I bought a set of rx7 rims and found this on the backside of the rim close to the face edge. What the heck is this??? It appears to be some sort of weight? There are two pieces on two rims, one on another and finally about 6 connected pieces on the last one? What is going on? Am I SOL here?

http://www.cardomain.com/ride/613813/4

 

looks like u may have a slightly bent wheel, and yes those are wheel weights.

 

never seen so many weights in one place. thats plenty enough to get you wondering

 

how is this going to effect my wheel balance? Is it driveable? The guy that sold it to me said it had no bends and was mint condition. This seems at least reason to leave him negative feedback. Man, I hate when I get the shim sham!!!

 

That's quite a few in one spot, but those are normal. They are there to balance the wheel.

When you get your wheels balanced, the tech can balance them two ways:

1) Adding weights to the lip of the wheels. Usually for OEM wheels.

2) Adding weights to the inside of the wheels, like in your pictures. This is the preferred method because the weights are hidden behind the spokes and not visible to people looking at your car.

I have them on the inside of my wheels too. No wheel is perfect from the factory.

 

if you take it to a wheel place they will let you know if they are bent pretty easily.

PS: ewuzh, the weights on the lip are for a steel wheel, sticky weights are for alloys or any non-steel wheel

 

So, this is normal? When I get my tires mounted and balanced, I'm not going to run into any problems right? So, am I just overacting because I'm not use to seeing the weights on the inside before?

 

Yeah thats normal, I just got oem rims off a altima put on my max, and they had to put those on as well to balance it, That is a lot tho in one spot!!

 

Maybe bent, but in all likelyhood the last person to get tires for those rims had some redneck noob do the tires, or got crappy tires (I should know, my dad got his FD3S and it has Kelly Chargers on it)

 

I have yet to actually weigh the rims to see how much it weighs. Don't know how much weight powdercoating adds. I heard that the FD rims came in different versions. One was 13.4 lbs(were prone to cracking), and I think the 16 lbs ones that were heavier but much stronger. Wonder why its powdercoated.... hmmm......

Anyways, thanks for the replies.

 

How big/heavy are the wheels. For large and heavy wheels that's normal from my experience.

 

They are 16s and about 14lbs.

 

sticky weights are normal for our maxima wheels with no outer lip but that looks like atleast 4-5 ounces in weights which is NOT normal. A near perfect wheel should balance out under 1.25 oz. All mine balance out to .75 or so which i think is pretty good and there is no vibration at all. Also one other thing, that looks like the wrong type of weight because they do produce for passenger cars and one type for trucks and suvs. One suggestion to you would be if you plan on keeping the wheel the way it is, put i on the passengers side rear so you would feel the vibration as much. Hope that helps.

 

sometimes it could be the tire throwin off the balance not just the rim.
but the rims should be ok.

 

agrees...

if there is a broken belt or belts it can throw off the tired bad. have a tire place run the rim alone on the balancer to see if its balance.

if it is...new tire

 

****ty tires might need that many weights, I had the same wheels need 3x as many weightson my old tires then the new tires I just bought

 

Well remember you balance the tire to the wheel. So you could have a warped tires or out of round tire that could cause the addition of all those weights. You also may have a bent wheel.

 

yeah i know a guy who went through all kinds of hell tryin to find out what was makin his car vibrate and ended up being a bent wheel

 

Take the wheel to a reputable shop and have the wheel balanced independtly of the tire. This will tell you where the light spot is on the wheel. Then have the tire balaced seperately. This way you can match up the light spot on the wheel to the heavy spot on the tire. By doing this you use less weights.