imported_loudsubz

or do they just stick the wheel on a machine that balances them that way?

Ive never had my wheels balanced so Im wondering if i have to take my car to get my winter steelies + tires mounted or if I can just take them over without my car

imported_GoldBadge

They stick it on a digital machine. It spins the tire and reads the imperfection in balance and translates it into grams so they know what to add.

I've only actually watched it once, but this is how i remember it working.

Nova_Dust

You just need to bring in your tire and wheel, that's all. It is done on a machine like Lee said.

The best way is to find out the high weight points of the tire, and the wheel and mount the tire in the opposite direction, this can minimize the amount of weight used.

imported_Bruce Fee

it's easy.. i balance my own winter tires... and i'm pretty useless at mechanical stuff usually. just tires and wheels.

zeeman

iTrader: (1)

yeah just take your wheels and tires somewhere and they will mount and balance them for u. Its easy and shouldn't take any more than an hour to do all four. Well it doesn't take me that long at least.

imported_BLKSHEEP

Allu u need it ur wheels. jus bring em to the shop u go to.

kwikb16a2

u spent 5Gs on a machine to balance ur tires??

imported_Bruce Fee

no, 10Gs. I got the deluxe model.

I know a mechanic with one in his garage. he did my first one and made me do the rest while he worked on something else. it's frigging simple. i was just worried about fxcking up my rubbers haha.

pretty casual. takes like 5 minutes/tire.

t_dot_porkchop

it MUST take more than 5 minutes or else the shop could not charge you $100 for balancing.

imported_BLKSHEEP

Actually it's the easiest things in the world. Prob the fastest way for them to make money in lil time. Easier than changing a tire.

imported_Bruce Fee

you MUST be taking it to a shop that only uses guys with one arm.

Balancing your tires makes basic masturbation look complicated.

Seriously, it's really easy. Maybe they charge so much cause they do a few other things or the machinery is hard to come by?

Cynikal.Mindset

who the hell charges 100bucks for balancing alone??? I never paid anything more than 20bucks

imported_BLKSHEEP

actually i kno a few places that charge 60-80 a pop. It's rediculious. Luckily I used to work at a shope so i get mine for free:P

imported_SIR99

first off it doesnt cost 100 dollars to do wheel balancing, and it only takes like 5 min each wheel all you have to worry about is hitting your fingers with the hammer when you are putting the weights on the rim....

B18C5er

I paid $60 when I got it done. Honestly, it does take only a few minutes each tire. They pop the wheel onto the machine, it spins, then stops, you then stick the weight onto it at the spot it tells you to (tire rotation will correspond to numbers on the machine to let you know where to put the weight) then that's it. Move onto the next wheel.

imported_Team Rukus

wheel balancing is done with the rim off the car and put on a machine that spins it and checked the balance of the tire and rim.
it will also tell you if the rim is bent aswell. they will put a weight on it to counterbalance the weight if the rim is bent a little.

i highly recommend doing a car alignment right after aswell because without it the wheel alignment will be a waste. because if the cars alignment is off even a little (you will not know it) but it will affect the wheels balance and therefore cause it to go off balance again.

Capo

sooooo to really answer your question, they can be done both ways. Having them done off the car is the easiest and cheapest way to do them but you still may find you have imbalances at each corner. The other way is balancing the wheels on the car which is the best way to do it but not many places use this way due to it being more work for them. The reason its better to do it this way is because your not just balancing the wheel/tire but the entire rotating assembly (brake rotor etc). The only real downside to this for the customer is that you have to get them all rebalanced when you go to rotate your tires.

imported_kIeRaN

60 bux to balance tires???????
i get mine done for free as well

chris_si98

what the **** are you talking about?

It's normally $10-15 a tire.

Notorious

I had mine done for $30 bucks all 4 tires in a small shop not to far from me, including installation.

They take your wheels and put them on a spinning machine take a digital read and insert little weights inbetween the rim/tire to balance it out.