Bought a set of new tires recently and since installing the car 'bounces' at low speeds. Kind of a vertical jiggle, really. Hard to describe, but it's really annoying and I can't tell what corner it's coming from exactly. I don't notice it at all at speeds over 35-40mph.

Wheels out of balance?
Defect in one or more of the tires?

I would expect the ride to be worse at higher speeds under either scenario, no?

Most likely Wheel(s) out of balance. If you feel it mostly in the seat of your pants it's the rear tire(s), and if you feel it in the Steering Wheel it's the Front tire(s). A good Balancing Machine can correct this.

One other alternative might be Tire Balancing Beads that are put in side the tire through the Valve Stem. Google it to get this explain better. I have used beads and they work.

Could be that the tires have been stored standing up for a long time and now have flat spots, or the the metal bands inside the tire have torn and they are defective? Lift up the car and spin the front tires while you at them from the side to see if they have high and low spots.

check the tire pressure.

It is not uncommon for the tires to be inflated to the MAXIMUM rated pressure (per DOT listed on sidewall).


Blame the insurance companies ...................

I would go back to your tire installer and complain. Tire installers know to put the smoothest tires on the front and the worst rolling tires on the back as it is less noticeable. You can balance an egg but it still rolls like an egg.

So it's official-My car is riding on 4 eggs.
Just confirmed that ALL 4 brand new tires are out of round, 3 of them horribly so.

Ordered these from Tire Rack and had them shipped to an installer. Can't wait to find out what kind of headache it's going to be to return these given I bought them back in April 2014. I noticed the bad ride right away last year, but then started work on replacing oil cooler seals and a rear main seal, and kept putting off returning the tires. Car was on jack stands almost the whole time, but I'm doubtful that goodyear will believe it.

Wish me luck.

what brand and size ?? pretty rare these days for this to have occured

Is it possible your rims could be bent? If the tires are not too far out of round, there are shops that have tire trying machines that shave the excess rubber to make the tire run round.

Did you contact Tire Rack?

Just contacted Tire Rack. I need to get the out of round numbers to them and they will call Goodyear on my behalf. They said though that it's likely Goodyear will not want to do anything since it's over a year ago (by only 2 weeks). These tires have maybe 100 miles on them and the ride with the new tires was bad from day one. I'm so used to fixing issues on my car that I assumed it was the car an not the tires.

I'm confident that the rims are good as I had zero issues with the tires previous mounted on them.

Tires were Goodyear Eagle GT 195/60R-15 V-speed rated. They were recommended in several threads on this site, but apparently they don't make them anymore.

Could be a stiffer side-wall on the tire.

Had/have the same issue with my wife's Saab. Conti all season tires work fine on my heavy-ish A4, but feel bouncy on her car. We reduce the tire pressure and over-all equal effect of pressure/sidewall stiffness.

I had similar issues The tire shop moved the tires around on the wheels to match high and low spots. and it helped a lot. Like this

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/tec...e.jsp?techid=17

....Ya...I've had to take tire's back for "re-balance" on these cars

Hi

I'm running the same tires (Goodyear Eagle GT) on my Audi Quattro--and have much the same problem. These tires seem to flat-spot after sitting/when cold. Fortunately, once they warm up (~ 10 min driving) they smooth out . . . .

Hope this helps!

Steve A-

Yup- took it to the local Discount Tire and the manager there said that my diagnosis of out of round was incorrect. He moved them to a different position on the rim. (Didn't charge me either even though I had another shop mount them originally) I'll test them out this weekend…
He also told me that they couldn't accurately balance them because they didn't have an adapter that would fit the center hole and said that I'd probably be hard pressed to find someone that did.

Robert, the Discount Tire in the Renton Highlands mounted and balanced tires on my Mahles a few years ago. You might check with them.

the wheels for our cars are lug centric.

First, get the tires balanced at a store that has the lug centric adapter for the tire balancing machine and does not balance them based upon the center hub.

Second, remount the tires by hand, you will see that its possible to move the tire around a bit once you loosen the lugs a hair....then tighten them in a cross pattern to ensure the wheel is sitting straight.

When one lug is driven in at 100 PSI first, its not uncommon for the wheels to be mounted just a hair off.

Rich

Ahhhh I should have remembered that. This is good info.
Thanks, Rich!

I had the Eagle GTs on my car years ago and loved them.
I would buy them again if I could but, as you said, they dont make them any more.

SO two thoughts: 1 - Maybe they are very old and sat in a bad position while stored.
or
2 - The people who mounted & balanced them the first time used a hub-centric balancer...

Google for a VW bug shop to locate a lug adaptor.