Yet another tire thread

My ECS did all take more weight than I was expecting as well.  The rear end is smooth as glass though.  And I've almost got the issues up front narrowed down, at this point I'm 95% sure it's not tire related.  

Tires and wheels are due to go back to the vendor tomorrow and if lucky maybe will have them back later this week, they are only one day shipping away. I hope they are able to sort it out because it will suck if I have to sell them at a loss. If they come back with issues still there is no way I am keeping them. For someone that asked earlier, the car rarely sits for more than just over night, so 12- 16 hours would be a long stretch. If it were flat spots it should clear up after a while. Not to mention they did it the instant they went on the car. This is the first time I have ever had such a problem with a set of wheels and tires. I used to be into custom vans and was always getting aftermarket wheels and steam roller tires. Plus over the past 15 + years I have always bought sets of 4 tires and never had a problem. This is the first set of aftermarket wheels I have bought since the 80's. I won't make that mistake again.  I'm going to blame this one on typical corporate lack of quality control and employees that just don't give an "S" and or have not been trained to do their job. How could 4 different professionals not notice a problem this obvious? Stay tuned..... Hopefully I won't be on the evening news next week.

Well, yet another twist, I bought this package from Tire Rack and they have been very supportive. It turns out everything went back to HQ and they have tested everything and they found NOTHING wrong with any of the tires or wheels. At this point I don't have any faith in any shop or equipment, how can 5 different machines not pick up that 4 tires or wheels not round? I had sent them a video that clearly shows that the wheels are absolutely not round and they are stumped as well. They have agreed to replace the tires but could not convince the wheel manufacturer to step up to the plate. So they are mounting a set of Michelin's on the wheels and hopefully that will fix the problem. Should have them back next week and will post the results, wish me luck.

I have ECS's on my WRX and they do seem to give a little bit of vibration for the first 5 minutes on colder mornings, but it always goes away. They're also AMAZING in the rain. I just did a wet track day on them and was able to generate 1 G in the corners and passed many cars that should have been faster.

I got ECS's mounted on my Slipstream replica's back in March for my Civic.  I drive this car daily (interstate and back roads) and have done 4 autocross events so far, including a 2 hour drive to a site in pouring rain.  I love these tires, no issues, other than a bit of flat spotting early on when the temps would get below freezing overnight.  That would go away in a few hundred feet of driving though.  They are a bit louder than the all seasons, but nothing to complain about.  They are a bit slower than RE71's or Rivals, but show very little signs of wear, other than the shoulders after 4 events.

The saga is finally over. The wheels came back with Michelin Pilot Sports AS 3+ mounted on them. Did a quick check to make sure they were all round before mounting them and all was good. The first ride completely confirmed that something was horribly wrong with the Conti ESC's. The ride was nice and smooth, no more bouncing around. Tire Rack was helpful throughout the ordeal, my only complaints would be that they sent them out in the first place without realizing there was a problem and then after I returned them,  saying that the tires and wheels were both fine when they checked them. I had sent videos of how badly they were out of round, clearly either the wheel or the tire was not round, so therefor one must be defective. Anyway, I have new tires and a happy bride whose gets to enjoy her DD again. Only took two months to get squared away. I would not recommend any Conti tires, they are OEM on many cars and I am hearing that they are getting a lot of complaints and switching customers to other brands. Seems like quality control may have gone away or very is very lax.

I'm delighted that this is fixed!

But also uneasy about my pending ECSs; at least it seems like a lot of them turn out okay, even if too many don't.

Heck, maybe on my lug-centric MGB I won't be able to tell the difference, or I'll get *really* lucky and the ECSs will be out of round equal and opposite to the lack of wheel centering!