Conti ExtremeContact DWS Tires

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Brad

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So I bought a new set of tires for my '06 with stock rims last week. I decided on the Conti ExtremeContact DWS in the stock 235/50-R17 size.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Continental&tireModel=ExtremeContact+DWS&partnum=35WR7ECDWS

Got them mounted and balanced along with an alignment.

The problem is the car shakes above 50mph slightly and really above 70mph. I have had the tires rebalanced twice and the car still shakes.

Any ideas on what it is? Does anyone have any experience with these tires? My only thought is the tires themselves are bad.

Thanks, Brad
 
So it didn't shake before the new tires? With the same rims and old tires it ran straight and smooth? Is the shake coming through the wheel?

You could have a number of diff problems:

1. Bad balance - Road Force balance may help but if it's really bad I kinda doubt it.
2. A bad tire - tires do get old and develop flat spots and stuff from sitting around although I highly doubt this is the problem.
3. Did you also get an alignment?
4. Are any of the rims bent/out of round?
 
i put these tire's on everything. they are the best. never had a probelm with them before use a road force balancer. do a rim run out on the rims to check if rim is bent. the tire come with a yellow or red dot on the tire the valve steam has to line up with either one dot and you will get an even better balance. is the shake comeing in the steering wheel or you butt. if its the steering wheel then both front tire need balance if in your butt the two rears need balance. hope this helps
 
these cars can be notorious for unfindable shimmies.... although if its really bad at 70+, id try the road force and rotation...
 
I've always had a shake at highway speed with different wheel/tire combos. After a rotate and balance it is good for a few days, then its crap again. Makes me prefer to drive the wife's pathfinder.
 
Get the tires road-force'd, and be sure to ask for the print out. That's how I found out one of my wheels was bent :eek: The runout was a high number.
 
I asked about Road-force balancing, the manager said that even though they have a machine, the high speed balancing is better. I will have them do that next. I had the car aligned after getting the tires mounted. The car shook a little when my previous tires were bald, but not before that.

The store has ordered another set of tires that will be here Wednesday. Those will be mounted and I'll see if it still shakes. I am also going to have them rotate the wheels again and see if that helps. I will ask then if a rim is bent.

I only drive 4 miles to work now so its not too bad, but in the summer it will be back to 50+. New shoes maybe??
 
I just put these tires on my wife's car last week and they are fine. Got them at Tire Rack too. They were balanced with the GSP-9700 (road force).

My past career for 30 years was managing vehicle brake tests. We had good equipment in the shop for tire changing since some tests would wipe out a set of tires in a week. Then I put BFG TAs on my truck about 8 years ago. Despite have a Coats balancer in excellent condition and the special balancer wheel adapters for a Superduty (we were also testing Superdutys), I couldn't get those tires to run smooth. Played with rebalance for two weeks almost every day. Sometimes seemed to be good, then not after a few hundred miles.

Finally took the truck to the Front End Shop close by where I live who had the Hunter GSP-9700. Found two tires that were out of spec. Tire Rack replaced them and FES completed the work. Balance turned out great.

I was so impressed with the Hunter I put in a capital request for get the GSP-9700. Part of our testing was for what is known as DTV (Disk Thickness Variation). You guys mislabel it as warped rotors. The test drivers noticed a difference in these types of test as we would be looking for steering wheel nipple, the very start of DTV. This was a big improvement for our work as when a factory engineer got into the vehicle sometimes it was hard to subjectively distinguish between DTV and tire force inconsistency. To prove to the engineer out of his subjective condemnation, we would have to do a complete mapping of the rotors thickness.

But the other factor was the test personnel who all rebalanced their own tires with improved results, and the improvement that we saw in tire balance across the board with the test vehicles. These were not a bunch of garage mechanics.

I'll never balance another set of tires on anything but a road force balancer. It finds issues with rims, mates the tire to the rim, will tell you where to put each tire for the best tracking.
 
I run these tires also, no problems.

Are you seeing the out of balance conditions after driving many miles, or mainly just seeing them on your four mile commute? If it is in the four mile commute, then new tires will not fix that, either. Performance radials need to roll for ten minutes before the tires are able to roll round, as they develop flat spots while parked cold. If you only see this on your four mile commute, it would be considered to be normal.

If you are seeing this well past 10 minutes of drive time, then you are likely to find a road force issue where at least one tire is over the limit for road force allowed.

Since your dealer is getting you a new set, that is a good thing, but insist on road force balancing. If any tire does not qualify due to out of tolerance excessive road force, that tire will never run well.

Do not expect any performance radial to run smooth in a four mile commute in the winter time. Warmer temps do not bring this out in many tires, so I would expect a smooth roll in less than a mile in the summer time.

Cool story, toomanytoys!
 
I had these on my LSE wheels and had the same problem. The dealer changed the front under warranty and the second set had the same issue. They said they are having a lot of issues with them and have sent numerous sets sent back under warranty. I returned them and bought a set of BF Goodrichs... no problems at all. The shake was gone.

Good Luck!
 
Went back today, they had ordered another set of tires. When they respun them found out the front passenger rim is bent. Rotated that wheel to the back. The ride is better, no steering wheel shake, but you can still feel it from the back.
 
Well I'm glad you finally found the problem but I would like to make a noted for those that may read this in the future. Make sure when your tires are balanced that they actually use weights on the outside outside of the wheel instead of switching to a single plain balanve where it's only on the inside of the wheel. I won't go to tire shops that single plain balace anymore because I could never get my last set to balance properly and the shop tried to say I had a bent rim when I didn't. My set of DWS are great tires ecept when real cold but they warm up after 3-4 miles.
 
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