wheel balance weights

[Randy Webb]

How much wt. do people usually have to have on their Fuchs to balance the wheels and tires? Do you ever have to go over an ounce or so?

Also, what about splitting the weights? I thought this usually meant that some wts. are put in one spot and some are put in another spot on the circumference. (One can also do this axially, inside & outside, but it would be pretty ugly on a Fuchs). I always heard that was the way to do it right and that the machines now point out to the installer where to put the wt.s in two places. True?


This is all on 6" and 7" wide 15" Fuchs -- not huge wheels....

I don't trust these kids that mount tires these days.....

[Decolliber]

I cannot answer your question, but I can say that it really makes a difference having your wheels balanced by someone who knows what he is doing.
After getting my late offset RUFs (very heavy), I had the fronts rebalanced at tire shop A, because of some vibration. Vibration reduced but not gone, so I took the fronts to tire shop B for another balancing. Vibration now gone.
Got new Bridgestone 730s for my BMW and had them installed by tire shop C. Major vibration. Took them back for rebalance at shop C. Was charged for another balance and still vibration. Tire shop C tells me I have bad tires. Took wheels to tire shop B for a 3rd balance and no more vibration.
Inference: the guy at shop B knows what he is doing.

I watched the tires being balanced at shop B and the machine has an LED indicator that shows where to put the weight, how much and whether it should be on inside or outside of rim. If rim has high offset, the weights that should go on the outside can just go on the inside of the spoke.

On the question of how much weight. My BMW OEM rims require very little weight. I just got some cheap Tirerack Borbets with Wintersports for the BMW, and they have several times as much weight as the OEMs. So I guess cheap wheels = more balance weights.

The adhesive weights can easily be divided by snips.

[Zeke]

Well, John pretty well covered it.

I usually comment on the balancing threads and have given a lot of info if you care to look for balance/zeke.

Weights in one plane won't do the complete job. Instead of me explaining this again, read http://www.yokohamatire.com/pdf/tsb-TireBalance-12803.pdf

They explain it better than I do anyway.

Pay particular attention to the yellow and red dot paragraph.

Sorry about the .pdf file, I can't get a link to the "view as html" option to work.

[Randy Webb]

Thx - the URL came thru at the bottom.

The reason I ask is that one wheel took over 3 oz. of wts. - that was after I had him rotate the tire 90o -- it was worse before -- don't think I can count high enough to figure out how bad. This was an eBay wheel....

[Randy Webb]

Zeke - another query for Fri. when the BBS and you are fresh...

I found 11 threads using that search. In one, you said:

"So, I want to know what I can do to not use so many weights, and the boss shows me how to 'read' a tire and a wheel prior to installation. There are a few tricks to that, too."

- Are these tricks you can render in text (i.e. w/o having to show somebody with them in front of you)?


BTW, I balanced tires long ago when I worked ina service station - but us rednecks didn't know any tricks.... we used a triangular static balance bubble level thing and that was high-tech in Louisiana..... surprised we didn't just float the tire in possum fat and call it good....

[911gilley]

the sick on weights can be applied to the inside of the wheel (the part towards the hub). I have fuchs and mille miglia and both have weights installed this way. Also, look for a shop with a Hunter RoadForce balancer. These machines are very expensive ($20K), very accurate and tell the installer how to position the tire on the wheel for the best balance and least weights, as well as balaance the wheel at highway speeeds. Both of my Pcars wheels were done on these and they always balance out great.

[Zeke]

Randy, Ed called it. the Roadforce method takes all into consideration.

Manually, here's what you would do: Put the bare rim with valve stem installed on the bubble balancer and see if the wheel is heavy on one side (the steel wheels usually were back at that old shop where I learned this). Look for the weight marks on the tire. Bettter yet, and if they are not there, put the tire on the rim. Do not inflate and rotate until the bubble balancer indicates the best position.

Now inflate, and then to the computer balancer. Anything over 4 oz. is unacceptable to me. Either try again with the bubble machine, or select another tire.

[Randy Webb]

I Emailed the Hunter Rep - he was incredibly helpful. I will go to the local BMW dealer and get them to balance the wheel if I have problems that can't be fixed (for free) by the shop where I bought the tires.

Here's the rest of the story (as Paul Harvey used to say). I didn't say this before but the 'bad' eBay wheel is to make the car into a roller for painting while I take the wheels down to LA to visit my girfriend -- ooops! mistake! I am just happening to cart the wheels down there with me when I visit her. They are going to Al Reed. In case there is a problem (like they were chromed and that weakened them) and I need different wheels. Otherwise I can just keep my origina lwheels after I have the car painted.

Despite the heavy wts. on one tire, I didn't notice any vibration on new S03 tires this am when I went for a breakin spin on the tires/brakes/clutch/engine. I went up to 80 mph on the freeway (55 zone) and felt no problems. With a few more miles, I'll find some roads to test a little more strenuously.

Thanks for all the help and I hope some of this will help others. I also added some info on tire marks (from Yoko) to a thread I found during a search. It's now current for anyone following this one and interested in this topic. If folks want me to post my Email with the Road Force guy, post here and I'll put up an edited version.

[Zeke]

Yeah, Randy, let's see it. I can always learn something.