So earlier this year I hit something on the road that damaged two tires:


I had 4 new tires installed and had an alignment. I had this problem were starting around 40mph I would get a shake in the steering wheel.

Today I had my tires road forced balanced. They found one rim/tire hard to balance.
The one rim/tire they balanced 4 times, started at 20, then 26, 30, 23, and 18.
There is no obvious bend in the rim. They suspect this rim has a slight bend in it hard to see.

So as it sits:
driver front is at 13
passenger front is at 16
driver rear is at 11
passenger rear is at 18

They said anything below 20 is considered in the green. Happy to report no shake in the steering wheel, they also moved that hard to balance rim/tire to the rear.

I suspect the rim/tire reading 16 and 18 are the ones that originally had the damaged tires and probably out of round enough to give the higher numbers on the road force.

Questions:
1) Are those two rims/tires worth getting straightened, since it's in the acceptable range after road force?
2) Should I swap the 11 and the 16, so the higher numbers are on the same axle?
3) At this point is it good to rotate the tires normally if I put the higher/lower numbers on the same axle?

@Discount Tire

 

I had this problem with my ES350. Seems like the Lexus Suspension is so smooth the slightest thing you can tell. In my case most others noticed nothing, but like you said 40 and over I had the problem. 1st Shop said no Wheel bent. 2nd check out, Wheel was slightly bent. Got wheel fix better but not all gone. The front Pass Drive Axel was bent too.

Yes I know the ES is front wheel drive vs GS rear wheel drive. Replaced the Axel No more Vibration. I had to keep going back telling them to look again something wrong, before detected. I ran over a curb stupidly was looking at crossing cars in a gas station leaving out.

I suspect lots of cars have a slightly bent rim. I would not worry about it, if no more shake, but keep a eye on the Tire.

 

Questions:
1) Are those two rims/tires worth getting straightened, since it's in the acceptable range after road force?
What's "acceptable" IMO is more about are you happy driving it, not what the numbers say. If it bothers you then get it fixed or replaced. Right now it might be fine since it's on the rear so maybe wait until that wheel is back on the front and see how it goes.

2) Should I swap the 11 and the 16, so the higher numbers are on the same axle?
My guess would be that on most cars things are not by axle at all - they're all over the map. I don't necessarily see a reason to do that.

3) At this point is it good to rotate the tires normally if I put the higher/lower numbers on the same axle?
The tires are still new enough I would think that you can move things around wherever you want them and then just rotate normally. If you measure the tread depth is there that much of a difference?

 

I had a similar problem with my old Camry on a brand new set of Toyo tires. One tire was slightly out of shape I think and would wobble my steering wheel a bit at low speeds when installed on the front.

Tire shop wrote it off as manufacturing defect and replaced that one tire and never had any problem ever since. I can actually see the defective tire spinning strangely on the balancing machine at low speeds but it goes away when it spins faster.

Can u ask them to test that one rim with another tire just to rule out the bent rim issue?

 

After the road force balancing the ride is nice no issues. Seems like even if a rim is slightly out of round road force can correct the imbalance.

This is my first time getting a road force balance. Really don’t know a whole lot about what the numbers mean.

I did upsize my tires one size so not sure if that also makes it harder to balance the normal way.

 

The road force numbers add up to 29 on each axle. Not sure if that was done on purpose or just coincidence.

front is 13 and 16
rear is 11 and 18

Again I don’t really understand these road force numbers. If someone else knows please explain. Thanks.

 

Interesting. Who did the balance? Lexus? That's who does it here where I am. I do know that they will turn the tire on the wheel to offset the tire heavy and low point to the wheel heavy and low point. Then rebalance till they reach a number.

 

No this was a local tire shop that had the machine. The tech turned the one wheel 4 times to get the best he could. I’m surprised they spent 2.5 hours doing all this. They also test drive the car to confirm no issues.

 

I have a Hunter gsp9700 road force balancer at home and use this option when I balance new tires - it uses the road force to eliminate vibrations and pull, so it'll tell you where to put each wheel on the car. The measurement is the dynamic force in lbs if I remember correctly.

https://www.hunter.co.hu/pdf/4159T.pdf (check out page 6)

 

sounds like i need to find you so i can do some work at your place lol i've always wondered how well discount tire balances wheels

 

Thanks for the input. They did put notes that said “Tires rotated based on their road force”.

I normally rotate my tires after 10k miles along with oil changes. I guess I’ll find out how the rears are on the front after it’s broken in.