Monotaur

Well, I had my tires balanced the other day and it reduced the shimmy, but not by much... still trying to get the dealership to duplicate the issue...

But, today something caught my eye on my driver's side wheel - there was a 6" piece of duct tape stuck to the inside of the wheel (my wheels are dirty and I've been pretty busy recently, so I didn't notice this until today). I find it highly unlikely that this would have been picked up as road debris, and it's placement (over those 'weighty' *****) on the wheel leads me to believe that it might have been placed there recently by the shop who balanced the wheels?

Now, what would be the best way to remove this? The edges are coming up, so should I just carefully peel it up or will this damage the wheel's finish? I don't know if I can prove that the shop did this (I'm not even sure ??? ), so I"m not sure what to do.

Thanks!

CanadianMoFo

Pulling it off won't damage the finish. Not sure why they would put it on. Unless they were worried that the wheel weight was going to come off. I'd take it off and not worry about it. I usually put tape on the inside of my summer wheels so I know what location they came off. I leave it on all winter without any problems removing it in the summer when they go back on.

CM

Monotaur

Thanks, I'll peel it up tomorrow in the daylight (when I can see ).

lightonthehill

And if the duct tape leaves any residue, most any (non-gritty) cleanser would remove it. I usually use alcohol to remove duct tape goo from metallic surfaces. Just always 'work' it with a light touch, so as to not abrade the finish.

Smoke_Screen

Speaking of tires, is it me, or are the factory rubbers a little less than grippy enough to handle the torque put out by that 3.5L ? Mine are barely at 8,000 miles and I want to replace them with something that doesn't lose traction every time I get a little pedal heavy...

Just wondering if others have felt this way. I imagine it's a problem in the north where the snow always leaves the roads wet.

Tek-Niq

iTrader: (3)

even on dry roads, I creep up abit and then press the pedal some more so I can get to speed and it still spins the tires, no alittle but a strip if you deside to punch it.

myfirstsix

they probably put the tape to hold the stick on weights. when i hang out with an road race team they did that all the time. weights were always popping off.hope that helps

lightonthehill

The slipping of tires under acceleration is primarily a function of the hardness of the rubber used to make the tread. It only makes sense that the softer rubber required for grippier tires would not last as long as the harder rubber used in less-grippy tires. This is an accepted fact in the world of tires.

Of course, if one is aggressive enough to spin the tires frequently, then one will pay the price in having to look for replacement tires more often.

Nissan's dilemna is where to compromise. They decided those folks who tend to be heavy on the gas should not take precedence over the larger majority who tend to drive somewhat less agressively. As a result, Nissan chose tires that, under careful use, can give up to 40K (sometimes more) miles. The softer rubber of very grippy tires seldom lasts more than 30 to 35K (sometimes less).

This is a situation where compromise was unavoidable, and I feel a reasonable one was made.

Smoke_Screen

Lighton,

I totally understand the reasoning, and the trade-off you make between tire wear and handling. I went through a few sets of yokohama's on my Z24 (about 1 set a year) but I never had to worry about sliding in the rain, or at stop lights. I fully realize that more grip=less life.

I guess it's just my opinion that for a car with such relatively high torque that a stickier tire would be in order. I'm not punching it to the floor from a dead stop, just trying to give a little juice. In the rain even under mildly quick response/acceleration I have spun the tires for seconds at a time, hoping they'll 'catch' and get me some traction.

I don't drive the max like I did my Z24, but I don't drive like grandma either (no offense to the elderly), and I just wish the tires (now fairly broken in at 8,000 miles) were more balanced with the car's power.

Monotaur

Sorry to dig up such an old thread, but I finally got around to removing the tape from the wheels... for most of the wheels, it was just a 2" strip behind one of the spokes in the wheels; however, for one of the wheels they used like a 6" piece that stuck out pretty badly. They came off very easily (even though my hands were wet), but as I pulled them off I could feel the weights 'give' a little. Sure enough, all of the added weights on the wheels 'wiggle' just a bit when I push on them, it's like they just glued them on or something... is this normal? I know we don't have steel rims with little lips on them for the normal weights, but I would have thought that there would be a better system for attaching weights to aluminum wheels than just glue & duct tape?

Should I not have removed the tape?

Thanks

Tvetti

Mono, use mallet and try to tap on those weights gently. those weights have glue on the back and they generally hold good on the wheels.