Balance rear wheels - yes or no?

[sgtBerbatov]

TooMany2cvs said:

Fastpedeller said:

Yes - rotation parts need balancing. This is also the case for caravans. When I towed mine it vibrated the whole car - It was difficult to find someone prepared to balance the 'van wheels - they just said "they're small so don't need balancing" and other such drivel. Eventually got someone to do it - and vibration ceased.

What speed were you towing at...?

Out-of-balance doesn't really start showing up until north of 70mph - unless they're WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out.

The Corolla I have would start shaking like a vibrator at 45mph, turned out none of the tyres were balanced at all.

[TooMany2cvs]

sgtBerbatov said:

TooMany2cvs said:

Fastpedeller said:

Yes - rotation parts need balancing. This is also the case for caravans. When I towed mine it vibrated the whole car - It was difficult to find someone prepared to balance the 'van wheels - they just said "they're small so don't need balancing" and other such drivel. Eventually got someone to do it - and vibration ceased.

What speed were you towing at...?

Out-of-balance doesn't really start showing up until north of 70mph - unless they're WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out.

The Corolla I have would start shaking like a vibrator at 45mph, turned out none of the tyres were balanced at all.

Neither set on the ZX are balanced using weights. The summers (2 x Firestone, 2 x Avon) were quite bad above about 75 - the dynabeads have brought that down to acceptable below about 85. The winters (Nokian) are OK below about 80, without anything.

I've never, ever bothered balancing on 2cvs (always Mich).

[MDMA .]

Dog Star said:

Blanchimont said:

I suspect he's got tracking and wheel balancing mixed up.

He won't have; I think he's just "old skool".

Called st where i work.

[Pica-Pica]

I have always had all wheels balanced at tyre change, no tyre shop or garage has ever suggested I should not, they have balanced and put new valves in at each tyre change. (That was with standard valves, not TPMS).
I have never experienced wheel vibration.

[Turkish91]

I’ve never understood people who don’t balance rears. It takes an additional 2 or 3 mins at most.

[dannyDC2]

For the record my drift car has some horribly bent rear wheels. Think 50p piece. Tyres get changed that often that I usually tell the the fitter not to bother balancing them. Never noticed any vibrations on track or on the road so I'm led to agree with the old man!

[anonymous-user]

Dog Star said:

The usual 70mph.

I know it's the balancing - I'll go down later and just ask him to do them, I just wanted to confirm that I'm not alone in believing they need doing.

Yes sounds like balancing, but just check the tyres are round... I know that sounds stupid, but if tyres are not stored correctly you can end up with a slightly oval tyre and that will have the same effect.

[xjay1337]

sgtBerbatov said:

O He got it down to 5g of weight on the one side of the tyre, and he was adding bits off and taking them off, he just looked like he couldn't be bothered so started to take the wheel of the balancer. I asked him what he was doing, and he said they were balanced. I told him they weren't and that it was missing 5g off.

Generally most tyre shops tend to balance to +/- 5g . So probably would have been fine.

[Fastpedeller]

TooMany2cvs said:

Fastpedeller said:

Yes - rotation parts need balancing. This is also the case for caravans. When I towed mine it vibrated the whole car - It was difficult to find someone prepared to balance the 'van wheels - they just said "they're small so don't need balancing" and other such drivel. Eventually got someone to do it - and vibration ceased.

What speed were you towing at...?

Out-of-balance doesn't really start showing up until north of 70mph - unless they're WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY out.

was happening at about 55 IIRC. Thing is the better balanced rotating parts are, the smoother they work - whether it's noticeable may be important to some but not others, but they'll still work better if they're balanced.