My wife's car was riding rough so I took it to the shop to have the tires balanced.

They said they are balanced but very flat spotted or possibly broken belts?

The tread depth new is 13/32 but they said the cut off for claiming defects is at 11/32. Mine are at 9/32 at about 8-10k miles and they are almost new. I rotate at 3-5 k like recommended and they are on the car about 5 months a year.

Firestone Winterforce 205/70R15, bought three winter's ago.

 

Anyone had this problem? The tire shop gave me Firestone number and said good luck. They said if I can get a claim number then let them know and they'll try to do something if Firestone will stand behind them.

I sure never expected this from new tires and there was no recall.

I forgot to add, all four tires are this way. He put the best ones on the front but it's almost undriveable at certain speeds with the shaking.

you might try discount tire and tirerack online - see what reviewers are saying?

Agree look up reviews, those are common tires.

 

If they’re all the same id guess storage or exposure to something may have been an issue.

 

I may be off on this but i think those are low end or average at most snow tires and not 5 year superb quality snow treads. I don’t think it’s normal but not shocked either.

If you store the tires standing or on a rack with the weight of the tire on the tread they will develop flat spots from sitting in the same orientation for long periods.

 

This will happen to any tire regardless of brand, though some will do it worse than others.

Broken belts are very unlikely to happen to all 4 tires at the same time.

Yup.. They are tires that I sell. No treadwear warranty only a defect warranty ( 99% of snow tires ). The defect warranty is 1yr or 25% of the treadwear, so your expired on both. That said, snow tires run on mostly dry pavement and warm temps will do that. See it on 90% of them that come back for dismount at the end of the season..

 

There is no way to cover a snow tire better than that due to their tread compound and variable temps.

My experience with winterforce tires is that they wear kinda fast, I'd be really surprised if you had a broken cord or something, though. I had a set on my lifted GL and beat the absolute piss out of the thing offroad and never broke one.

 

I don't know what car you have, but you may want to have the alignment checked. If you have a 3rd gen legacy, make sure the rear doesn't have excessive negative camber from worn lateral link bushings, that will cause excessive tire wear. 

I've had a couple sets of winterforces that wore very strangely. The last set was so badly cupped that I swore off them....

 

They have a new version of them out this year, but they're more expensive. Hakkapeliitas, Blizzaks, and X-ices aren't much more, and are worth every penny.

have had very good experience with Mastercraft Glacier-Grip snow tires. Made by Cooper Tires.

 

http://mastercrafttires.com/Tires/Passenger/Glacier-Grip-II.aspx

 

To be honest, however, I would not call 3yr old tires "new" by any stretch. sure, they may have a fair amount of tread depth left, but they are not "new" any more

have had very good experience with Mastercraft Glacier-Grip snow tires. Made by Cooper Tires.

 

http://mastercrafttires.com/Tires/Passenger/Glacier-Grip-II.aspx

 

To be honest, however, I would not call 3yr old tires "new" by any stretch. sure, they may have a fair amount of tread depth left, but they are not "new" any more

 

3 years isn't "new" for any tire and even more questionable with snows depending on storage and how much they were run in higher temps.  oddball warm spell in the 70's twice this week (not normal here) and i'm thinking "what is this doing to my snows?"

I'll try a different brand next time. It probably flat spotted since we don't drive much and it sits for a week or more at a time.

 

It's a 98 outback legacy and had a bad hg. When we drove it in to drop it off for hg work she noticed it shaking worse than usual and it had sat for a month or more before the hg work. That's all I can think of.

 

The warranty is over so I guess I'll just run them through the summer and use them up. Hate to toss them out if I can keep it at certain speeds it's not too horrible haha.

I'll try a different brand next time. It probably flat spotted since we don't drive much and it sits for a week or more at a time.

 

It's a 98 outback legacy and had a bad hg. When we drove it in to drop it off for hg work she noticed it shaking worse than usual and it had sat for a month or more before the hg work. That's all I can think of.

 

might be worth trying to rotate the front to back and back to front and see what happens?

 

or balance them and make sure it's not just from sitting?  maybe it's my imagination or i'm forgetting swapping tires but i feel like i've taken a resurrected car that vibrated a lot the first few days after sitting a long time and it smooths out over time...probably a fairy tale. 

 

probably a good idea to pay close attention to storing and protecting them properly no matter what you decide, but i'm glad i started leaning towards better and new snow tires a few years ago, the three brands Numbchux listed above are my current list as well. 

We've tried all that already. They've been balanced and the car is aligned. They are just out of round from the car sitting.

These tires stay on steel rims so storage is easy.

 

It's possible that they got warm, then the car was parked for the hg and the tires cooled off and sat for a month. Hasn't been much heat here in Gunnison lately but of it warms up they may smooth out some hopefully.