Have a question. When tires are properly balanced, should there be multiple weights at various locations on the rim. Say one at 6oclock, one at 8oclock, and another at 1oclock positions. Reason I ask is because I recently had tires installed/balanced and the guy who did it has 3 weights on some of the wheels. Now I know if he wasnt lazy he could theoretically eliminate two(or three) of the weights by adding a calculated weight at a given point between them. I mentioned this and the guy seems half assed, and I dont want him scratching up the clearcoat on my rims by carelessly removing and installing new weights. I just want the job done right, should I go back and ask them to do balance them right and be carefull with the rims. Or should I just forget about it and pretend I dont have 3 weights there(on one side mind you). I also considered asking to balance them with weights only on the inside, but not sure how that will turn out. Advice?

 

No, multiple weights at different points on either side of the wheel is counterbalancing. Balancing with weights on the inside only is kinda hit and miss, since you can only balance for one plane of movement, also known as static balance. I'd get 'em rebalanced.

 

3 weights on one side?? Yeah that is a sign of either someone that didn't know what they were doing and setup the machine wrong OR the machine is really out of calibration. We have a coats machine at work and I was able to balance all 4 of mine without any on the outside and it rides smooth as silk. I did it by puting the hammer on style on the inside where it doesn't matter and stick ons on the far edge of the wheel towards the outside. This way it is still dynamically balanced but you don't see the outter ones unless you look on the inner side of the wheel. There is plenty of caliper to rim clearance so this isn't a problem on the 18's. I love not having weights all over the outside, looks much cleaner and no more scratching the wheels everytime they are balanced. The only time I see there should be more than 1 weight on a single plane (there are 2 in dynamic balancing, inner-outter) is if you really want to finely balance them. Our balancer has a bullseye mode that will get down to 5G of weight which is like nothing and say if it calls for 40 grams here and I put that on there, then when I spin it it asks for 4G in another location, I'll stick a little 5G on there and it will come out next to perfect. Do they ride smooth with all that weight all over the place?

 

Yes the tires ride very smooth, thats why I was asking what to do. If they were not smooth I would take them back right away, but since they are smooth I thought nothing of it until now. I just hate the thought of that guy scratching up the rims. I mean really, this is how mechanics get a bad name. Anyway, I want the wheels done right, but hate the thought of more scratches. Seems like I cant win. Either I will leave them like they are and have to look at a ton of wieghts or have them done right(possibly) and them be scratched up. Guess I might as well bend over and grab my ankles either way.

 

I wonder if you can find somewhere that has someone you know working there and mention to them the idea of putting stick ons on the inner wheel on the outside plane and eliminate the ones on the outside?

 

Would my 17s clear the calipers with the weights on the inner wheel?

 

I have a ???
Our CLS has 3 weights inside the rear rims that say Zn are those actually weights and thats from the factory is that right???

 

I'm normally not too concerned about the amount of weight needed to balance a tire, so long as it doesn't exceed 3-4 ounces. I'm more worried about roadforce variation, I use a Hunter GSP9700 at work that'll go down to 5 grams of accuracy or so, but I normally don't go that far into detail unless I got a vibration problem child on hand. Less than 3-4 ounces total weight and less than 20 lbs roadforce, I'm happy.

 

Thx I'll keep that in mind. When I get back into town this weekend I will check to see the total weight on the wheel and make my decision from there. The tires are very smooth, I just wasnt too sure about the number of weights he used. He told me he zero balanced them, but I doubt he did.

 

I would go to another reputable company or shop, sears,les schwab, discount tire, or NTB. If you got an itch, YOU MUST SCRATCH or it will not leave you alone. Plus, it doesn't hurt to ask other tire shops about their opinion. Unfortunately i have gone to the same shop 3 times for rebalancing. (I paid for lifetime rotation and balance)Thankfully the last was the best. Not everyone takes their work seriously and they don't really care because it's not their business and it's not their vehicle that it is going on. If it bothers you, definitely get it corrected. Also, wheels won't last forever and there will always be some moron that will want to screw up your nice stuff. Granted you don't want them messed up now. The larger companies will want to protect their reputation. Also, they have more money and more business, so if something goes wrong they'l take care of it. Plus there is a STATIC balance and there is a DYNAMIC balance.good luck.

 

balancing some tires is a pita. I have doing tire/wheel balancing for years, and there is no way a virtually stock wheel/tire combo should take that much weight. I personally have/would never return a customer's vehicle with weights in multiple spots. It sounds to me like the tech was just lazy and really doesn't understand the physics of balancing the tire. If you go back, I would ask them to static balance(put all weights on inside) and to attempt to get them all in one location if possible.

my$.02
-Rusty

 

Its a CLS, duh. You pay for what you get.

 

Yeah, the ones that have the Zn on em should be stock ones. When you say there are 3 weights, you mean all 3 lined up inside the wheel right? Not 3 at different points? Those CLS's are nice cars, specially the CLS 55 AMG! Go drive one of them and you will step out smiling.

 

I had Generals on when I bought the truck. My dealer replaced the originals with about 15 miles on the ODO because of flat spotting. The next set of Generals were road force balanced and they came back with 3 weights on each tire. I told the dealer it was BS and these tires were garbage.

So 5,000 miles later, I started getting the 65mph nibble. I took it back to the dealer and told him it had to be the crappy tires. I requested they put good tires on and was told they could not do that without getting autorization from Ford. He suggested getting a FSE involved. I give my dealer a lot of credit for not BS'ing me.

2 weeks later I went out for a ride with a FSE. He felt the nibble and authorized new tires. I'm the happy owner of 4 new Michelin LTX's. The truck drives BETTER than new. Period.

So to answer your question, if your tire has a lot of weight on it, it could be normal and not the service guys fault. But I think it is a faulty tire. The FSE even admitted there should not be that much weight on a new tire.

 

In your case, the Generals are crap and it indeed could have been their fault. However, in my case, I just think the lazy ghetto thug balancing the tires wanted to go through the extra work required to zero balance the tires and just added weights