Is Wheel Balancing Necessary When Replacing a Tire?
3 Answers
In general, wheel balancing is required whenever the tire system (tire or wheel rim) has been replaced or repaired. Additionally, for some vehicles that have been in use for an extended period, the "wheel balancing weights" may fall off, leading to an imbalance in the tire's weight distribution. In such cases, wheel balancing is necessary. Below is some relevant information about wheel balancing: 1. Wheel balancing involves correcting the balance of the wheel configuration by adding different weights at various positions, ensuring that the car tires operate in a concentric motion. This makes driving at high speeds smoother and safer. 2. Issues with wheel balancing typically become apparent only during high-speed rotation. If wheel balancing is not performed, it can cause vibrations during high-speed driving. If the front wheels are not properly balanced, the tires may wobble side to side at high speeds, leading to steering wheel vibrations. In severe cases, this can cause numbness in the palms. If the rear wheels are unbalanced, high-speed driving can result in body sway, posing safety risks. If all four wheels are unbalanced, the entire vehicle may experience more intense vibrations than usual during driving.
After all these years in auto repair, I always insist that customers get wheel balancing when installing new tires. There are inevitable weight variations during the manufacturing of tires and rims. Without balancing, the steering wheel will vibrate like a phone's vibration mode at high speeds, and even the seats will shake. More seriously, unbalanced tires will develop scalloped wear patterns that can ruin new tires within just one or two months - the cost of replacing those tires would be several times more expensive than the balancing service. Those tiny wheel weights on the rims may seem insignificant, but they're absolutely crucial for vehicle stability, especially for frequent highway driving - this step should never be skipped.
Last time I changed tires, I was too lazy to do wheel balancing. As a result, the steering wheel vibrated so badly at 110 km/h that my hands went numb. An experienced mechanic later explained that new tires often have slight density variations in the rubber. Even minor positioning changes during installation can disrupt the original balance. I've since observed repair shops carefully - they always mount the wheel on a balancing machine after tire replacement, testing rotation and attaching different weights of lead counterweights inside the rim. After this treatment, the car runs as smoothly as a railcar at high speeds. My advice: always supervise mechanics to complete the full procedure during tire changes. Otherwise, you're just paying for new tires to suffer discomfort.
