Back in January i had all four wheels balanced, as i was getting steering wheel wobble, all was then fine.In September, on the front had new tyres fitted (had newish tyres on the back already) and all was fine.Though in the last month or so been getting steering wheel wobble again at about 75 upwards really annoying so today i had enough and popped back into the garage (protyre, has a good reputation all work was done here)

Guess what all four wheels out of balance :eek: this seems strange to me and not just a little bit out either, fronts needed 20g and 25g, back 5g and a massive 45g !!!

The one that needed 45g probaly lost a weight but why are the other's all out? Did they not balance them right to start with? Is this down to tyre wear/ though cant see it only done 4k on the new tyres. Just how often should you have your wheels balanced? The garage did'nt charge me which i thought was very fair of them, though has i drove up the road ........yep a weight came flying off so maybe some others fell off before? I carried on driving and hit the motorway and got up to speed no wobble:) so for now it's ok even though a weight came off.

Had a advisory note too near side rear tyre worn inside edge, great! last time i had four wheel alignment done thrust angle was fine but camber was different from one side to the other so probaly why, plus i've lowered it 20mm since then so making it worse. I know the back is fixed so no adjustment though am i right in thinking you can use shims to equal the difference? I think a trip to Wheels in Moition is on the cards.

I had the same thing. One of my rear wheels needed 75g! The guy was really confused as to why they were so out. I have a bit of a wobble again now. I'm wondering if the tyres are spinning on the rims? It's not unheard of....perhaps the edge of the rim doesn't support the bead very well?

I had the same problems once & it was down to a dodgy tyre fitter not cleaning out water that was in the new tyres!

Glad it's not just me then! strange though, there must be a reason why they go out of balance, one wheel i could understand but all four:confused:

Its quiet common for the stick on weights to come off over a period of time, that and tyre wear under braking and cornering all have an affect on the wheel balance.

Its quiet common for the stick on weights to come off over a period of time, that and tyre wear under braking and cornering all have an affect on the wheel balance.

Yeah one weight came off after only 5mins of being on! think i may be going back after christmas.

Can get a lot of wear on inside tyre as they scrub massively when on lock for example when pulling into drive or reversing out of car parking spot. Which way do you drive into your drive? reverse out? etc. If its the edge on the turn in then this may be causing your wear.

Did you have tracking reset after the lowering? As this would need doing.

Yeah tracking was done and was spot on, yeah i reverse out to the right of my drive.

Hi, I had problems with balancing on my old car, it drove me crazy and I learned alot about balancing in that time! There are so many different problems when it comes to balancing...... I'll try and explain below:

1) I think the main problem with balancing is that the balancing machines that the majority of tyre fitters use have a major flaw when it comes to mounting the wheel on the balancer. The standard machines use a cone that passes through the centre cap hole in the wheel and is then tightened using a clamp, the wheel i then balanced and then removed and pressumed balanced.

There are two problems with this:

i) The wheel would not ever mount identically twice on the balncer using the cone mounting, if the wheel was removed and then immediatly placed back onto the balancer after just being balanced, I can be pretty sure it would be out of balance!

ii) The centre hole of the wheel is not always the true centre, and thus after balancing using this centre hole and the mounted on the vehicle hub and clamped on using the studs, the wheel is mounted at a slight difference than when on the balancing machine, thus the wheel is no longer truly balanced.

To resolve this you need to find a balancer that mounts the wheel using a special adaptor specific to your car. There is a specialist company called Haweka that supply these. Look for a tyre fitter that uses these adaptors!

2. The other problems are with how the tyre is fitted to the wheel rim.

i)The tyre and the wheel both have a high point and a low point, very very rarely are they both perfectly round! Basically, the cheaper the tyre, the worse they are! Tyres and wheels are marked allowing a clued up tyre fitter to fit the tyre to the wheel correctly in order to get the best possible circle thus decreasing radial run out.

ii)If stretched onto the rim harshly without the use of ample soap, the tyre can get mis-shaped and cause lateral runout problems (basically the tyre will become warped) and balancing warped tyres is not really possible!

There is one balancer I trust with my wheels and tyres now! I had my wheels successfully balanced with this after so many different tyre fitters trying unsucessfully! Find a tyre fitter with a HUNTER GSP9700. It overcomes all of the above! An amazing bit of kit if used by a qualified fitter!

Visit their website: Hunter GSP9700 Wheel Vibration Control System

Locate one near you using this website: www.AlignMyCar.co.uk and click on the web address in the top right!

Hope that helps!

Good advice there, but remember that the manufacturers have the same equipment as the tyre fitters. The centre hole of the wheel will be as central as is required by the tolerances since it's the quickest way they can balance a wheel on the production line.

I think the best advice is if you find a tyre fitter that does the job well...stick to it. I use one here in Leicester who I've been going to for years.

Wow thanks scotty1111, some good info there, yeah its true what you say about being balanced, then putting wheels back on the machine and there out again! In fact i reckon you could drive round ten different tyre garages and each one would say they were out of balance! For now they seem ok, but thanks for the link got a few garage's round my way that use the HunterGSP9700. Though i do trust pro-tyre they have a good reputation but i dont know what machines they use?

Sorry, I'm not sure what equipment protyre use! I have found certain cars to be much more sensitive to wheel imbalance than others, personally i have found cars on larger wheels and lower profile tyres to be the most sensitive! Remember too that some balancing machines are not able to successfully balance wheels over 16 inches so keep that in mind!

With regards to using the wheel centre hole to balance the wheels on a skoda, the idea of balancing it usung the centre hole is not a problem because the wheel is hub central, the hole lines up with the hub on the car and thus it is the central point of the wheel. The only concern is the cone on the balancer... it is almost impossible to ensure that the wheel is mounted on the machine correctly each time!

With regards to the manufacturers, they do not use a standard cone mounted balancer but use a clamping bracket with an expanding collet which basically clamps the wheel to the balancing machine as if it was tightened to the vehicles hub and a flange plate that imitates the wheel studs! Interesting stuff!

With regards to the manufacturers, they do not use a standard cone mounted balancer but use a clamping bracket with an expanding collet which basically clamps the wheel to the balancing machine as if it was tightened to the vehicles hub and a flange plate that imitates the wheel studs! Interesting stuff!

Ah, that's where I think my wires were crossed. Where I go, the guys use the same clamp that is used in our factory. Admittedly where I work, it's motorbikes, but the principals are the same. When you watch the guys fitting the tyres on the production line, it makes you wonder how it takes highstreet tyre fitters so long! Bikes are very sensitive to tyre imbalance, so the way it's done must be ok. Interestingly, we have a maximum of 45g per side on the wheel which is pretty low. Anything more and the wheel goes back.

Don't suppose it was STS you went to, a mate of mine had his 'alignment' done at one of their gillingham depots, now when he drives it the car understeers massively.