On the car wheel balancing.

[shithotfast]

Anyone know where they still do on the car wheel balancing? It was a thing years ago. It balances the wheel tyre disc driveshaft all as one whilst the road wheel is still fittted but no one seems to have even heard of it now.

Based on south coast so near Portsmouth would be great if anyone knows. Thanks.

[Chris32345]

Curious as to why you need to do this nowadays most parts are usuall made to a far higher standard the. Years ago so should be fairly well balanced now?

[finishing touch]

If you swop wheels round to even up wear then you defeat the object, or simply get a puncture.
You would need to match mark a wheel stud to a hole in the wheel.

The most weight discrepancy will be in the tyre anyway.

Paul G


Just thought; what about LSD's, 4x4's

Edited by finishing touch on Monday 29th July 22:22

[Coilspring]

The only people I know that make/sell on car balancers (if they still do) is/was hoffman. Google them, contact them, see if they have a customer in your area with 1.

But the only places I have ever seen them in the UK, was at Volvo dealerships (in the 80's and 90's. So try an old established Volvo dealer too?

But why ?

[GreenV8S]

sthotfast said:

no one seems to have even heard of it now.

That tells you how useful they aren't.

[shithotfast]

So the reason I want to find one again is that I get slight vibration at certain speeds, rather than it being vibration free at all speeds. When you balance the entire drive train you dont get any vibration at any speeds. it isnt used at the standard tyre places as it took a lot longer to set up each wheel, and needed a more experienced operator. None of that works at places like quickfit. Yes you need to mark the wheel position if you take the wheel off, but I cant rotate the wheels anyway as they are directional tyres and the rear tyres are wider than the fronts anyway.

I just like the car to drive vibration free. This older method achieved that, the wheel only balance gets you an "ok" result only, and most people are happy with "ok".

[anonymous-user]

Christchurch Tyre Company used to have a decent sit-on on-car balancer, not sure if they still have it though.

It did used to balance the wheels on an old car of mine better than anywhere else could do it.

[xjay1337]

sthotfast said:

So the reason I want to find one again is that I get slight vibration at certain speeds, rather than it being vibration free at all speeds. When you balance the entire drive train you dont get any vibration at any speeds. it isnt used at the standard tyre places as it took a lot longer to set up each wheel, and needed a more experienced operator. None of that works at places like quickfit. Yes you need to mark the wheel position if you take the wheel off, but I cant rotate the wheels anyway as they are directional tyres and the rear tyres are wider than the fronts anyway.

I just like the car to drive vibration free. This older method achieved that, the wheel only balance gets you an "ok" result only, and most people are happy with "ok".

I have zero vibration on either of our 3 cars which all are balanced in the "normal" way..

[cologne2792]

xjay1337 said:

sthotfast said:

So the reason I want to find one again is that I get slight vibration at certain speeds, rather than it being vibration free at all speeds. When you balance the entire drive train you dont get any vibration at any speeds. it isnt used at the standard tyre places as it took a lot longer to set up each wheel, and needed a more experienced operator. None of that works at places like quickfit. Yes you need to mark the wheel position if you take the wheel off, but I cant rotate the wheels anyway as they are directional tyres and the rear tyres are wider than the fronts anyway.

I just like the car to drive vibration free. This older method achieved that, the wheel only balance gets you an "ok" result only, and most people are happy with "ok".

I have zero vibration on either of our 3 cars which all are balanced in the "normal" way..

It's a leftover from my younger days.
When I used to drive three litre Capris balancing the wheels on the car was the best way to rid it of it odd vibrations.
The suspension and tech were very old and probably not that well engineered.
Balancing on the car sorted it over a wider variety of load situations and ultimately made it feel much happier.
Probably best not to dynamically balance one rear wheel if you have LSD though...
Tech and tolerances have moved on a lot since then and it isn't really a problem anymore.
Depends what age of car you're driving.

[shithotfast]

Yes it's mainly for my older cars. Pre abs. Pre limited slip. In fact pre everything. Plus wire wheels and cross-ply tyres.

[xjay1337]

I don't think any car since the 80s required "on the car" balancing.

Certainly nothing I've driven has needed it !