Ok so me and my bro are doing some regular maintance to our cars. Today he rotated his wheels and I'm going to being doing the same tomorrow as well. So I know when you go to Discount Tires or some tire shop they put those dam weights on your rims and sometimes scratch them by doing so, so what's the importance and use of them??? (Check Search already)

Thanks,

Alex

 

balancing a tire is simply just putting weights on the opposite side of the heavy point of a tire. If you have a teeter totter and there is a 250lb person on one side and a 140lb person on the other. It just will not work, Right? For a tire to spin properly without vibration it needs to be balanced. Tires are not perfect from the factory and they have thick spots and thin spots in them and the wheel weights just even out the irregular weights in the tires. You can also ask the tire shop to install stick on weights that use a sticky tape on one side and stick to the inside of your wheel instead of on the rim lip

 

So if I'm going to rotate my wheels tomorrow. Will the weight distribution be all F up now???

 

Take into considerations that, I have 7500 miles on my GSR and this will be the first time rotating my wheels and negative camber isn't even a factor. Will I be alright just doing the usual rotation or is there a way to strip those weights off the rims and go to some auto store and replace them with tire weights. Or do I need some spinning machine to determine the correct amount of weight?

 

How did you become so knowledgable with cars and cars concerning tech .

THANKS

 

is that so the tape style weights don't come off?

 

LSDelSol: It's entertaining to read Evil Teken's posts. They sound almost robotic.

 

just to clear up a few things, rotating and balancing are two different things. Rotating is swapping the fronts to the backs and vice versa, keeping them on the same side of the car, ie left front goes to left rear etc. Balancing a tire involves using the weights to balance the wheel/tire so it won't vibrate, as spoken about previously. Just wanted to clear that up.

You shouldn't need to balance you tires since you only have 7500 miles on the car, but you should rotate them. Got it? Put the front right on the rear right, front left on the rear left, rear right on the front right, and the rear left on the front left. This is just good to do to make sure your tires wear evenly. Because if you left them that way since you have front wheel drive your fronts would probably wear out before the rear and you would have to replace the fronts early.

s

 

You are a moron, I was asking a question about tire balancing, not tire rotation. As you can tell every reply to this post concerned tire balancing, not rotation. Get it straight. Plus I know what I'm talking about and how to rotate tire.

 

I bought all new Michlins Piolt, and forgot to rotate them for about 20,000 miles. Recently I'm also wondering the same thing, because ever since I rotated my tires..... my car makes this vibrating/buzzing sound(really loud between 50-70 mph) I have Neuspeed sport 1.7 & 2.0 drop, and my shocks are almost out.

is the noise because of not balanceing my tires or because of my shocks?

 

All very good points Teken! DTC use Hunter balancing machines....only the very best and some stores even offer force balancing options. Help the tire tech out and wash the insides of your wheels before taking it to the shop. He will thank you and do the best job possible. I always liked the extra attention to details and took extra time/care for that guy who did that sort of thing..

There are two basic types of wheel balancing static and dynamic. You want a dynamic balance using tape weights. Hopefully the tire tech who is doing the job has good experience with tape weight placements on aftermarket wheels. Placement is key. As for rotating and balancing intervals I used this as a quick guide.
Considering a normal oil change every 4000 miles.....rotate your tires every two or three oil changes.......have the balance checked every other rotation. That always worked out pretty well and customers seemed to remember that easily.

Tape weights versus clip weights:
Tape weights are usually used on aftermarket wheels keep ugly clip weights off of the wheel face and to reduce possible scratches. They work well as long as the wheel has enough space inside for good tape weight placement. Tape weights (the adhesive) are usually weakened by water, salt, carwash blasts, etc and can fail thus throwing the tape weights.
Clip weights are hammerd onto the wheel lip and come in coated and non-coated varieties. As long as the correct style weight is used you will probably never throw a clip weight. Of course they look fuggly most of the time and can leave scratches on the wheel. Alot of that depends on the tire tech working on your stuff.


[Modified by SLPR, 8:57 AM 7/1/2002]

 

Hey RAB01GSR, go read your question again!! Here, I've got it for you!!

I'm just making sure you know the difference and not trying to insult your intelligence!! You're the one who said tire rotation, I know what you meant but I just wanted to make sure you knew there was a difference!! I TRY AND HELP YOU OUT SO YOU DON"T GET CONFUSEd AND YOU CALL ME A MORON!! Yeah, you really sound like you know what you're talking about. Go to a shop and ask them to rotate your tires and see what they do!! I can't stand ungrateful *$^&!? like you. I haven't felt like punching someone in a while but you revived that feeling pretty quickly. DON'T EVER CALL ME A MORON AGAIN!!

s


[Modified by stevel, 1:05 AM 7/2/2002]


[Modified by stevel, 1:17 AM 7/2/2002]