of hospital at the time this was not front of my mind and I did not have the energy to persue it.

As for the vibration or wheel shake I can feel and hear it start at 80kph on a smooth road ( a kind of rumbling or drumming noise hard to explain really) and it slowly gets worse up till around 110kph and by this stage the car feels ruff and I usually slow to 100kph. I have had much worse on some of my older cars but I expect that with worn suspension and tyres, but not on a new one. Perhaps I am just being too picky maybe the service man really could not feel it, well see.

As for emailing Hyundai I will do that soon, this is one of Sydney's largest dealers and to be honest the attitude is a bit average.

[Surferdude]

That rumble sounds like uneven tyre wear from the alignment problem which was causing the problem.

[beerman]

I would have loved to see his face if you had have said "Thanks for telling me the car is not fit for purpose due to a design fault, if you could just hand over a cheque with my purchase price, I can be on my way".

Watch him squirm his way out of that.

[Phil №❶]

 

[diesellover]

That rumble sounds like uneven tyre wear from the alignment problem which was causing the problem.

When I picked up the car I drove it home and rang the service people, and said my new car has a hell of a lot of tyre noise they said bring it in tomorrow for a test drive. The result was that's normal road noise in this car. A bit soon to be tyre wear but the noise level did drop a bit once the tyres scrubbed in.

Surferdude just so you know I am taking your comments seriously. Your input is one reason I posted here.

[Surferdude]

First port of call should still be the kumho dealer (rather than the Hyundai dealer) you might get some freebies 

I know what your saying but I want them to ok the drive train first.

I think I agree  with Dazz here. The best way to get a second opinion on the drive train is to ask a tyre dealer. What part of Sydney are you in or can you get to?
You should get their opinion on the uneveness of the treads and sidewalls. I'm really interested in how this pans out. If you are in an area where I still know a dealer I'll talk to him for you. But they keep changing and I've been gone from Sydney for almost 6 years.

[AlanHo]

My last car - an Audi A4 - developed a loud noise, starting at about 50 mph that convinced me a wheel bearing was failing. It was a low frequency rumble accompanied by a background whine with vibration being felt on the steering wheel. It was difficult to determine which wheel - but I was convinced it came from the front.

The Audi dealership checked it out and could find no problem with the wheel bearings or (Dunlop) tyres - however they could hear the noise. As an experiment they swapped the rear tyres to the front and tried again - with me in the car. There was no doubt the noise was then coming from the rear proving that it was wheel(s) at fault and not wheel bearings.

A more careful and close look at the tyres revealed that the centre of both rear tyres (which had been the front tyres for the past 15000 miles) felt loose when you pushed them. The outer tread was delaminating from the carcass and it must have been the "rubbing" action between the layers that was causing the strange noise.  I had to have new tyres fitted and the fitter cut open the tyre to show me the extent of the damage. It was obvious that the tyre would soon have thrown the tread.

[Dazzler]

Wow that was a bit of a close shave Alan 

Unusual that two tyres did that hey Trev?