2022 1500 Wheel Shake and Vibration, and Towing Issue

MrLeadFoot · December 21, 2022

7 hours ago, seamus2154 said:

Its up there........22".

Oops, sorry, I overlooked that. Thank you.

MrLeadFoot · December 21, 2022

I think it's time to share additional details (didn't want the original post to be long-winded), and an update for you fine folks who have taken the time to post suggestions in a bid to help me.

As previously mentioned, after roadforce balancing and installing two new tires on my stock 22"s, which improved the issue but did not completely resolve it, the dealership put a whole new set of 22" wheels and tires from another truck last week, and said, "We just gave you a complete new setup from another truck, so it should be good, but let us know how what you think." Well, vibration became worse than when they had worked on my previous setup. I first called GM (previously open case), and was instructed to call the dealership back and request an appt. for a tech to ride with me. I called the dealership as instructed setup an appt. for yesterday for a tech to ride with me.

Yesterday I showed up and they acted like they were wondering why I was there. I reminded the service advisor that we had an appt. for a drive with a tech and he summoned the service manager, who came came out and said, "We're not doing anything more because we're not making any money on this." I was shocked. Keeping my cool, I reminded both of them that I was there for my drive with the tech, and he again deferred. I then asked if we could instead try putting the 20" wheel setup on to rule out the model of tire altogether, since the 20" come with a different tire. because we had an appt. I could see his wheels turning (drive with tech would be quicker than swapping wheels again), and he brings out some tech who looked like he was fresh out of tech school to ride with me! As I suspected he would, on the drive the tech acted like he felt nothing on the drive.

Back at the dealership he reports there is nothing wrong. I told the service advisor that I didn't enjoy being down there for the 5th time, he restates the manager's position, saying there's nothing more they because they wouldn't be making money if they spent any more time on this. I reiterated it's actually worse with the new 22" setup they put on, and asked if they had roadforce balanced the new set and he said they did not because they weren't getting paid for it. Real stupid like, I sadi, "What am I supposed to do now?" To which he replied, "Take it up with GM."

So, again I did just that, and called my case advisorat GM. She was appalled that I was treated the way I was, and sounded genuinely irritated with them for doing that. She also agreed that the dealership put us back at square one by not balancing the new wheels before putting them on my truck. She said with conviction that she would call the service manager's boss (who I already knew would be the General Manager) as soon as we finished our call, and handle it. I told her I going to try to get an unbiased 3rd party to check out the balance of the new wheels and tires, and would consult a tire shop and ask if they would work with me. To her credit, she said I shouldn't have to do that, to which I replied, "I know that, but I'm tired of all this, and I want to see for myself if this new set of wheels and tires has any issues, because since the dealership basically kicked me to the curb, I don't trust them." She again stated she was going to call the dealership right after we hung up, and asked me to keep her abreast of any findings from the tire shop.

Since I had her blessing on a recorded line, I went to America's Tire, who's been taking care of our tire needs on all our cars for years. When I explained the story to the Asst. Mgr., even though he was new, he asked for my phone number (presumably to verify that I was indeed a good customer), and after reviewing the history on my other cars, said, "Do you realize that you previously purchased those very same Bridgestones for your 2000 Suburban several years ago, and due to excessive vibration we ended up exhanging them for the Michelin Defenders LTX M/S tires 2 months later?" I did remember that I had swapped out Bridgestones for Michelins, but didn't think they were the very same model! Holy crap! Seamus2154, I give you permission to say, "See, I told you those Bridgestones suck, because in the past you had the same experience I had, and it's happening again to you all over again!"

True to their never-ending great customer service, and because they felt sorry for what I had been going through, America's Tire offered to roadforce balance the wheel and tires at no charge! They also said if I wanted to try the Michelins to see if they got rid of the issues, reminding me that they have money-back guarantee, and if it didn't they'd put my Bridgestones back on. I told him I didn't want to do that just yet, and possibly put them through a headache, and said I'd first like to see what shakes out (pun intended) from the balalncing of the Bridgestones, and we'd go from there. Well, guess what they found: 3 of the tires were good, but the one on the passenger front was "in the red" on their Hunter machine, coming out at over 60lbs.! They gave me a print out saying as much, so now I have proof from a 3rd party that something was still wrong.

I will keep you all posted as to what happens when I talk to my GM case advisor tomorrow, unless you guys don't want to hear any more of my saga.

Edited December 21, 2022 by MrLeadFoot

seamus2154 · December 22, 2022

LOL!!! Its like a script they go through over and over. . I won't say it. BUT... "you can bring a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink"!!! LOL

2014 Siverado, 2015 Yukon XL, 2016 Sierra, 2017 Yukon XL, 2021 Sierra. Everyone of them had one or more bad tires. Bridgestones and Goodyears. The 2015 Yukon had 9 replaced tires on it and it still shook, till the Michelins went on.

BTW, look at your brand new Bridgestones then look at a Michelin defender tread depth. The Bridgestones look half worn out brand new. GM and the dealer will just wear you out till you go away. They arent a good tire even when they dont vibrate. When you eventually just go buy Michelins....notice how compliant they are, quiet, great in the rain, and high tread wear rating. They actually change and upgrade the ride quality of the truck. Ride quality goes up. Ride in on Bridgestones and ride out on Michelin and tell me you didnt get a new truck??...LOL best of luck

MrLeadFoot · December 22, 2022

5 hours ago, seamus2154 said:

LOL!!! Its like a script they go through over and over. . I won't say it. BUT... "you can bring a horse to the water, but you can't make him drink"!!! LOL

2014 Siverado, 2015 Yukon XL, 2016 Sierra, 2017 Yukon XL, 2021 Sierra. Everyone of them had one or more bad tires. Bridgestones and Goodyears. The 2015 Yukon had 9 replaced tires on it and it still shook, till the Michelins went on.

BTW, look at your brand new Bridgestones then look at a Michelin defender tread depth. The Bridgestones look half worn out brand new. GM and the dealer will just wear you out till you go away. They arent a good tire even when they dont vibrate. When you eventually just go buy Michelins....notice how compliant they are, quiet, great in the rain, and high tread wear rating. They actually change and upgrade the ride quality of the truck. Ride quality goes up. Ride in on Bridgestones and ride out on Michelin and tell me you didnt get a new truck??...LOL best of luck

I've run Michelin at one time or another on almost every vehicle, and you're right. I always find myself saying it's like a whole new suspension, and I actually rave about that fact to my passengers, every single time I put them on a vehicle.

Regarding the Suburban on which I always previously ran Michelin, I remember asking myself why I always spend so much on Michelin, especially on a utility vehicle, so tried to go to Bridgestone to save a buck, yet ended up back to Michelin.

Regarding my Vette, Michelin stopped making their "summer performance" tires in my stock, staggered sizes, so I went with Continental performance tires over the Michelin all-season tire (which is all that they make now in my sizes) because summer performance tires are always better than all-season for performance. But, you know what? Even though the Continental is a good tire, I went through 9 tires to find 4 good ones on the Vette. And, now that I think about it, in all my years running Michelin, I don't recall ever having to swap out a tire because it was defective. I'm now starting to wonder if it's possible that, although an all-season tire is "lower" class than a performance tire, the Michelin all-season on my Vette might just be better than the Continental performance tire!

Come to think of it, even my wife, who always ran Michelin on her Acura TL, exchanged back to Michelin when she couldn't stand the new Pirellis that were installed when we again tried to save a little cash.

Thanks for confirming how good Michelin seems to be compared to any other manufacturer. It seems I already knew that when it comes to Michelin you ALWAYS get what you pay for. In fact, that's why I asked about them in my original post. I guess I was looking for confirmation from someone else about Michelin in a similar situation. 'Cause when you're smack dab in the middle of what you and I have obviously gone through, it's hard to keep your head straight because you keep thinking it just CAN'T be the tires because no manufacturer would put a crappy tire on such an expensive vehicle, right? And then you have those select few that say they have no issues with said tires. That right there makes it hard to go with your gut sometimes, you know what I mean? Especially to cough another grand after spending 70k to fix what shouldn't have needed fixing in the first place.

Now I sound like a Michelin salesperson, too!

Edit: P.S. I still have my Suburban with the Michelin on them and they still look new after several years. I will be sure to compare their tread to the new Bridgestones on my truck.

Edited December 22, 2022 by MrLeadFoot

seamus2154 · December 22, 2022

I justify the little bit extra cost when you look at the tread wear. They really last and have alot of tread in comparison so it seems you won't need tires as soon, therefore saving money. Don't deprive yourself of the best ride you can have. Sell those brand new tires and it offsets your cost for the new ones. Good luck.

smit303 · December 23, 2022

I 've got Continental Extreme Contact DWS tires on my C7 Corvette. Great all season tire.

MrLeadFoot · January 4, 2023

Just thought I'd post an update.

Took my truck to a Chevrolet dealer instead of back to the original GMC dealer, and, instead of just replacing the one bad tire, the Chevrolet folks checked all the tires and found not one, but two, of the tires were bad! So, the GMC dealer really did screw up by putting a whole new set of wheels on without checking them first. No wonder I felt like we were going backwards on the issue.

Even though they pretty much stonewalled me, I was thinking of calling the original GMC service manager back to tell him what we found, with the hope that they learn something from this so the next guy doesn't have to deal with what I had to, but my wife says it's not worth the call because they likely don't give a crap. Sad thing is that she's probably right, but don't tell her I said that!

Edited January 4, 2023 by MrLeadFoot

MrLeadFoot · January 4, 2023

Oh, and BTW, we just went through some heavy rains with flooding everywhere, and I gotta say that although they apparently don't balance out well, the tread pattern on these Bridgestones make for one heckuva rain tire. I mean I purposely aimed for deep water spots where traffic was stopping and going around partially flooded low spots in the roads, and I just blew right through them, sending water everywhere, and not once did I hydroplane! I was amazed.

Dirk13 · January 4, 2023

11 hours ago, MrLeadFoot said:

Oh, and BTW, we just went through some heavy rains with flooding everywhere, and I gotta say that although they apparently don't balance out well, the tread pattern on these Bridgestones make for one heckuva rain tire. I mean I purposely aimed for deep water spots where traffic was stopping and going around partially flooded low spots in the roads, and I just blew right through them, sending water everywhere, and not once did I hydroplane! I was amazed.

I hope you get your situation remedied.

Ive read that the alenzas get pretty bad in the rain after they wear some.

Kevin0311 · April 4, 2023

Well i have a similar problem but believe it is the Michelin Defenders LTX M/S 22" that i put on that are the issue. picked up 23 high-country new with adaptive ride control drove home 800 miles on stock 22" setup with the Alenza 2's was perfect. took that setup off installed 20" oem rims with snow tires for winter and sold the 22" setup. Purchased oem similar to snowflake but new part number 22" and got the Michelin tires shipped to me from discount tire (have bought from them for years), had mounted and balanced nothing too out of ordinary one and/or two took few oz more weight than i would have liked. within a week was getting minor but noticeable vibration only seemed to notice on very smooth roads, went back to my installed and roadforced balanced all 4, only 1 was out a small amount. still same issue after, speeds seem to be 45+ and very minor but noticeable. a cup of water doesn't show vibration in cup holder but can just feel on armrest and seat, my wife in passenger seat even asked me if i felt a little vibration going on. Stockers and winter setup no vibration. Going to move fronts to rears and see if vibration goes into steering wheel or stays the same. i run 36psi cold, goes to 40 warm, haven't notice vibration when cold if swap doesn't help will play with pressures maybe.

Edited April 4, 2023 by Kevin0311

MrLeadFoot · April 4, 2023

12 hours ago, Kevin0311 said:

Well i have a similar problem but believe it is the Michelin Defenders LTX M/S 22" that i put on that are the issue. picked up 23 high-country new with adaptive ride control drove home 800 miles on stock 22" setup with the Alenza 2's was perfect. took that setup off installed 20" oem rims with snow tires for winter and sold the 22" setup. Purchased oem similar to snowflake but new part number 22" and got the Michelin tires shipped to me from discount tire (have bought from them for years), had mounted and balanced nothing too out of ordinary one and/or two took few oz more weight than i would have liked. within a week was getting minor but noticeable vibration only seemed to notice on very smooth roads, went back to my installed and roadforced balanced all 4, only 1 was out a small amount. still same issue after, speeds seem to be 45+ and very minor but noticeable. a cup of water doesn't show vibration in cup holder but can just feel on armrest and seat, my wife in passenger seat even asked me if i felt a little vibration going on. Stockers and winter setup no vibration. Going to move fronts to rears and see if vibration goes into steering wheel or stays the same. i run 36psi cold, goes to 40 warm, haven't notice vibration when cold if swap doesn't help will play with pressures maybe.

Thank you SO much for posting this. After 8 OEM 22" rims, and 12 OEM Alenzas, all installed by 2 dealerships, I still have the vibration. A friend has a 2020 silverado with OEM 20" rims, so we swapped. While the ride improved significantly, there was still a small vibration, but he has 30k miles on this stock Duelers, so I'm not sure if that was the cause of that vibration.

GM authorized a Pico scope. Factory rep came out for it. They felt the vibration but couldn't figure it out. When I mentioned my test with my friend's wheels, they immediately took the position that the vibration was within spec. In other words, they copped out. They didn't even try putting on different size rims themselves to verify that's what is was.

To clarify, are you saying no issues with the 20s,even with snow tires?? I ask, because I'm to the point where I'm really hoping this is a wheels and/or tires issue, because that would be an easy fix. But I'm starting to wonder if it's more than that. I've been considering trying to find OEM 20s and putting on Michelin LTX Defenders, to test with a completely different setup, but if that doesn't change anything, then I'll know it's something else, and if GM won't address it I guess I have no choice but to escalate to the next level. Even if tires/wheels does resolve it, it's an additional expense that I really shouldn't have to incur, especially since I paid for the upper wheel option. I called my case advisor at GM and discussed this with her. I told her that at this point I really don't care if they step me "down" to the 20s, as long as it works. But, after all I've been through, I really shouldn't have to pay for the 20s. GM should do the right thing here, but as I am learning, they likely won't, and I will likely need escalate the claims process. But, like I said, I don't want to have to, I just want the vibration to go away. I can't even drive 100 miles in this thing because if any part of my body touches the body of the truck, the vibrations seem wear me out on longer drives!

Please keep me posted as to what you continue to find in your case. PM me if you prefer to do that privately.

MrLeadFoot · April 4, 2023

I forgot to mention that the tire pressure that seems to best suit these wheels/tires is 32 cold. But, once they hit 35 hot, the ride significantly degrades. Chalk test between 36 cold and 32 cold yields no difference in chalk wear, making me think sidewalls must be REALLY hard. But, then again, this tire is not very square ende to edge across tread, so maybe chalk test doesn't work on these Alenzas. I would like to run them 33 hot, but am kind of afraid to. Anybody have opinions on this?

Kevin0311 · April 4, 2023

i noticed ride improvement with 20" also, more sidewall i'm betting. Was night and day diffence going from a HC with 20" A/S to the 22" A/S with adaptive ride control, meaning the ride control truck rode ALOT better then the 19 i traded in, 12 hour trip to dealer 45 min at dealer and soon as i pulled out noticed 70% better even though had 22"

my snow tire setup are studded tires so possible i wasn't noticing any vibration due to excess noise but the stock alenza 2's on stock 22" setup did not vibrate for the several hundred miles i drove on them home from dealership.

today i swapped front to rear and lowered my cold tire pressures to 34. The stock alenza's i only see a max pressure not a minimum on the internet but i have had cars where 29 was the cold pressure (door sticker) on a tire with max pressure of 44 psi so me personally i would feel plenty safe going down to 28 psi. 36 is the GM recommended pressure to match their tire spec on a certain vehicle to accomplish the ride and handling GM is looking for.

i will let you know if my vibration moved to the front (feel in wheel) or stays same or goes away, i work local so won't really know until Thursday evening when i leave for a several hundred mile trip. Will report back next week.

Edited April 4, 2023 by Kevin0311

MrLeadFoot · April 4, 2023

Thanks for the reply. I absolutely HATE the vibration I am feeling. It's kind of like a fast shimmy, like out of balance tires. I have noticed, though, that when it's pouring rain (like we've been getting here in Northern CA lately), it drives smooth. I think it's the water on the road providing a cushion between the tires and the road. I didn't get a chance to drive it before taking delivery because I bought it from an out of state dealer, and they shipped it to me. If I had been able to drive it first I absolutely would not have bought it. I really can't believe GM is screwing me over on this, and not at LEAST trying to put completely different tires and/or wheels just to SEE if the issue is wheels. Makes me wonder if they know that they have an issue, and I am not the first having this problem in a Refresh.

As far as running lower pressure, I am concerned with such a low sidewall on a heavy vehicle. I have 40 series sidewalls on my Vette and have no problem running 28 psi, but my wheels are 18s on a much smaller vehicle that's something like 40% lighter than this truck.

Looking forward to your next update.

Edited April 4, 2023 by MrLeadFoot

Kevin0311 · April 4, 2023

should lay under yours and look at the driveshaft, see if can see if a weight is missing or can see where there was one, i have had carrier bearings (trucks don't have 2 piece driveshafts so no carrier bearings) going bad and cause vibration similar before. i have 3500 miles on mine, if vibration doesn't move to the front wheels and make it obvious it is a tire/rim issue and feels the same that is where i will be looking next at the driveshaft/ujoints.