Recent content by Jlaa

@gsxr is pretty much gonna be driving MBs 85% of the time for the rest of his life. :D

That's sweet! I totally think you should get the 66.56mm Haweka collett with zero taper ---- just to see you still get any variability when balancing / rotating wheel 180*, and balancing again. I mean, you've gotten SO SO SO SO far already, what's another $900? We've literally spent YEARS...

Yeah that is fascinating. I am not nor was I ever in the automobile tire industry so I ask - what is a good value for tire conicity? I notice from this: https://www.tiretechnologyinternational.com/opinion/prediction-of-ply-steer-and-conicity.html that the auto industry at one time would mount...

Oh thats fascinating - thank you. Yeah, lateral force of wheel/tire assembly is not the same as lateral runout of the wheel, but I digress. FWIW, one shop I uses apparently does not have Straight Trak and the other shop that I use *does* have Straight Trak.

Thank you! And by "fixed" or "solved" what I really mean is "the vibration forces that I feel through the steering wheel has been reduced to a magnitude that is acceptable for me while driving my car. I enjoy my car now." For folks reading this in the future, its not really an binary "fixed /...

Oh that's a great point! Thanks! Using a cone on the back of the wheel/tire assembly on the balancing machine - this might engage the tapered part of the wheel center bore, so if the wheel center bore taper isn't 100% consistent and uniform around 360 degrees, then the wheel/tire assembly...

Thank you and totally agree re lazy folks in this race-to-the-bottom industry. BTW that Hunter feature is called “Smartweight”. You are right NEVER use it - it is terrible! A sham of massive proportions which has condemned countless unknowing motorists to a lifetime of vibration filled agony...

Thanks!!! It wasn't just that though - it was multiple issues - One bent wheel, one tire with too much non-uniformity (RMAed back to Tire Rack) and the balancing. I had to get through three all three issues to solve the vibrations! The balancing was just the last piece of the puzzle. That...

Finger Plate - a must!!! No front cone and No pressure cup. Now that I know what I'm looking at w.r.t balancing wheels, I know how totally screwed up the aftermarket wheel balancing / tire installation industry is! Its the wild west out there with folks front-coning or using the pressure...

Vibrations solved finally! The last step was the re-balance of all four wheels (that I verified all had great runout numbers) w tires mounted. The balancing shop: - Got down to 0.10oz of balance, not just the usual 0.25oz - BACK Coned the balancer - Used a SHALLOW angle collet at the back -...

As a corollary, here is the car hub from a Porsche 911 of 1990s vintage. The car hub itself is not a continuous circle ---- the car's hub has three flanges .... and the wheel center bore itself is a continuous 360 degree circle. Why does Porsche do this --- is it the same reason as above with...

Thanks guys. The reason I postulate that the tabs might make aftermarket balancing worse is because aftermarket wheel balancing machines) use cones that look like this: That cone is tapered and allows the aftermarket wheel balancing machine operator to balance wheel/tire assemblies from...

Thanks for reading. Indeed those wheels are OE MB Hubcentric and the circle formed by the edges of those 5 tabs are 66.6mm and the wheels fit tightly against the car’s hub. Just curious about the reasons for the tabs as I postulate their existence makes aftermarket balancing more fussy.

Hi gang, please see the backside of these wheels. These are OE Mercedes wheels - forged for Mercedes by Fuchs (you can see the Fuchs logo). These were original equipment on w220 S600s. These are hubcentric for MB 66.6mm hubs. My question is this - why do these wheels have these tabs in the...

Progress --- I had the tires dismounted from the wheels. I brought the wheels home and I measured the runout of all four wheels with my dial gauge. They actually look pretty good -- you guys agree? Note the units are in mm. 0.01mm equals 0.394 thousandths of an inch. This shop is the...