NeoLoco

Anyone ever had their wheels balanced on the car? A shop that is well known for doing alignments is mounting some new tires on my car soon and doing an alignment, and they said they balance the wheels on the car. I searched but could not find much information on it.

Can the wheels be rotated (from the front/back since the tires are directional) if they are balanced on the car?

94 Camaro Z28

I've never heard of on the car balancing, thats new to me. But to answer your other question, yes you can have your tires rotated provided they are the same size tire all the way around

penningta

iTrader: (3)

I work at my grand fathers shop. He has owned for 50 yrs. He used to have a on car balancer 25yrs ago so Im sure there are some out there somewhere

Fbodyfan

My dad had some tires balanced that way years ago and said it was the best the car ever drove, but I have not heard any shop advertising it since I have been driving. If you could find a shop that did it, yes you would have to re-balance every time you rotated the tires. The advantage is that it balances not only the wheel and tire, but brakes, hubs, everything making up the whole rotating assembly. Downside is that even removing the wheel and putting it on in a different position would throw off the balance.

9WhiteCamaro9

I've never heard of it but I'm not saying shops out there don't do it. Guess you learn something new everyday though.

NeoLoco

That sounds good, other than the fact that I can't rotate the tires without having them balanced. If I remove a wheel to adjust my shock or something like that, and then put the wheel on the same way (the same studs) it would not be balanced?

Fbodyfan

If you put the wheel back on in the same way (same studs through the same holes) it would still be balanced.

Just did a quick yahoo search and found that Butler Tire here in Atlanta offers on car tire balancing. Their website says that they balance at speeds up to 120 mph but does not list prices for the service.

leadfoot4

iTrader: (1)

That method was "high tech" about 40 years ago, when I bought my first new car. I wouldn't do it today, however, because as others have said, you're locked into leaving that tire in THAT exact position for the rest of it's life.

IMHO, "road force" balancing is the way to go.

dubga

iTrader: (8)

When I was in college in the early 80's, I had an 83 Cutlass that always had a shimmy to it. I finally had the wheels balanced on-car, rode smooth as glass. That was before computer-balancing, only other option was bubble-balancing. I am surprised it is still in use.

JJ97SS

I am looking for this service since I think is the best way to balance tires. It is very common practice in Venezuela (Third world country) where I am from.
Can't find no one around St Petersburg Fl...

leadfoot4

iTrader: (1)

The reason you can't readily find a shop that does this, is because it's not the best way to balance a tire anymore. As I mentioned in my post of 3 years ago, "on car" balancing was considered to be a good method 40 years ago. Today, simply find a shop that has a Hunter Road Force tire balancer and you'll be much further ahead.