Tire Balance Machine out of SPEC?

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charbaby

charbaby

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May 25, 2005
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ROCHESTER, NY
In June, I had my new Cooper CS4's installed at Walmart. In July, I put in new front L&R Lower Control Arms(Dorman) as the others were very sloppy along with a 4 wheel alignment. Now, I notice the tires are out of balance.

I did bring the car back to W*M to have them rebalance the tires again at the beginning of this month/August...same thing, still out of balance!

Maybe it's the control arms?
___________________________________________________________________

BTW, I also brought in one tire from my wifes car(leaking) for a flat repair in which they remove the tire from the wheel to fix it. Now, this tire too is out of balance and it was fine prior to taking it to W*M. Yes, they actually did rebalance this tires as the led weight is new and in a different spot on the wheel.

I've been having W*M install my tires for quite some time and have had excellent success. I may need to call the store mgr and have them check their machine as I think that they should have the tire balance machine calibrated on a regular basis.
 
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When the calibration drifts on those it's the AMPLITUDE of how much weight to apply. So if it says put an ounce on you may need only .75 or 1.25. A careful tech will re-spin a tire after putting weights on to make sure he gets all zeroes. Even if it's out of whack, if it shows zeroes your tire is balanced.

If you have a problem tire, be polite and mention it. You could have a bent rim or an egg shaped tire and they'll see it wobble on the balancer. It could be them, it could be you.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
How are you determining the tires are out of balance.

My guess is Walmart has a contract to have the machines checked every so many months.
Originally Posted By: eljefino
When the calibration drifts on those it's the AMPLITUDE of how much weight to apply. So if it says put an ounce on you may need only .75 or 1.25. A careful tech will re-spin a tire after putting weights on to make sure he gets all zeroes. Even if it's out of whack, if it shows zeroes your tire is balanced.

If you have a problem tire, be polite and mention it. You could have a bent rim or an egg shaped tire and they'll see it wobble on the balancer. It could be them, it could be you.


My posts & replys are usually long so, here goes!

Yes, I will certainly be polite/professional when dealing with folks at W*M. I've been dealing with them for some time and have a good relationship with their employees/Mgr.

Well, not that the wheels were very expensive($100 each in 2004) but I purchaced my wheels(RAGE Motif) from DTD several years ago w/tires(G/Y Eagle LS) all "Brand New"! And I have never had the wheels damaged, no scuffs, scratches or dings. NOW, could my wheels have been bad(not true from the beginning)? I guess so! Since I have had to have the G/Y Eagle's balanced now & again but, not continously!

Could it be the new front lower control arms(L&R)? I did the install and they went in like a dream.

Also, I move the wheels to all 4 positions on the cars and, I get a viberation at my "sweet spot" of driving(~60-65 mph) no matter where the tires are positioned on the car(front, back, X-cross, side/side).

The viberation starts at just over 60mph but, will disapear when driving faster(near 80mph). And there is NO vibe below 60 mph at all! No radial pull, no funny business, just nice! The vibes occure at a slightly different MPH(within 1-2 mph) depending on the rotation of the tires.

These CS4 were just made. The MFG date IIRC, is 1813 this year, all 4 being the same. Now, could all 4 CS4's be out of round from the factory? I guess so!

But, as I mentioned, I brought in one(1) tire/wheel from my wife's car to W*M for a flat repair. The tire didn't have any vibe on the front of my wife's car prior, and now it too has a mild shimmy at hiwy speeds(I drive her car regularly). But, it's only one(1) tire not 4 tires.

Please keep the comments coming and keep asking questions
smile.gif
I really want to narrow down my issue and I appriceate the help.

I may resort to taking the wheels/tires to a place that has the ROAD FORCE BALANCE Machine, just to find out what the problem may be.

I mean, could it have been my "brand new" wheels all these years?
 
Originally Posted By: Chris142
Try a different walmart. Its not like they are hard to find lol.


No, but only 2 of the 4 W*M's in my driving area have the service bays for tires/oil & filter, batteries etc.
 
When I had my tires balanced at Walmart, I noticed that their balancer (older coats model IIRC) was only displaying values for one side (inner side of the wheel). I don't think this is the correct term, but normally, on most Hunter and John Bean balancers, you'll see two values displayed.

Afterwards, I had the tires rebalanced at Americas Tire (which too, is terrible at balancing) and the balance was shown to be off.
 
It is possible that the tires are defective. If they keep rebalancing them but you notice a problem, have the manager ride along with you for 5-10 minutes so he can see for himself.
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
every few months is too long


I was really trying to point out they probably have a contract and a schedule, not sure of the exact timing however.
 
have them roadforce balanced somewhere.
explain you have having vibration issues.

they should be able to tell you quite abit about your tires and rims.

ask for a printout.
 
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A couple of thoughts:

If you rotated tires and didn't notice a difference, then it is unlikely that it is tires.

Oh, and I want to point out that "balance" and "out of round" are 2 separate things. You can have an "out of round" tire and wheel assembly that is perfectly balanced.

So that leads me back to the repairs. Lower control arm? Is it possible that the CV joints are bad and that's the vibration you are feeling?
 
Originally Posted By: CapriRacer
A couple of thoughts:

If you rotated tires and didn't notice a difference, then it is unlikely that it is tires.

Oh, and I want to point out that "balance" and "out of round" are 2 separate things. You can have an "out of round" tire and wheel assembly that is perfectly balanced.

So that leads me back to the repairs. Lower control arm? Is it possible that the CV joints are bad and that's the vibration you are feeling?


I am ruling out the CV Joints as there are no rips in the boots, no grease being slung from that area, no spots on the floor and ZERO noise coming from the joints in turns. Nice and quiet!

^^^This(I would think) would have been found during my JUNE NY State Inpsection. I mean, these guys really ripped my car apart(removing all 4 tires) and spent lots of time looking for something to get extra money out of me. They lost money on this one for the $21 Inspection fee. The control arms/ball joints were removed from the NY State Inspection many years ago(a bad thing IMHO)

It does make me wonder about the tires since they are Brand New this past JUNE, and the Control Arms in JULY with another TIRE REBALANCE in AUGUST.

My previous tires on these wheels(17" for summer ONLY) were G/Y Eagle LS that I bought from DTD with the wheels(RAGE MOTIF) as a PKG. Though I did have some issues with the tire balancing(as I usually have with G/Y tires) but, we were able to balance the tires each time they became unbalanced(about every other year/summer)...I mean, I have to have my wife's G/Y ACTs rebalanced once/year on her Lexus(OE wheels). I just figured it's a G/Y thing.

But, since installing the Cooper CS4's in late JUNE(DTD July 4th promo), there wasn't any noticable vibration on the hiwy til I installed the lower control arms in JULY. After removing the 9 year old OE control arms/ball joint assembly, the ball joints were moving like a video game joy sticks, possibly hiding the viberations from the beginning.

Now that the new control arms are installed(nice and solid/tight) and a complete 4 whl align, I feel the vibe at my 60-65 MPH sweet spot of driving even after the rebalance.

Could it be the control arms?
Could it be the RAGE Wheels?
Could it be the Cooper CS4's?
Could it be something else completly?

I've just had our NY State Inspection in June and only the control arem were brought to my attention. I asked about everything else(which would have FAILED BTW!)
 
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You are just overthinking this with not enough information.

You need information to narrow it down.

A road force balance will rule out or confirm its the tires and/or wheels

to the point that people cant just point fingers back and forth anymore.

I've had that conversation before went something like this

tire guy: well its not the tires they been balanced up.

suspension guy: nope nothing wrong here.

me: wth its bouncing all over something is still wrong.
 
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My local SEARS has the Hunter Road Force Balance Machine. I will give it a go and take it from there!

Thanks,
CB
 
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Originally Posted By: Char Baby
My local SEARS has the Hunter Road Force Balance Machine. I will give it a go and take it from there!

Thanks,
CB


just make sure you talk to the guy working on your car if possible. Tell him you are having a vibration issue and would like a printout


Might make them take more care since its a "problem" vehicle.
 
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Originally Posted By: Char Baby
My local SEARS has the Hunter Road Force Balance Machine. I will give it a go and take it from there!
Find out if they have a tech who is well trained to run that machine. Any tire buster can do an ordinary balance job on the Road Force balancer, but the tech who does the road force job needs additional training.
 
Originally Posted By: Ken2
Originally Posted By: Char Baby
My local SEARS has the Hunter Road Force Balance Machine. I will give it a go and take it from there!
Find out if they have a tech who is well trained to run that machine. Any tire buster can do an ordinary balance job on the Road Force balancer, but the tech who does the road force job needs additional training.


Yes they do and they gave me his name so that I can aske for him specificly. I just talked to them[SEARS] and I will bring the car in when it's convienient.
 
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