5 grams is very little. That's what I see with expensive road tires such as my Pirelli P7 on my SAAB.
If they start from scratch even if you have to add quite a bit of weights if it runs great afterwards no issue.
On my Blazer i have NOKIAN M&S which took some 30 - 35 grams per wheel.
Update on the tire situation. Pep boys got the new order in and installed a replacement set since the other set was asking for too much weight.
But 'm still experiencing a balance problem with highway wobble. Outside is clean, no weights added to the outside at my request, and I asked for sticky weights as a preference.
Looking at the inside, it's horrible. I'm not sure if you should be stacking sticky weights like this. I didn't mean sticky weights exclusively. I'm not sure if this Pep Boys location really knows what they're doing.
My driver side front doesn't even have any weight on it! Is the balance really that prefect already with 0 weight?
That is very well possible. A wheel which needs that much weights added, either the guy has not set up his balancing machine properly for aluminium wheels and location of the weights or there is something wrong with that rim.
They should really get the tire off, remove all the weights and run the rim alone on the machine. Then put the tire on and index it and run it again.
It is very important to set up the machine properly. Usually on these balancers you have to let the machine know the diameter and the two positions where you can put weights on. If they mess up diameter but most of the time they mess up location in an axial way which has them put so much weight on. I can see already 90 grams (3 oz.) which is weird.
The balance can be perfect with some 5 - 10 grams (0.6 to 0.3 oz). Seems about right. With my blazer I usually see about 15 - 30 grams max (0.5 to 1 oz). Some take less than 10 one needed about 35 grams, just over 1 oz.
I am absolutely done with this nonsense. They re-balanced them a 5th time, and still didn't do it right.
They stacked weights right in the place where it's rubbing against the brake caliper and some have peeled off already.
What a #@$%ing joke this has become.
Jeezus that sucks, f’ing idiots. Sorry to hear about your troubles with this. I’m guessing it’s way too late to get your money back. Lesson for all, don’t go to “cheapo” tire places and choose somewhere thats got real (older, experienced) techs who know what the hell they’re doing
What a cluster. Ya, find an independent shop with a good reputation and more old fat bald guys (present company excluded of course). Better yet if they do tire trueing or road force balancing because then they are a more advanced shop. Look at Yelp and Google reviews as a starting point then ask around. Another good input would be the local sports car clubs (ex: Corvette club), those dudes are picky and go fast. I found the best guy in town 35 years ago when I drove a Porsche.
With regards to the tires that you are currently working with, someone needs to measure the lateral and radial runout of the tire mounted on the rim to see if that's the issue. If so then is it the rim or the tire. I would also have them take the one with the most weight, rotate the tire 180 and see if the weight follows the tire. If so then those tires are a mess. You can do runout with a roller and gauge or you can just hand spin it on the machine and look at the tread surface. If you don't know what your looking for have them do this with any good passenger car tire (like Michelin) that they just balanced with a small weight. Watch for the tread surface wiggling side to side or hopping up and down. Then look at one of yours. All the weight in the world cannot compensate for a severely out of round tire. If those Coppers have a satisfaction warranty and you have found a good shop, then maybe you should just start over. If your trying to save some pennies then order highly rated tires on Tire Rack and use one of their approved mounting dealers with a flate rate.
Ya, find an independent shop with a good reputation and more old fat bald guys (present company excluded of course).
I'm looking around for someone who can give me a more in-depth analysis on this problem. There's a place close to me in Minneola, Florida call Palm Tire & Automotive. I've seen their ads at one of my local movie theaters and thought maybe they might be worth a try someday.
Any of you Central Florida guys familiar with them? I talked to one of them on the phone, and the guy on the other end said they're a family owned company.
With regards to the tires that you are currently working with, someone needs to measure the lateral and radial runout of the tire mounted on the rim to see if that's the issue.
Originally Posted by christine_208
Have you been going back to the same shop? I'd suggest try to get them balanced at some other place, at least to get a "second opinion." And someone asked earlier if the rims were perhaps shot and if they could be balanced at least in so much to find out how out of balance they are.."
Yeah, I've been going to another location I trust more to get a second opinion.
This is the new set of tires I'm trying to get balanced correctly. https://us.coopertire.com/tires/evolution-ht
I'm on the second set right now, because the first set were very out of round. They checked all the wheel individually, and none of them are bent or out of round.
The techs at this second Pep Boys location said the front wheels are balanced well, but they still had trouble balancing the rear. They wouldn't give me a direct answer if the tires are out of round too.
This is what they put on the rear passenger. I still think it's too much weight, no? The other wheels just have rows and rows of sticky weights.
I'm actually really pissed off that all the old adhesive is still stuck on there from all the previous attempts. They've created work for me the next time I go to detail these rims.
I was also told by the Manager at this second location that sometimes tires just don't take to a particular vehicle. I'm beginning to think that may be the case with these Cooper Evolutions.
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I took these in to get balanced Monday. Because I had just done suspension work on this Blazer, the tech had a bunch of questions for me about what would be causing the vibration.
I told them both upper control arms were replaced with factory-pressed bushings, the passenger lower control arms had it's bushings replaced, and I left the driver side lower control arm alone.
They asked if I had tightened the lower control arm down while it had the vehicle's weight on it. I don't remember, but at the think I thought that didn't matter, so good change I tightened the control arm down with no weight on it at all.
I didn't realize how important that is until they told me tightening the bolt down should be done while the vehicle has it's weight on it. That afternoon I jacked it back up and re-adjusted the lower control arm.
I also took this time to replace the sway bar links too with a set of ACDelco links I bought a few days earlier, just been waiting until I got underneath it again.
Remember that Detroit Axle kit I mention here previously I said had poor quality parts in it? Yeah that one. The kit came with sway bar links, but it was missing a washer, so I only installed the passenger side link.
While installing the ACDelco links, I noticed I can tighten these down a lot more than I have been. So I went all the way I could on both side making sure there's no play.
So after re-adjusting the passenger lower control arm and the sway bar links, I did another test drive, and the front end felt a lot more stable. So I am definitely at fault for that.
Tires still seem like they have way too much weight to be normal.
08-08-2020, 10:39 AM
