Wheel Balancing

Tyre Maintenance : Wheel Balancing

To keep the tread in constant contact with the road, the wheel and tyre have to be correctly balanced. If the vehicle was to be raised on a jack and the wheel spun by hand, an unbalanced wheel would always stop at the same point - with the heavier imbalance being of course at the bottom of the wheel.

On the road, wheel imbalance can actually lift the tyre from contact with the road creating vibration through the steering wheel, causing steering and braking problems. This vibration causes high-pressure stress in the steering, hub assemblies and suspension, resulting in excessive mechanical wear and high fuel consumption as well as tyre wear. Damage to the suspension, wheel bearings and steering components is unavoidable if the imbalance is left unattended.

Incorrect wheel balance is easily corrected by using a computerised electronic wheel balancer to measure the imbalance, and then adding small metal weights to even things up. It is essential that you have your wheels balanced whenever you replace a tyre or have a puncture repaired (alloy wheels require specially coated weights to avoid corrosion caused by chemical reaction between differing metals).