Thread: Balancing Tires
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Old 08-22-2018, 06:02 AM   #15
xj_man_646
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Quote:
Originally Posted by freerider15 View Post
Uhhh yeah...

"They said to balance the tires by putting the wheel weights down the centerline of the rim, not on inside/outside."

Now let me ask you...how much experience do you have in a tire shop?

I've got a bit.

Wheel weights centered, or inside the wheel like that, are never as good as those on the lip. We proved that many times over. Then again, I worked at a shop that cared about what we sent out the door.

If I told you a steering stabilizer cures death wobble, what would you say?

Proper techs would have broken down each tire, and rotated it on the wheel if there were balancing issues. Upon that, we would have also run a road force test.

We would have found that either:
- The tire needs to be replaced, as it was bad from the get go
- The wheel needs replaced (either bent, or somehow mis-manufactured)
- The tire needed rotated and properly balanced on the wheel (not too uncommon).

Quote:
Originally Posted by freerider15 View Post
If you really believe this, I've got some great beach front property in Kansas for sale

Having been a tire monkey, everything you've written above, we saw...enough.

We "rebalanced" dealer "balances" seemingly daily.

They don't give two licks, since it pays them next to nothing.

They don't specialize in that, they just want to slam it in and send it out the door.

As someone who has known a few peeps who've worked for stealerships...they always told family, friends, to come to us
Dude...the manufacturer of the vehicle told them to do that with the wheel weights. It's obvious that there is something going on with vibrations in the wheel / tire in this specific case.

I've got 6 years and thousands of tire repairs, mounts, balances, etc. under my belt.

Of course a steering stabilizer doesn't cure death wobble.

They tried everything under the sun including multiple sets of tires. I don't get what else you would have done

Here, let me quote it again...
Quote:
Balanced tires same problem. Bought new tires same problem. Had them rebalance after a couple thousand, same problem. Had the driveshaft balanced, same. Had the tires road force balanced, same. Had all the brakes calipers rotors removed and checked axle alignment, same problem. Finally the dealer called HQ. They said to balance the tires by putting the wheel weights down the centerline of the rim, not on inside/outside. Had this done and it solved the problem.
Buying new tires is a step beyond breaking each one down and rotating the tire on the rim and re-balancing.

Just recently Belle Tire tried selling me off on a set of tires for my Taurus, because of a vibration I could not find. Turns out it was a bent wheel...somehow they missed that during the re-balancing and alignment process. I caught it when I finally lifted that corner of the car in an attempt to find loose parts. Lots of tire shops employ idiots, I will give you that. But, in this case...there is no reason to believe that anyone would have been able to find / cure this specific issue without calling the manufacturer. Its something I've literally never heard of.
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Last edited by xj_man_646; 08-22-2018 at 06:08 AM.
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