07-19-2024, 08:22 AM
Wheel Balancing Continued
I'm a little OCD over this, but I found what appears to be a pretty decent follow-up tweak.
Tires are balanced out when they are brand new, but they tend to lose some rubber and maybe even balance themselves out a bit after a thousand miles or so. The problem here is that the weights that were initially added are static and unchanging.
It's nearly impossible to balance a wheel without first removing the wheel to a balancer to find the exact spot where the weights need to be added(I've tried), but after that it may not be necessary to remove the wheel again for a rebalance.
In my particular case I noticed a slight vibration at around maybe 60 MPH give or take that diminishes above 70 MPH, but if a wheel is moderately to severely imbalanced it may be noticeable at 40 MPH and only get worse at higher speeds.
Even a quarter ounce can make a noticeable difference. I kept getting this recurring feeling that something was a little off, and the other day I felt pretty sure that the front left was the culprit. I didn't even have a knife to pry off a weight, so I pulled it off with my hand - it was easier than I thought it would be.
The above was actually the finalizing of a process I started a couple weeks back based mostly on tire wear and loss of (rubber) weight where the static wheel weights remain static and unchanging which can potentially create a heavy spot where the initial wheel weights were added.
This procedure is mostly prompted by 'feel', so if the ride appears perfectly smooth with no vibration then it wouldn't make sense to change anything.
The tweak:
I started with the front left and moving in a CC direction removed the first quarter ounce weight I came to and repeated for the other three wheels. If any wheel has less than an ounce of weights you can save those for last and do the heavier weighted wheels first.
I would just remove a single weight at a time and drive for a while to see any difference: better/same/worse. In my case it was either the same or better. After a quarter ounce removed from each wheel you can go back and repeat the procedure except move CW around the wheel so you get the weight on the opposite side of the strip - can't do left/right because left on top will be right on bottom.
It's pretty systematic, but in my case I could feel that the front left needed another reduction which turned out to be the cherry on top.
The diameter of the wheels is so small with such rapid rotation that at higher speeds it's like riding on gyroscopes when the wheels are properly balanced. Typically front wheels off contributes to steering wheel vibration and with the rear wheels the seat might shake/vibrate a little.
I'm pretty happy with the results I got here, so I ended up writing about it.
I'm a little OCD over this, but I found what appears to be a pretty decent follow-up tweak.
Tires are balanced out when they are brand new, but they tend to lose some rubber and maybe even balance themselves out a bit after a thousand miles or so. The problem here is that the weights that were initially added are static and unchanging.
It's nearly impossible to balance a wheel without first removing the wheel to a balancer to find the exact spot where the weights need to be added(I've tried), but after that it may not be necessary to remove the wheel again for a rebalance.
In my particular case I noticed a slight vibration at around maybe 60 MPH give or take that diminishes above 70 MPH, but if a wheel is moderately to severely imbalanced it may be noticeable at 40 MPH and only get worse at higher speeds.
Even a quarter ounce can make a noticeable difference. I kept getting this recurring feeling that something was a little off, and the other day I felt pretty sure that the front left was the culprit. I didn't even have a knife to pry off a weight, so I pulled it off with my hand - it was easier than I thought it would be.
The above was actually the finalizing of a process I started a couple weeks back based mostly on tire wear and loss of (rubber) weight where the static wheel weights remain static and unchanging which can potentially create a heavy spot where the initial wheel weights were added.
This procedure is mostly prompted by 'feel', so if the ride appears perfectly smooth with no vibration then it wouldn't make sense to change anything.
The tweak:
I started with the front left and moving in a CC direction removed the first quarter ounce weight I came to and repeated for the other three wheels. If any wheel has less than an ounce of weights you can save those for last and do the heavier weighted wheels first.
I would just remove a single weight at a time and drive for a while to see any difference: better/same/worse. In my case it was either the same or better. After a quarter ounce removed from each wheel you can go back and repeat the procedure except move CW around the wheel so you get the weight on the opposite side of the strip - can't do left/right because left on top will be right on bottom.
It's pretty systematic, but in my case I could feel that the front left needed another reduction which turned out to be the cherry on top.
The diameter of the wheels is so small with such rapid rotation that at higher speeds it's like riding on gyroscopes when the wheels are properly balanced. Typically front wheels off contributes to steering wheel vibration and with the rear wheels the seat might shake/vibrate a little.
I'm pretty happy with the results I got here, so I ended up writing about it.
