Front end vibration at highway speeds

[sschnath]

Just replaced my left front wheel bearing and my four Pirelli Cinturato P7's with Goodyear Assurance WeatherReady tires. Decided to get away from the LRR tires as I just didn't like the lack of wet weather traction I was getting. I know I'll take an MPG hit but I'm willing to make the tradeoff.

 

At highway speeds I'm noticing more vibration/harshness coming through the front end now. After replacing the Pirelli's and the wheel bearing I was expecting things to be much smoother. They feel great up to about 50 mph and the tires are very quiet which was something I was concerned about. They were supposedly road force balanced and even at 70 they don't feel out of balance to me but something just doesn't feel right.

 

I may take it to another location of the local chain to have the balance checked just in case the equipment was not working correctly at the store that did the original work. If the balance checks out ok, what other items might need to be inspected?

 

The car has 134,000 on it now so I'm wondering if something may have loosened up or if perhaps one of the axles might be going bad? When I replaced the right wheel bearing many months ago, the dealer also replaced the right axle saying it was getting loose. I think they're reputable and so I let them change it out too.

 

My regular mechanic did the left wheel bearing and he said nothing about the left axle this go around. I'm wondering whether that should have been replaced too? I'm not hearing any noise from it.

 

Also, has anyone else tried the WeatherReady tires yet? Wondering about your highway experience.

Edited April 22, 2018 by sschnath