How often do you balance your tires?
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Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 527
Likes: 119
From: Big Sky Country
Try it sometime. Have them pull the wheel off the machine after balancing and put it back on in a different orientation. It will likely be off by a small amount.
You should try reading closer. I didn't recommend this as the way to balance a tire, just said it was a better way to do it. And did state that it would have to be redone every time.
So please enlighten me on how most of this is wrong.
You should try reading closer. I didn't recommend this as the way to balance a tire, just said it was a better way to do it. And did state that it would have to be redone every time.
So please enlighten me on how most of this is wrong.
Pit Crew
Joined: Aug 2017
Posts: 234
Likes: 59
From: Florida
Pit Crew
Joined: Aug 2017
Posts: 234
Likes: 59
From: Florida
Discount Tire does include free rotations and they automatically re-balance your wheels/tires for the lifetime of the tire. They also use a brass brush to remove rust and debris from the hub where the wheel fits against it. And, they always use the 'star' pattern when tightening your lug bolts, and they use a manual torque wrench for the final tightening of the lugs. Discount Tire is usually very competitive with their prices, but will gladly match competitive prices if necessary. Lastly, they repair flat tires free-of-charge even if you didn't buy the tires from Discount Tire, which by the way includes balancing. First rate and extremely well run tires stores...
Try it sometime. Have them pull the wheel off the machine after balancing and put it back on in a different orientation. It will likely be off by a small amount.
You should try reading closer. I didn't recommend this as the way to balance a tire, just said it was a better way to do it. And did state that it would have to be redone every time.
So please enlighten me on how most of this is wrong.
You should try reading closer. I didn't recommend this as the way to balance a tire, just said it was a better way to do it. And did state that it would have to be redone every time.
So please enlighten me on how most of this is wrong.
My GS 350 F-Sport has 33K miles on the oe tires & have never been rebalanced.
Lexus Champion
Joined: Nov 2014
Posts: 13,614
Likes: 2,921
From: Texas
You don't know what you don't know! I bet if you had them checked with a Hunter GSP9700 Road Force Balancing machine you'd find that probably all four would fall outside of the OK parameter and need to be re-balanced to pass. Unawareness can be delusional bliss...
Pit Crew
Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 141
Likes: 32
From: AR
I wouldn't have my tires balanced any other way, and unless you have also, you would never know the difference it makes!
Lexus Champion
Joined: Sep 2016
Posts: 2,047
Likes: 135
From: AB
Now car became a precision machine like space rocket? If car drives at any speed without any vibration and shaking isn't that good enough? I don't recall rebalancing tires during the course of it's life.
It maybe different if one lives where roads are bad or tires, rims are El Cheapo stuffs. Most tires are directional these days. They stay one side, rotated front -to back vice versa. I only use OEM rims,
first tier tires. I am a moderate driver not a driving maniac.
It maybe different if one lives where roads are bad or tires, rims are El Cheapo stuffs. Most tires are directional these days. They stay one side, rotated front -to back vice versa. I only use OEM rims,
first tier tires. I am a moderate driver not a driving maniac.
Instructor
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 780
Likes: 120
From: MA
The process of rotating the tires of course doesn't affect the balance, but having driven on the tires for 5,000 miles certainly can affect the balance...and most often does affect the balance to some degree that requires re-balancing.
Anytime Discount Tire removes a wheel from a vehicle they will re-balance it. There is a good reason for this! I have Discount Tires rotate the tires on my vehicles every 5,000 miles. Inevitably 2 or 3 of the wheels/tires fail to balance OK and need to be re-balanced, which takes all of 60 seconds' time. This happens regardless of tire brand, size, age, vehicle, etc. The re-balance adjustment my be minor, but nevertheless re-balancing was needed. If you don't believe this, drop by a Discount Tire store and ask one of their employees how often rotated wheels/tires need to be re-balanced. Or better still, drop by and watch any vehicle that is having its tires rotated and see for yourself how many fail to achieve the OK on the balancing machine and need re-balancing...
Anytime Discount Tire removes a wheel from a vehicle they will re-balance it. There is a good reason for this! I have Discount Tires rotate the tires on my vehicles every 5,000 miles. Inevitably 2 or 3 of the wheels/tires fail to balance OK and need to be re-balanced, which takes all of 60 seconds' time. This happens regardless of tire brand, size, age, vehicle, etc. The re-balance adjustment my be minor, but nevertheless re-balancing was needed. If you don't believe this, drop by a Discount Tire store and ask one of their employees how often rotated wheels/tires need to be re-balanced. Or better still, drop by and watch any vehicle that is having its tires rotated and see for yourself how many fail to achieve the OK on the balancing machine and need re-balancing...
road force. It's best to ask the shop for a printout with the values when it's done.
-Mike
Instructor
Joined: May 2015
Posts: 780
Likes: 120
From: MA
Now car became a precision machine like space rocket? If car drives at any speed without any vibration and shaking isn't that good enough? I don't recall rebalancing tires during the course of it's life.
It maybe different if one lives where roads are bad or tires, rims are El Cheapo stuffs. Most tires are directional these days. They stay one side, rotated front -to back vice versa. I only use OEM rims,
first tier tires. I am a moderate driver not a driving maniac.
It maybe different if one lives where roads are bad or tires, rims are El Cheapo stuffs. Most tires are directional these days. They stay one side, rotated front -to back vice versa. I only use OEM rims,
first tier tires. I am a moderate driver not a driving maniac.
One problem, of course, is if tire runout is bad or your rims are bad... that can create a situation where the tire can only be balanced to a certain point. This is basically hell on earth... lmao...
One hilarious thing is it depends how much someone drives. I've driven other peoples cars that were clearly unbalanced but they're just too used to it to notice it. Particularly when the vibration is slight or only happens at certain speeds. This tends to happen more with "grandma's" car and that kind of thing, or those weird local people who literally never get on the highway.
-Mike
Driver
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 54
Likes: 14
From: CT
I have never had tires rebalanced when rotated. I have seen no uneven wear or experienced vibrations. I am not doubting that the balance could change as evidenced by your experience, but I doubt it makes any difference. JMHO
After working at 4 different Tire/wheel stores I know alot more than most mechanics about tires & balancing. Doesn't matter what kind of machine the wheel/tire assembly is spinning on if it has minimal runout it should ride fine. I can verify this visually before mounting. I have never paid the upcharge for Road force balancing. It's more about the operator than the equipment.
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