Wheel vibration solution!

I was at Slindon the weekend before last sitting round the fire with a chap in our Club who runs a now traybacked 410 and we were chatting about a standard Jimny he has bought for his Mrs for when she passes her test.

He mentioned that it had wheel vibration that he could not get rid of by balancing the wheels. He has his own garage business and balancing machine and knows what he's doing.

He took it to a local tyre fitting show near to us who have an on car balancing machine. After balancing the wheels on the car the problem was solved!

Tyre fitters with these machines are few and far between as not many garages had them when they were sold and now that have been made illegal to sell new they are even fewer about, but if you can find a garage with one - try it! But mark where the wheel was before taking it off or you'll put it out of balance.

The machines were made illegal to sell new due to the potential danger to the operator - not due to them causing problems to the car.

Kirkynut

In the Olden Days, I always had my wheels balanced on the car, then marked the stud nearest the valve. It used to mark the tyre though from the friction with the motor.

Nowadays they stick a cone through the central hole, and wonder why they are miles out on the car. When I got my new fronts balanced I had to show the fitter how to use the 5 stud adaptor plate instead. :blink:

Yes, the suzuki "Bad Wheel Job Lot" was big news back in 2000 / 2001 when it happened ... Suzuki has always denied responsibility. One chap even offered me an almost new set of alloys with tyres in a straight swap for my steel wheels with new rubber on. Needless to say I declined his offer.

Im always surprised they can still balance the wheels on the cars .. im always waiting for the cry of a burnt testicle ..... :woohoo:

It's not just the wheel/tyre combination that needs to be balanced. I introduced a wobble on my Citroen C4, While inspecting the front brakes I found a "crust" of rust around the outer edge of the disks which I chipped off carefully with a hammer (The wearing part of the disks were still clear and within tolerance so didn't need changing at the time)and after that I had a wobble. I'm guessing if a disk goes out of true in any way it would cause the same issue. I also have noticed balance weights on rear drums, can't remember which car it was on.
Balancing the wheels on the car would obviously take that in to account.
John.