I recently replaced both front tyres on my Fabia using a local independent garage through blackcircles.com.

 

Soon after the new tyres were fitted, the car developed a serious shaking felt through

the steering wheel.  Suspecting a weight had been thrown by one of the front wheels, I

took the car back and they rebalanced both wheels.  No change.

 

I agreed to leave the car with them for a full day to give them time to investigate.

 

They swapped the fronts and rears around and test drove the car but the problem was still

evident.  Then they put another set of wheels on the front and still no change.  This

made them suspect drive-shaft problems and since this was likely to cost a lot of money,

recommended I go to my Skoda dealer to have it checked out under warranty.

 

The dealer took the car in for a day and called me to say they'd ruled out the drive-

shafts or any other part of the steering, suspension, or the engine mounts, suggesting I

had either a buckled front wheel or malformed tyre.  They deduced this from replacing the

front wheels with those from a new car and road testing it.  The problem was no longer

apparent so they pointed the blame at a duff wheel or tyre.

 

Hmmm... this left me with the dilemma of who to believe; the dealer or the independent

garage, since one of them had to be having me on.

I took the car away, still vibrating badly.

 

Once home I put on my winter wheels and tested the car - no wobble so it was then a

matter of replacing one of them (I chose front offside) with each of my alloys in turn to

find the one causing the problem.  I had labelled the tyres in chalk before removing

them. (Sod's law: it was the last one I tried, originally the rear offside)

 

I began to think back if there was anything different about this tyre & wheel from the

rest, then it hit me; I'd had a puncture about eight months previously which I'd

repaired with the supplied tyre sealant.  My hunch was this had degraded and a lump of it

had become detached from the inside of the tyre.

I took that wheel&tyre and a spare part-worn tyre from home back to the independent garage and

asked him to swap them over and check the inside of the one coming off.  Sure enough,

there were lumps of sealant tumbling around inside the tyre, like bricks in a cement mixer.

 

There must have been about a pound of the stuff so I kept one piece (photo below) to show the

Skoda dealer.  Note that the piece in the photo has shrunk by around 50% since it came

out of the tyre.

 

And who was telling me porkies?  Nobody!

 

Here's how they came to conflicting conclusions:

Independent gets the car with the tyres in the original configuration; fronts to be

replaced, rears still with life but rear o/s has had sealant repair.  Independent takes

off the fronts, swapping them with known good wheels/tyres - problem still present.
Then they swap rears to fronts and problem is till there.  That's because the 'faulty'

tyre is now on the front.

 

I take car to Skoda dealer with the tyre pairs still swapped over i.e. the new tyres

still on the back.  They check all shafts, mounts, joints etc and pass as okay.  They

then take off the 'fronts', replacing them with wheels from a new car and the problem

vanishes.  This is because they've taken off the faulty tyre.

 

As the dodgy tyre migrated from back to front during the various tests, each garage

reached a different conclusion.

 

I took the lump of sealant back to the Skoda dealer and explaind my findings to the

service manager.  He'd never come across this before and showed the sealant remains to

the service team, none of whom had ever heard of this happening either.  He was very

grateful for the information and has added this as a question for future customers who

report similar problems.

 

I was quite satisfied to have eventually worked it out as it was really niggling me.  So,

if anyone else has a wobble they can't pin down, consider whether you've ever had a tyre

repaired with sealant.

 

 

 

HV

 

I was under the impression tyre sealant was only a temporary repair but glad you got it sorted.

I was under the impression tyre sealant was only a temporary repair but glad you got it sorted.

You're right, I just kept putting off a proper repair for so long that I forgot all about it.

Hopefully others can learn from my mistake.

HV