its a stupid question but im just wondering if there has to be a balance weight on each wheel ? i just bought my new tires and i put them in the back and they were balanced but i put the ones from the back to the front without balancing them but didn't change the tire . when i go over 85-90 my steering wheel is vibrating a lil. but theres strong wind so idk . can it be that missing balance or is it possible there should be any on there . thx

 

There should be a weight on each wheel...doesn't have to be on both inside and outside, but it's very rare not to have any weight at all. Check to make sure there isn't one on the inside somewhere. If you have to have them balanced, look for a shop that has the Hunter road force balancing machine - it works best for our rims.

 

ok cool man thx thats what i though no rim is perfect lol

 

Try going up to 120 and cut through traffic. See if that fixes it.

 

why wouldn't you put your new tires on the front and not the back?

 

one of the rims i have does not have any weights on it and its balanced

and why is that machine best of our se rims ?

 

because i oput new tires on the front like two months ago and they still good

 

ok so i went to balance them today and the guy told me that one of the rims has a slight bend in it. is that possible ? ii mean when the rim was in the back before i didn't make any vibration and now when its on the front it does .??

 

i say switch it bak. u should have put the new tires in the front to start wit. i think

 

Here is a link from discounttire.com, although I don't really agree with it. They say to put 2 new tires on the rear.

http://www.discounttire.com/dtcs/infoTiresRear.dos

 

That discount tire article you posted is right on the money. My brother is a computer technician at Michelin tire and I attended a driving course his company sponsored a few yrs back that addressed that exact issue. The course proved that its best to put new tires on the rear of your car whether fwd or rwd. We drove in rain and simulated snow conditions with the same results.

 

ive seen this before, this is true for turning above the limit of grip, but its not true in a straight line

when accelerating (FWD like in a max) the front is where the power goes and thats where you want maximum grip

same with breaking, the front wheels have more stopping power and weight on them, not the rear..

put new tires on the front

 

You put new tires on the rear b/c an oversteer (rear wheel skid) condition is harder to recover from than an understeer (front wheel skid) condition. Pretty much EVERY car is DESIGNED to understeer. The concept is; If you can see where you're going, there's still a chance you can do something to either stop in time. If you're going backwards, it's pretty much over.
Since the front tires already have more weight (and theoretically more traction) then you help the rear, which does nothing other than hold the car off the ground (in an FWD car).

 

why dont you just do the speed limit

 

I think you guys missed the point.
He put new rubber on the front like 2 months ago. How much wear could he possibly have done in 2 months?

If the tire guys said that his rim has a slight bend in it then it does. Take it to a rim repair shop and have them take a look at it. If you care that much. If not, drive slower. Just make sure to rotate your tires often as you will notice that if you keep the same set of tires on the front, they will wear faster. IIRC rotate every 12,000 miles. That's just due to the weight distrubition difference on our cars.

I wonder if you have done any suspension work to the car? Replaced any bushings with poly? Keep in mind, that the road itself is not perfect and this might transfer to your steering wheel.

 

There are 2 types of Wheel balancing. Dynamic and Static. Dynamic will balance both the sides of the wheel. Static will balance it in the center. Some places will do a static and put the weight on just the inside of the rim, which is bad. Static is for larger truck tires and such. However most shops do have a problem with putting the correct type of weight on the rim. If you have the wrong type the wheel can actually throw the weight. For instance stock 99 Maxima SE rims use a special FN weight, which many places dont even carry. THey just use a similar weight. The weights they use, an MC weight, can actually mess up the trim on the rim. As far as a bent rim theres only 2 ways that can happen. You hit a curb or someone when changing a tire messed it up! Some older types of tire removal devices can accidentally catch the rim and bend it. Most shops just bend it back enough that it dosent leak, leaving your rim looking like crap. Regardless, you should check the balance in the front.

 

Using the road force balancing actually places weight on the wheel and simulates being on the road during the balancing process. I've had the best luck with balancing while using this method. You can probably get a good balance using other methods if the technician spends time doing it right. Lots of things need to be factored into balance, like rotors, etc., so you may never get a perfect balance on old cars like ours.