Wheel balancing
Sadly, many motorists are not especially fussy about which tyre fitter they trust with fitting, balancing and repairing their wheels. And that is a real mistake: a great deal depends on the quality of the tyre fitting. What exactly, you can read in the article.
Many motorists often never stop to think about how important such a simple procedure as wheel balancing is, and give it nowhere near enough attention. Yet in reality the correct working of a car’s suspension, and, as a result, its (the suspension’s) service life, as well as safety and ride comfort, all depend on tyres and wheels being balanced correctly.
There can hardly be any motorists left today who need convincing that tyre balancing absolutely has to be done. At the same time, sadly, far from everyone understands and appreciates the part balancing plays in road safety, and so people pay far too little attention to the quality of the balancing (in particular, to choosing a tyre fitter), as well as to the quality of the tyres and wheels on offer in the market.
Articles in this sectionIn reading order.
- Why are wheels balanced?If a wheel is not balanced across all its axes of symmetry, unbalanced centrifugal forces arise with different directions of action, which creates vibration in the wheel and loads on the hub pulling…247 words
- How accurate does wheel balancing need to be?Every unbalanced mass on a wheel creates its own centrifugal force as the wheel turns, with its own point of application. Let’s recall school physics: the formula for centrifugal force.169 words
- What kinds of wheel imbalance are there?Imbalance can be static or dynamic. In both cases the issue is a mismatch between the axis of rotation and the axis of inertia (the latter running through the wheel’s centre of gravity).214 words
- What level of imbalance is considered normal?What is the maximum permitted mass of balance weights, and what criteria tell good wheels or tyres apart from bad ones?398 words
- What affects the quality of wheel balancingWhat has more effect on the outcome of wheel balancing, the balancing machine or the fitter’s skill? On the whole, both matter in roughly equal measure.320 words