Good Info: Car Tyre and Rims

ken yeang

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Match Mounting to Enhance Tire & Wheel Uniformity

Tire and wheel manufacturers continually develop new manufacturing methods to enhance the uniformity of their products because radial runout, lateral runout, force variation and imbalance can affect a vehicle's ride quality.

Match mounting tires on wheels is a process where a tire's installed position on the wheel is specifically selected to help minimize the final combination's force variation and/or imbalance. One match mounting procedure aligns the tire's measured high point of radial force variation with the measured low point of the wheel's radial runout. The other simply aligns the tire's lightest spot with the wheel's heaviest spot.

Original Equipment (OE) tire suppliers are required to mark the tire's "high point" while OE wheel manufacturers mark the wheel's "low point." This helps the vehicle manufacturer match mount combinations that maximize new car ride quality while reducing the amount of balancing weight.

Today, many vehicle manufacturers require the use of a temporary tag applied to tires and wheels that are removed before the vehicle is put into service. Unfortunately this means that there are no permanent marks to reference later.

There was a time when the valve stem hole on standard wheels indicated the optimum place to which the tire should be match mounted. However, with the advent of styled, steel wheels and aluminum alloy wheels, the stem position evolved into an aesthetic issue rather than being a uniformity indicator. Add to this the probability of wheels retaining their original runout after thousands of miles of use and you can understand that simply mounting the tire so the colored dot is at the valve stem is no longer required practice.

We have found that the only way to accurately match mount replacement tires on used original or new aftermarket wheels is to use Hunter tire balancers which have the ability to measure wheel runout and tire force variations under load before the tire and wheel are installed on the vehicle. Using these machines, a colored dot might be positioned anywhere on the wheel relative to each wheel's runout measurement. In the end, the markers have little, if any, relevance when replacement tires are installed.


Mounting and Balancing


For the proper mounting of tires and wheels not purchased as a pre-mounted Tire & Wheel Package, be sure to observe some basic precautions:

* Mounting and balancing should be done by a professional, using equipment designed for the job
* Both tire beads are securely mounted
* The wheel is not bent or damaged
* There is no buildup of dirt between the hub and the wheel
* All of the lugs have been properly torqued
* The wheel is securely seated on the hub

The definition of balance is the uniform distribution of mass about an axis of rotation, where the center of gravity is in the same location as the center of rotation. In English, that would translate to...A balanced tire is when the mass of the tire, when mounted on its wheel and the car's axle, is uniformly distributed around the axle. Even easier yet, how about...there are no heavy spots.

Balanced tires can be the difference between a good or bad driving experience. Some cars (and drivers) are more sensitive to an out of balance tire than others, but no one is happy with a vibration.

An out of balance tire can adversely affect ride quality, shorten the life of your tires, bearings, shocks and other suspension components. If you have a vibration that is dependent on speed, and usually becomes noticeable around 40-45 mph and increases as your speed increases, it's probably balance related. The other primary cause of vibrations is that the tire and wheel assembly isn't perfectly round. Face it, if we go out far enough past the decimal point, nothing is perfectly round. This includes your wheels and tires. The problem is when the high spot on the tire, and the high spot on the wheel end up being matched to each other. This effectively doubles the amount of "hop" or runout. If re-balancing doesn't cure the vibration problem, have your professional installer check the runout of the tire. If there is a "hop", many times the problem can be fixed by simply rotating the tire on the wheel slightly. The technician should loosen the tire on the wheel, and turn it 180 degrees, and reinflate the tire after relubricating the bead. The runout should be significantly reduced or eliminated, and if it's not, try it again, but this time rotate only 90 degrees, and if that doesn't work, try 180 degrees on the third try. Done this way, the high spot on the tire has been tried at each quarter of the wheel. At one of those points, the tire should be good and round. At that point, rebalance the tire, and go for a test drive. If the vibration persists, the problem is either in the tire, or elsewhere in the vehicle.


Tire & Wheel Package Installation Instructions

It usually takes only minutes to install tires and wheels on your vehicle; but remember, they'll probably be on for 3,000 miles or more, and will roll over a million times before it's time to rotate them. To make those miles as pleasant as possible, you need to install your new Tire and Wheel Package correctly.
Check Tire Positions

If you selected directional tires and/or asymmetric tires, the first step before installing them is to match each tire and wheel to its final position on your vehicle. To prevent mistakes, actually set each wheel and tire around your vehicle just as race teams do for pit stops.
Install New Pairs or Tires on the Rear Axle

When tires are replaced in pairs, the new tires should always be installed on the rear axle and the worn tires moved to the front. The reason is because new tires on the rear axle help the driver more easily maintain control on wet roads because new, deeper treaded tires are more capable of resisting hydroplaning.


Tire & Wheel Package Ride Uniformity Confirmation

Smooth-rolling tires and wheels can be the difference between having a vibration-free driving experience or a shaky one. If the tire and wheel tolerances are not examined, corrected, or are allowed to "stack up" rather than "cancel out" each other, the possibility of a balance or road force induced ride vibration exists. Because of this, Tire & Wheel Packages don't ship from The Tire Rack unless they're Hunter-Balanced and Road Force® approved!

Tires are made up of internal beads, body plies and belts that are encased in rubber, assembled and cured. Alloy wheels are cast, cooled and machined. And even though they both are built to tight tolerances, there is bound to be some unavoidable weight imbalances during the manufacturing process.

When you consider that a typical passenger car tire mounted on an alloy wheel weighs about 40 pounds, it's amazing that the total amount of imbalance is typically no more than three to four ounces, or about one-half of one percent. So, if the tire and wheel combination isn't balanced with add-on weights, being off even an ounce or two can cause vibration at highway speeds. Heavier tire and wheel combinations, especially those used on light trucks, require more weights to maintain the same low percentage of imbalance.


info extracted from :
http://www.tirerack.com
 

ken yeang

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Happy to be able to contribute to bros in ZTH.....
 

parakey

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Apologies for dragging up an old thread but as per the thread subject, how many here has tried "Road Force Balancing" ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQxVAssnbp8

I have recently replaced my rear tyres with Michelin Primacy 3ST. Replaced on the existing rear rims and had the new assemblies (tyre/wheel combination) relocated to the front. The existing front assemblies got moved to the rear. On my way back, I noted some steering vibrations at highway speeds. It was more pronounced at particular stretch of the NKVE just before Bukit Jelutong but seemed okay once I reached the Federal Highway. I thought maybe they didnt do a good balancing job or just the road conditions were bad.

The next day, I drove outstation and the imbalanced tyres really bothered me. So I stopped midway at Perak and had them re-balanced by a local establishment. That turned out worse than before. Lol .. I paid good money for new Michelins and this is what I get? Shuddering hands when I drive

I was thinking maybe the front rims which originally came from the rear may be faulty. When I got back to KL, I went to the tyre shop to ask them to swap rims & tyres around. The man suggested 'high speed balancing' but I declined thinking it was the on-wheel type. He said it was different and may likely fix my vibration issues. Sure enough it did. Was quite impressed and relieved I needn't fork out extra money to replace/repair the rims. I noticed the label on the machine mentioned Road Force and I googled that.

http://www.tirereview.com/when-is-it-overkill/

Anyway, I am not here to promote Hunter products but this seems like a fairly good method to address some of those balancing gremlins we may encounter with our rides.
 
Last edited:

vr2turbo

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There are many ways to balance a wheel.
If weights are too much you can also switch the tyres around the rims.

For my case, all I needed was a center cone and now even with off wheel balancing no issues

Then there is the issue of calibration to be done to the balancing machine. Many shops don't do it and the calibration may run causing wheel imbalance....
 

Tom

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I was thinking maybe the front rims which originally came from the rear may be faulty. When I got back to KL, I went to the tyre shop to ask them to swap rims & tyres around. The man suggested 'high speed balancing' but I declined thinking it was the on-wheel type. He said it was different and may likely fix my vibration issues. Sure enough it did. Was quite impressed and relieved I needn't fork out extra money to replace/repair the rims. I noticed the label on the machine mentioned Road Force and I googled that.
on-wheel method work wonders to be honest, especially on older cars and in Tai Soon Batu Caves, my fav shop, they do on-wheel balancing on all four corners. It's quite primitive where they track imbalance by "feel"
 

parakey

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With my Wira, I have tried on-wheel a few times before from different shops. On top of having to wait longer for them to do it, I wasn't satisfied with the end result & still felt vibrations from the wheels.

Can't say I fully believe in Road Force Balancing as I have only done it just once. Will require consistent long term repeated results before I can do so.

It could have been a variety of reasons:

* Maybe I got arse lucky this time round.

* Maybe the new tires weren't fitted properly by the first shop's employee. Tires are supposed to have colored dots on their sidewalls to indicate where to optimally align with the rims. Did the shop adhere to such guidelines? I wont know since I wasn't paying attention to their work. The second shop didn't remove the tyre from the rim. They just threw it onto their balancing machine. Then again, it got worse after the second balancing.

* These are OEM rims that came with the car. In the 5 years of ownership, performance has been satisfactory. I have changed the front tires twice but never switched front/rear around. Maybe the rear rims were never that good in the first place.

Despite having 2 shops fail to balance them properly, I was however relieved that it went from bad vibrations at 100 kmh to no discernible vibration even when at 180, at the same stretch along NKVE.

Anyway, what I am suggesting is for people with balancing issues which cant be remediated by the normal machines to gives this a try. If it works or if it doesn't, post back here and let us know about it. I don't drive as often as I wish. May be a long time before I have need to do such balancing.

As a matter of personal interest, has anybody else tried Road Force Balancing?
 

sweelt

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As I experience before with my ex5, go fast no feel wobbling or vibrate. Ride slow can feel vibrate and wobbling. Becareful even tho we on 4 wheels. Just my 2 cent.
Many factors to feel unbalance / vibrate. Start with basic checking, u know lah we always jump to advanced troubleshooting. Always happened in life or work...lol
 

vr2turbo

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on-wheel method work wonders to be honest, especially on older cars and in Tai Soon Batu Caves, my fav shop, they do on-wheel balancing on all four corners. It's quite primitive where they track imbalance by "feel"
That one is experience. I have seen one sifu in action before. No dials, no light flicking, no meters whatever, just the wheel rotating machine then he just touch the springs, sometimes the fender and end result, perfect balancing.....lol:driver:
 

ixeo

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With my Wira, I have tried on-wheel a few times before from different shops. On top of having to wait longer for them to do it, I wasn't satisfied with the end result & still felt vibrations from the wheels.

Can't say I fully believe in Road Force Balancing as I have only done it just once. Will require consistent long term repeated results before I can do so.

It could have been a variety of reasons:

* Maybe I got arse lucky this time round.

* Maybe the new tires weren't fitted properly by the first shop's employee. Tires are supposed to have colored dots on their sidewalls to indicate where to optimally align with the rims. Did the shop adhere to such guidelines? I wont know since I wasn't paying attention to their work. The second shop didn't remove the tyre from the rim. They just threw it onto their balancing machine. Then again, it got worse after the second balancing.

* These are OEM rims that came with the car. In the 5 years of ownership, performance has been satisfactory. I have changed the front tires twice but never switched front/rear around. Maybe the rear rims were never that good in the first place.

Despite having 2 shops fail to balance them properly, I was however relieved that it went from bad vibrations at 100 kmh to no discernible vibration even when at 180, at the same stretch along NKVE.

Anyway, what I am suggesting is for people with balancing issues which cant be remediated by the normal machines to gives this a try. If it works or if it doesn't, post back here and let us know about it. I don't drive as often as I wish. May be a long time before I have need to do such balancing.

As a matter of personal interest, has anybody else tried Road Force Balancing?
I read on this, and it seems it *is* amazing technology, but may be overkill for most, considering new tyres come with red and/or yellow dots to indicate the high and low points already.

I think if somebody wants the perfect balance, or if its a sports car, track car, you want it. Or, in your case, having problems with your balancing. Otherwise I think it isn't necessary for the average joe. I guess personally I will do it when I put on a new set of tyres.

http://www.tirereview.com/when-is-it-overkill/
 

vr2turbo

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I read on this, and it seems it *is* amazing technology, but may be overkill for most, considering new tyres come with red and/or yellow dots to indicate the high and low points already.

I think if somebody wants the perfect balance, or if its a sports car, track car, you want it. Or, in your case, having problems with your balancing. Otherwise I think it isn't necessary for the average joe. I guess personally I will do it when I put on a new set of tyres.

http://www.tirereview.com/when-is-it-overkill/
Since it cost more, probably can try if all other method fails.....lol:driver:
 

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