I've got a good one for you all. Friday, I noticed that my wheel was shaking more than normal. Got out, looked at the four tires and noticed that the FR tire was missing it's weight. Went to the dealer and got all 4 tires balanced, as a warranty item. Fast forward to today, 3 days later, and my LR weight is gone off the rim. My question is: is it THAT EASY for a weight to get slung off, even after getting a new one put one that soon before?

Anyone ever sling one off just after having a new one put on?

-Travis

 

service guy probably f'ed up. i've put on those hammered weight before and never had a problem.

 

Yes. I have a 94 Ranger that cannot seem to hold on to wheel weights. Got 4 new tires mounted and balanced this past August, a week before driving to Colorado. On the way back from Colorado I threw a weight and the truck vibrated the last 1500 miles home. I figure I had about 2500 miles from the time I bought the tires until it tossed the weight.

This is just the most recent example. I don't think that truck has had 4 balanced tires for more than 4 months at a time in the 7+ years I've owned it. It has the factory mag rims and the weights just don't seem to grab as well as on the steel rims.

 

There are many, many many styles of wheel weights to fit just about every kind of wheel out there.

The average shop buys two kinds: the original kind that go to the old steel wheels, and one generic "mag wheel" style weight that they figure they will use on every other kind of wheel except the old steel ones.

The problem is, they need to buy 1/16 ounce, 1/8 ounce, 1/4 ounce, etc.etc.etc. (they also come in metric weight units) for each style of wheel weight. Hince, they only stock two kinds.

Depending on the lip of the wheel, the generic kind may or may not hold well to the wheel.

If this seems to be the problem, there are also "tape weights". These are adhered to the inside of the wheel with strong two-sided tape. These kind look a lot better, and if the wheel is prepared properly before sticking them on, they stay put.

Maybe request tape weights next time?

 

This may be a stupid question I can easily answer myself by looking at the warranty manual, but is balancing covered under warranty?

 

Balancing is covered under warranty initially to get everything squared away.

 

yes up to 1 year 20,000 km and then its up to the dealers whether it is a warranty issue.

but as far as your problem, make sure they are using the correct weight style for your rims, if the are not they will all come loose soon or later.

Mac.

 

"Adjustments" such as tire balancing and alignments are covered for 12 months/12,000 miles.

Sounds like the folks balancing your tires used the wrong weights. Net Wurker summed it up pretty nicely.

 

Okay guys take this!

Took it in to have the rear weight replaced, and the service writer said that the tech never put one on in the first place! I could have sworn it was on there when I took it home on Friday. The service writer said the tech told him it didn't need a weight. Is it possible for these big 17" XLT rims to NOT need counterweight to balance? This is one area of vehicular maintainence that eludes me. Any help would be appreciated!

-Travis

 

I've had wheels balance out without needing any weight. They don't all necessarily need weight on both sides as well.

 

Quintin,

Care to elaborate on this? I don't understand what you mean.

-Travis

 

All wheel balancers have you add a certain amount of weight at a certain spot on the inside of the wheel, and add a certain amount of weight at a certain spot on the outside of the wheel.

They correct and compensate for side to side runout as well as out of round balance.

For instance, the machine may indicate it wants .50 on the left side and .75 on the right side. Usualy, after the machine has spun the wheel up and back down,some kind of meter or arrow dealie will light up, one for the inside and one for the outside. You slowly rotate the wheel to the desired position as indicated by the arrows or bars or however that certain balancer indicates where it wants the weight.

Realy good well made tires usually require less weight to achieve balance than more economical tires. It is not unheard of for one side to require no weight at all. I think this is what Quintin was referring to.

I have heard of, but never actually seen, a tire and wheel actually come up 0 and 0, meaning the balancer indicated that no weight was required for either the inside or outside of the wheel.

 

In all my years of tire retail and wholesale I have never come accross a tire with a true 0/0.

The bigger the tire, the more weight its going to take also. I bet the dealer is useing the wrong weight. There is so many styles now. Chrysler had to go and make it worse a few years ago by changeing there lip to a exclusive style on some of there cars. Why is still beond me.

Tape weights dont seem to do the job as well as regular weights. Really there only purpose is to be used for all the pretty boy wheels.

 

Very True. The big ole 35's found on trucks will take much more weight to balance, usually , than say a 14" chevy cavalier wheel.

Given the same size wheel and tire, though, generally speaking, the better made tire will require less weight than the cheapo tire.

I beleive this is due to:

Back at the factory, at a place like Michelin, there is a lot of research and R&D going on.

At a place that makes the 4 for $99.00 tires, there is just mass production (with an emphasis on cheapest way to manufacture) going on.

 

Travis, generally speaking, there's two ways to balance a tire. Statically and dynamically.

Static balancing balances the tire at rest. This is done with a balance bubble...the tire is mounted on a machine with a level of some sort on it to indicate where the heavy spot is on a tire, and weights are added accordingly. That's old school, I've never even seen a bubble balancer in person.

Then there's dynamic balancing, where the tire is mounted on a machine that spins the wheel up to speed and measures the imbalance on it by checking where the heavy spot is in a tire and wheel assembly. Weights are tacked on either side as needed. Sometimes, for appearance's sake or sometimes there just isn't a lip on the outside of the wheel to put a weight on, wheels can be balanced using either one weight on the inside, or one weight on the inside combined with a stick on weight towards the face of the wheel.