Are the Wheels on Your Car Still in Balance?

As you may know, when you last purchased a brand-new set of tyres, they were quite expensive. Consequently, you will want them to last as long as possible so that you can manage your annual motoring budget as efficiently as you can. Certainly, you will want to keep the tyres in good condition, look out for any imperfections and ensure that they are correctly filled with air, but you can go much further if you focus on the wheels themselves. What should you be looking out for?

Wheel Balancing

When you first bought those new tyres, the fitter would have spent a lot of time to make sure that they were properly attached to each wheel. To do this, they would use a special machine that would reveal any imbalance and allow them to make alterations to the combination itself.

Matching the Tyre

Whenever a tyre is fitted to a wheel for the first time, it will almost inevitably be out of balance. This is due to imperfections in the construction of the tyre, where the tread was added or where the plies come together. While these imbalances may be minute, they can nevertheless cause an issue when the car is being driven at speed. Unless the wheel and tyre 'match,' the combination will not roll together as one and will tend to vibrate instead. This vibration may not be very noticeable but it is far from ideal and, unless corrected, it will cause excessive tyre wear.

Balance Compensation

This is why the fitter will add a small weight to strategic locations around the wheel to compensate for an imbalance on the opposite side. These weights are made from lead squares that have an adhesive on one side, and they are carefully taped to the wheel in the exact location. The fitter is able to determine where to place these weights once the wheel and tyre combination has been mounted on the machine, spun up to a high-speed and tested.

Recheck Needed

This test is great when the tyres are new, but you will need to go back to the fitter on occasion to make sure that the wheel and tyre are still in balance. The situation may change as each tyre wears down, and sometimes, the lead weight itself may become dislodged.

Over to You

If you haven't yet done so, schedule a visit to your service station so that they can rebalance your wheels and help you keep your tyres in good condition.

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