Balancing Wheels - All information you need

Wheel balancing and Wheel Alignment are different services but are usually confused

Wheel balancing and Wheel Alignment are different services but are usually confused. Both of these are necessary to increase the life and performance of your tyres. Wheel balancing should be done frequently, whereas a wheel alignment is not as frequent as necessary.

The Importance of Wheel Balancing:

Wheels lose balance over time, which means that wheel balancing is necessary to restore proper balance. This process is carried out to ensure that all your tyres are balanced with the weight of the wheel to ensure smooth running of each tyre. When your tyres have an imbalance, the steering wheel will rock back and forth as you drive at a certain speed. When you notice this happening you should contact a tyre expert to solve the issue, as driving with unbalanced tyres can be very dangerous.

It is important that all your tyres are balanced; otherwise, when you travel at certain speeds you will begin to feel vibrations and this is very dangerous for the driver and passengers in the car. These vibrations also result in stress being created in the vehicle’s lower ball joints, axles, and other essential parts. This increased stress on these parts will lead to them wearing at a faster rate and will mean you will have to replace these parts a lot sooner than you would have had to with balanced tyres.

When is wheel balancing required?

When you get any new tyre(s).

A weight that used to be on the rim falls off.

Your steering wheels vibrate at high speed, which usually occurs when the front wheels have an imbalance.

The floorboard and your seats vibrate at high speeds, usually, if there is an imbalance is in the rear wheels.

When you see the wear pattern on the tyres scalloped or cupped.

Wheel balance is recommended after every 5,000 to 10,000 km of running.

What will happen if you ignore wheel balancing?

You need a new set of tyres, due to abnormal scalloping or cupping on the surface of the tyre.

It imposes uneven pressures on tyre treads and patterns, which lead to uneven wear and hot spots.

It might stress the bearing and suspension of your car, which can result in a cumulative loss if it is initially overlooked.

Restoring the balance: Wheel balance is checked on a wheel balancing machine that can sense as little as a weight difference of 7 grams around the wheel.

Some might say why worry about such an insignificant mass on a wheel weighing many kilos?

Well, that tiny amount of weight travels very fast around the axle; hundreds of times a minute that creates enough momentum to cause vibrations. The wobble really adds up by multiplying it by 4 wheels.

Standard Procedures: 

Tyre and wheel removal.

Mounting each wheel on a state of art balancing machine.

Spinning each wheel to make sure the weight of the wheel and tyre are balanced evenly around the axle

Detecting and locating any imbalance both static and dynamic.

Attaching a lead weight on the opposite side of the tyre to compensate for weight differences

Remounting tires and wheels.