Car Wheel Balancing

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

Does everyone else just drive around and not notice a vibrating wobbly steering wheel?

It's not that I don't notice, I just speed up or slow down until the problem goes away.

[flymo]

Originally Posted by Tiger 55

It's not that I don't notice, I just speed up or slow down until the problem goes away officer.

[punyXpress]

Originally Posted by -Ralph-

No I realise that, I just want to check if the dots are indeed in the right place.

It'll show the attitude of the ' fitter ' towards doing a proper job.

have you got alloys? are they balanced with 'sticky' wieghts or the hammer on type?
if they are sticky check they havent fallen off.
also check for stones in the tread of the tyre or caked on mud on the wheel.
if the wieghts are still there take your car to another garage, youll have to pay for it but the first garage cant get it right 1st time then dont expect them to the 2nd.

:

SORTED! Jacksons Ford in Henley in Arden have a guy called Dan that can only be described as a wheel balancing genius, and a Hunter GSP9700 Laser Balancing machine which he knows inside out. It checks out tyre shape & thickness, flexibility, heavy spots, wheel shape, everything. 15 quid a wheel, but the best 30 quid I've ever spent on the car, and they will match the price I paid for the tyres, so guess where I'll be going for the next two? He couldn't believe how far out of balance they were for a tyre which I had watched zero out on somebody else's balancing machine.

The car is smoother than me in the company of a young blonde

The tyre didn't have balancing dots BTW

so the problem was previouse crap tools and or operator, i've had problems in the past with tracking quick**** etc.

Originally Posted by bluefishman

so the problem was previouse crap tools and or operator, i've had problems in the past with tracking quick**** etc.

Yep, trouble is the last time I had tyres I needed three different places to get it sorted, even then they only got it nearly right and I had to rotate wheels around the car myself and play about with the position of the locking wheel nut until I found a smooth combination.

Kwik-Fit, National, Euromaster, all these places either seem to have crap fitter who doesn't know what buttons to press, or uncalibrated or crap machines.

Some cars seem to be more sensitive than others too. My wife's Seat Ibiza was done by the same fitter and machine that caused the problem on mine and her steel wheel with a 185/60/14 tyre is absolutely fine.

Most of them do look 20 years old, whereas this is the machine that was used today and the guy obviously knew his onions when it came to the physics of a spinning wheel and tyre. He was also the only person who has ever been able to explain to me why I suddenly get balancing problems when visiting my in-laws in France, but roll back off the ferry on the return trip and suddenly it's fine again.

Note the rolling road which checks tyre wall deformation, stiffness and contact patch, and the arm which usually takes the wheel measurements is a laser. There another laser that puts a red line on the wheel when it stops to show you exactly where the weight needs to go.

and why is it diff in France Ralph?


camber of the road?

Originally Posted by Quiff Wichard

camber of the road?

I understood it (kind of), but couldn't repeat it. Camber was one of the factors, but apparently some manufacturers produce slightly different tyres for import to the UK for RHD cars. It was to do with the way the tyre sidewall deforms when it's rolling and the shape/size of the contact patch being different with the different camber and different tyre, applies a toeing force to the tyre creating a phase shift in the various frequencies involved, creating the vibration.

Or something like that, my translation could be bollox.

Told you he knew his onions, try to get an explanation like that out of a YTS yob at Kwik-Fit!

[embee]

Think you've hit the nail on the head Ralph, an awful lot of places have junk machines with appropriate operators, it's treated as a money spinner not a wheel spinner (sic).

There's no substitute for knowledge and understanding, skill, care and attention to detail.

The guy who fits my bike tyres is very fussy, first time he fitted a rear to the SV he put the dot-to-valve as usual, but it needed a lot of weight, so he moved the tyre 180deg because he didn't want to put that much weight on a bike wheel. Obviously the wheel itself is out of balance. How many monkeys would bother to do that, I wonder?