humaras

I recent bought a new set of firestone tires. Well, after the first few weeks, I noticed that there was some wheel vibration around 70-75 mph, and I took it back to the firestone dealer (who I had to visit for the last three weeks for one thing or another with these tires). In any case, I had then rebalanced my tires...and now on three of the wheels there are 2 pieces of weights-- is that normal (such that there needs to be 2 pieces of weights there) or were they lazy and didn't want to take the first peice off and all...

I was reading someone else had this same thing...I don't see too often with wheels having two pieces of weights on them.

thanks for any info.

Brian =)

Remington

I'll spare you the Firestone comments. :-)
They may have run out of a certain weight and needed 2 lighter ones to make up for it. I personally have them use tape weights on the inside but only because I have aftermarket rims. If you don't care how it looks and there is no vibration, don't worry about it.

Shingles

Yup like Don said, it's normal... don't worry.

-SHing

humaras

With two peices of weights on the wheels looks a bit weird-- Shing, you have two pieces of weights on your wheel? Btw, where do you guys get your tires balanced?

Shingles

Well since on both of my cars I've got aftermarket rims, I'm using tape weight on them... heh, you should see the amount of weight they use on my rims... I am talking about a goo 4-5" long strip of tape weights. On my dad's minivan, there are occations where he gets more than 1 weight. What I usually do when I go in is to tell them to take off of the old weights and start fresh.

I use discount tires... but believe it or not, you'd think that balancing is a simple task... so shops do it better than others... there are 3 discount tires around me... only one of them can do it right... so I usually end up going there... since I ahve life time balance and rotation... I sometimes get it done 3-4 times a week.

-Shing

humaras

Thanks for the tip SHing...you live in california right? there are lot more discount tire stores out there. Here in NY, there are zilch...most of them are private places. I thought it' would have been more economical anyways to get the set of firestone since they were pretty highly praised by tirerack. In my case, when they balanced the wheels, they took the old weights off...but I guess this is just me, being the **** retentive person I am.

the funny thing is that these weights aren't right next to each other on the wheel, they are either a few inches away or directly across...hmmm...any ideas on that?

Shingles

No, in texas... can't afford cali.

Well, are there like Tires America or something or another? Or even NTB? I am sure you have a chained place out there... if there is, they offer life time balance and rotation for like a few extra bucks per tire. Get that, go in and tell them to dump all your old weights and start again. If you can, (this is not good practice and I'll go to hell for sharing) but you could take off your old wieghts and go back and tell them it fell off.....

It actually did fall off of my dads minivan once... we were driving around, all of a sudden car started to vib. crazy.

-Shing

humaras

That is a funny thought--and I might say that it is quite ingenious of you.
btw, how are the weights latched onto the wheels? do they neeed to take the tire off the rim before they can latch new weights on? how does that work exactly?
Well, we got firestone out here in nY and also sears auto center, but the price they charge for tires are EXPENSIVE!!!
In any case--how do I go about taking those weights off the tires? do I need to deflate the tires first?

Also, let me get this straight--you get your tires balanced that often?
wow!!

Shingles

They will have to remove the tire/rim off of your machine when you go get them balanced. The weights are cliped on there... all you have to to is pry them off. Not too hard. BTW you can usually haggle with them about those prices. I know cause once they wanted to charge me $80 to mount and balance tires on rims that I brought in... I was like WTF... ended up doing it for $45 for all 4. No need to deflat tires, they just pop off.

No I don't normally balance 3 times a week. But usually when I do take it in, it takes that many tries to get it right. BTW if you have new tires and they can't balance it right, it's possible that the tires are bad. I once bought a set of Dunlop GT Qualifiers for my CRX... tried literally balancing it 3-4 times and in store and another 2 times in another... just won't balance... finally we took a look at the tires while on the machine... the tires were out of round...

-Shing

humaras

thanks for the word there Shing.
I will look into that. For now, the tires are pretty good...and given that they are firestones--hopefully, the treads themselves won't peel off or anything.
But so far, they are pretty quiet, but the only complaint I had were the steering wheel vibrations at high speeds, which bothered me because my old set of yokohamas didn't do that even though it couldn't grip sh**t. In any case, I just thought the way they balanced sucked.

btw, what is the whole purpose of these weights? to stablize the wheel or what? that is something I have yet to get...

thanks again,

brian =)

FloMax

Your tire and wheel do not weigh the same along the circumference. As your speed increases, the little bit of weight difference in one area of the outside is compounded and thus causes a vibration. Imagine a cowboy and his lasso. If the lasso was the same weight all the way around the loop, except where someone had tied a fishing weight, then it would mess up the flow of his twirling. But, if he added three other weights equidistant from the first weight, then he would be able to twirl thee lasso with no side affects. It is the same with balancing tires. It is kinda a confusing thing to get. I am guessing that the whole cowboy example didn't help either.
Oh well.

humaras

I actually got that--you want the cicular shape to remain a cicular shape even in high revolutions (that is the wheel spinning at high speeds--thus the high revolutions). I assume then the little piece of weight makes everything round and nice and thus, prevent the nasty little annoying wheel vibs.

hmmm...quite interesting

Shingles

Well it really doesn't have much to do with shape more than the fact that you are trying to keep the weight the same. Your tires and rims arn't going to weigh equally through out... the weight is meant to equall the weight some what. Imagine trying to spin a frizbee on the tip of your fingers. If on edge of the frizbee is heavier, it would wobble. If it's perfectly weighted, it would be easier to spin.

hope that made sense.

-shing

brubenstein

I've bought tires from Costco several times and they've done a very good job of balancing them. Most of the places are not too old and the balancing machines aren't old beat up pieces of junk. I also like that they use torque wrenches, and not air guns, when putting the lug nuts on.
I think they charge around $9 a tire to mount, balance and replace the valve. If you get a set rebalance and rotating is free for as long as you own the tires. I don't recall what they charge just to balance.

max95q

iTrader: (10)

Because I a mplanning on takign my car in to get the tires balnced becuase I get that vibration in my steering wheel also. Before I take it in Should I fill the tires up with the correct amount of pressuree . also you know how sometimes the ppl when putting air in the tire its different when mounted and you end up having ot add air does this effect the Wieght of the tire when on your car thus giving the vibration feeling at high speeds?

humaras

I believe (please, if anyone like to correct me, feel free to)--that they pump the air out first and spin it flat...I could be wrong...

but it is sad that nowadays not a whole lot of places can balance a wheel properly...oh well, hopefully these babies can last a few years and I won't have to worry about this.

=)

shane

When tires are balanced,they have 35 lbs of air then balanced.The tires can have up to 4 weights on it,or some on both sides.