Tires: Balanced tire vibration?, tire vibration, hunter gsp9700

Question
I bought a set of Firestone Firehawks for my '05 Accord last year and from day one they haven't seemed right.  I've had three different repair shops check balancing but at around 100 Km/h I still feel (and hear) a shake.  Is it possible to have a tire that is not perfectly round but still balanced?  I hate to get new tires because there is still plenty of tread left on these but I'm tired of the noise/vibration.  Can anything be done?

Thanks, Mark

Answer
Mark.

I explain this whole thing here:

http://www.geocities.com/barrystiretech/unifandbal.html

Short version:  You can have a perfectly balanced assembly and have either the tire or the rim not uniform.  If you think "out of round", you won't be far off the mark.  Just recognize that it is a bit more complex than that.

At this point, you are well past the point where you could complain to the tire shop where you purchased them.  You might want to do that  anyway to see what they would do.

You might also complain to Firestone and see what they might be willing to do.

But to be sure you aren't chasing a red herring - you need to find someone with a Hunter GSP9700.

http://www.gsp9700.com/

Notice in the upper right hand corner there is a "Locate a GSP9700" button.  

What you should do is go back to the dealer that sold you the tires.  If they have a GSP9700, then find out what the values are, and see - based on those values what they are willing to do.

If they don't have a GSP9700, ask them if they are willing to send you to a dealer that has one and would accept the results.

If this doesn't produce results, then you might try the same tactic with Firestone.