How to balance a tire yourself


How To Balance Your Own Tires – Shine Armor

Taking care of your tires and making sure that they’re properly inflated, installed, and balancing is critical to the safety of your vehicle and yourself. 

Maintaining the balance of your tires isn’t all too complicated and can extend their lifespan and performance. You might be surprised at how easily they can be thrown off, which makes it important to check their balance regularly and know how to rebalance them. 

Coming to a sudden, harsh stop, hitting a noticeable pothole, or natural wear over time can all lead to your tires spinning out of balance. 

At Shine Armor, we care deeply about the safety, performance, and presentation of your vehicle, and we know you take pride in your car on the inside and out.

Here’s how to check if your tires are out of balance and what to do if they are. 

 

When Should You Balance Your Tires?

There are several ways to tell if your tires need maintenance. Whether it’s rebalancing, rotation or replacement, they’ll let you know if something is wrong. 

 

New Tires

Anytime you buy yourself a new set of tires, you want to make sure that they’re installed correctly, which includes checking and balancing them. 

You could do this yourself if you personally installed your new tires, but more often, this service is included when you have professionals do it at the shop. 

You also want to make sure that they hold on to that new tire shine as long as they can, which is extremely easy with our Graphene Tire Shine. Even if you’ve got a few years on them, we can help get them looking back to new. 

 

Vibrations or Noises

Unbalanced tires have a few ways of letting you know they’re not properly in place, and one of the most easily noticeable is a loud vibration sound. Not only will you hear it, but you’ll more than likely feel it as well. 

While vibrations can mean a couple of things when it comes to your tires, it never means anything good. If you’re hearing something coming from one of your tires, it could mean you have uneven tread wear or an imbalance problem. 

Typically vibrations from imbalanced tires will be more noticeable at speeds above 45 miles per hour. It’s important to monitor your tire health regularly. Every few weeks, take a moment to turn down the music and listen for anything out of the ordinary while driving. 

Lights in the Dash

Similar to the noise and vibrations, lights in the dash can mean any number of problems with your entire vehicle, not just your tires. 

Regarding your tires, there are two lights you want to keep an eye out for are the anti-lock braking system light and the low-pressure light. There isn’t one specifically for imbalanced tires, but these two will be enough to let you know something is wrong. 

The anti-lock braking system light is easy to identify since it’s just the letters “ABS,” and the low-pressure light looks like an exclamation mark inside of a little cup.  

If you have a car older than 2012 and you live in the United States, your car might not have an ABS light as they weren’t mandatory yet, so you’ll just be looking for the low-pressure light. 

 

Uneven Tread Wear

There are a few different types of uneven tread wear to be aware of, but we’re looking for patch-wear specifically for imbalanced tires. 

Patch-wear is random and patchy (hence the name), so when you’re checking your tire tread, make sure to go around the whole tire. 

Using a quarter, stick George Washington's head in between the treads. If you can still see the top of his head sticking out, that means that there’s less than 2/16th of an inch, and your tires have been worn down to the point when you should consider a new set. 

 

How Often Should You Balance Your Tires?

Letting your tires go without being balanced for too long can have dangerous and lasting consequences. Particularly the amount of uneven wear on our tread.

Your tires will wear down over time naturally, but if they develop patchy and erratic spots in the tread, they decrease your vehicle's performance, the traction power that they can have and lead to potential blowouts at high speeds. We’re sure we don’t have to tell you how unpleasant that would be. 

It’s recommended that you test your tire tread regularly, at least once every month or so. Then, rebalance your tires every ten to twelve thousand miles and get them rotated every other time. 

 

How To Balance Your Tires

There are three ways to go about balancing tires, but only one of them you’ll be able to do from home- Unless you have professional auto-mechanic machinery. 

We won’t spend too much time going over the techniques to balance tires that are mostly exclusive to the shop, but if you’re excited about learning something new, we’ll cover them briefly.

Generally speaking, balancing tires requires spinning or balancing the tires to determine if and where they aren’t balanced and then placing weights along the rim to adjust.

Road Force Balancing

Road force balancing is the future of tire balancing processes. It uses a high-tech machine that looks like a large rolling pin, which presses against your tire as it spins. 

The machine presses against the tire and detects even the smallest off-balance spots. It can determine the difference between healthy and unhealthy tread wear. 

It’s certainly the most accurate option, though not quite accessible from home. 

 

Dynamic Balancing

Another mechanic-only tactic for balancing is dynamic balancing. Dynamic balancing involves a machine that spins the tire at high speeds and feels where it's unbalanced and by how much, similar to the road force balancing. 

This technique isn’t as accurate as using the road force balancing, but it’s very easy for a mechanic to adjust the weights on your wheel fairly simply and quickly. 

 

Static Balancing

The process used at home is an older method, but it still works well.  

Static balancing uses an unmoving balancing post or spindle that the tire is placed on wheel-face up. In the center of the post is a small bubble and circle balance, the goal being to line up the bubble into the circle. 

If the wheel is unbalanced, then the bubble will clearly reflect that, and the user can adjust as necessary by attaching weights to the rim to counterbalance the offset. 

The process, from start to finish, goes as follows:

  1. Take your wheels off your vehicle. 
  2. Take off any weights that are currently on your wheel, so you’re starting with a blank slate. 
  3. Clean your wheels and tire to ensure that there isn’t any dirt or debris messing with the calibrations. Our Pristine Tire Shine Gel is a water-based compound with zero sling and is easy to apply to any tire if you’re looking for cleaner options. 
  4. Follow the instructions that come with your balancing post to set it up. You’ll need a solid floor to work on. The floor may not be level, but that’s alright as there will be small screws to calibrate the post. You want the bubble perfectly in the center of the circle before you put the tire on. 
  5. Place the tire onto the balancing post and wait for it to settle. Then, determine if the bubble is off-center, in what direction, and by how much. 
  6. Place weights onto the wheel around the lip flange, on the side, the bubble is closest to. Finesse the weights until the bubble is as perfectly center as you can manage. 
  7. Using chalk or a washable marker, make marks of where your weights are to help ease the process of attaching them. 
  8. Proceed to attach your weights following the instructions they came with. Some may require hammering onto the wheel lip, and others may be adhesive. Ensure that they are properly attached and will not come flying off at high speeds.

In Conclusion

Getting your tires rebalanced might cost between $50 and $100, but why not learn how to do it yourself? Using a static balancer, the process is certainly not that complicated, and you can get similarly accurate results as the fancy machines. However, if you have a hard time, you should take your wheels to the mechanic. 

Unbalanced tires can result in uneven tread-wear, suspension damage, and blowouts, so it’s definitely a problem that you want to be solved sooner or later. Otherwise, you might be picking out a new set of tires altogether, if not worse.

References:

ABS Anti-Lock Braking History | Drivespark

Balancing Post | Amazon

How Does Unusual Tread Wear Affect The Performance of Your Vehicle | Cashcarbuyer.com

How To Balance Tires At Home By Yourself? (Full Steps)

The first thing you think of when your car needs “tire balance” is taking it to trusted mechanics. And you just need a small budget of about $15 – $80 for balancing tires. However, what else is great when you can DIY tire balance? If you have a basic knowledge of the mechanic and want to save money. We’re sure that this topic is right for you. Let’s find out: How to balance tires at home?

Balancing a tire at home: Is it possible?(Photo: pinterest. com)

Is A Tire Balance Really Needed For Your Car? 

Over time, the wheels may encounter some problems that cause the vehicle to vibrate and be difficult to control. At this time, tire balancing is a corrective action to help your car work more stably and safely. Wheel assembly consists of 2 main parts: rubber tire and rim. The wheel is considered to be in balance when the weight of the rubber tire and rim is evenly distributed around the axle.

However, the tire manufacturing process may not guarantee this balance is perfect. Or after a long time of use, especially often traveling on bad terrain, the wheels will soon appear unbalanced. Or after a long time of use, especially often traveling on bad terrain, the wheels will soon appear unbalanced. These causes cause the wheels and steering wheel to vibrate, creating an unstable and unsafe driving feeling.

Therefore, the tire balancing method was developed to overcome this situation. Tire or wheel balancing is the process of balancing the weight of tires and wheels so that it spins smoothly. Balancing involves placing the wheel and tire assembly on a balancer, setting the center of gravity of the wheel, and rotating it to identify the position of the weight. To balance the tires, it is necessary to use a tire balancer, measure the weight of the unbalanced part and then add weights of lead on the opposite side. This helps limit the vibration of the steering wheel that affects the driver’s control of the car. 

Wheels after being balanced will have higher durability (even wear in positions; no rollover; no effect on other details such as bearings, wheel axles, and steering wheel), helping to improve quality steering.

In the next step, we will move on to the most anticipated part of this article: How to balance tires yourself?

How To Balance Tires At Home?

Balancing wheels at home can help you save from $10 to $50 or more depending on service centers and you don’t want to take your time to visit mechanics. If you already have a background in mechanical. Why not give it a try? In this section, we will divide it into 2 ways in case you have a balancer and in case you don’t have this tool. Whatever the case, you don’t need a lot of specialized tools to balance your own tires. Let’s get started!

Balancing a tire at home with a bubble balancer

Bubble balancers are known as static balancing. This is a good method and you can do it at home. All you need is a balancer or a spindle and some basic tools. This method uses a non-moving balance post or a rotating shaft on which the tire is placed on the wheel surface. In the center of a pillar are a small bubble and a balanced circle. All the setup makes sure to put a bubble in the circle. If a bubble is not in the middle of the circle, you can take a screwdriver to gently adjust it. When the wheel is in an unbalanced state, that will be shown in bubbles and drivers can adjust by adding weights to the rim to create balance. Starting with detailed steps:

Home tire balancer: It’s not hard for you to own this machine (Photo: pinterest. com)
Step 1: Take the wheels off your car

This is the first step that almost all methods must do. When removing tires, drivers should follow the rule of removing and installing wheel screws diagonally, ie star wing, not rotating the order in a clockwise direction. This method will help the wheel not be deflected to one side, but steadily in and out in all directions.

Step 2: Remove any weights or dirt on your wheels.

In this step, don’t forget to remove the weights currently put on your wheel to turn the wheels into a blank state. Before you put the wheels into the balancer, if it’s a used tire on your wheel, you should inspect the tires to make sure there’s no rock or any other objects stuck in the threads and remove them. Because it can affect the result of balancing, it will add more weight. We need to clean the surface with isopropyl alcohol or some specialized washes to make sure the whole inner edge is clear.

Step 3: Place the assembly wheel on the balancer device

All you need to do in this step is to follow the instructions that are attached to the balancers to set it up. When balancing a heavy wheel, you don’t really have any problem, but with a light wheel, sometimes it doesn’t push all the way down so just push the wheel down and make sure it’s fully on the balancer. With this method, it will take you a little time to wait for your wheels to settle into a balanced position or stationary.

Step 4: Identify the bubble direction

After waiting for your wheels completely stop by naturally. We will find out where the bubble is on the actual wheel itself. If the bubble is off-center, and it’s pointing out in a certain direction. It means that there’s less weight in that direction on your tire. It’s a good indicator to tell you where weights need to be applied. Once you’ve discovered the tire is out of balance, you can use chalk or marker to mark the points to put more weight on.

Step 5: Put weights and inspect again

What we’re going to do in this step is slowly drop on weights until the bubble is in the middle. You can just stack them around when the bubble is positioned perfectly in the middle. We will know exactly how many weights to tape on. Each of the weights is only a quarter of an ounce. Follow the enclosed instructions to attach the weight to the specified position. During this process, you need to make sure the weights are attached properly and firmly so that they do not come off when the vehicle is traveling at high speed. After placing the additional weight on the wheel, you need to double-check that the tire is completely balanced. Return the wheel to its original position and start a safe driving journey!

How to balance a tire at home without a balancer?How to balance a tire without the machine (Photo:motorandwheels.com)

Balancing without a home tire balancer: Is it possible? Our answer: It can be doable, however, the process can be a bit more complicated than using a static balancing method and may not give you the results you want. 

Just like the static balancing method, you need to check all stones, nails, foreign objects stuck on the tread surface. You also need to remove all weights that are mounted on the rim. A special feature of this method is that you will not need to remove the wheel from your vehicle because this technique is simulated based on the dynamic balancing method. Instead, you would locate the approximate 12 o’clock position on the tire and use chalk to mark the position. You will then attach a weight to the marked position.

Accelerate your car to a speed that begins to vibrate and slowly increase the speed (about 5 mph). While it is vibrating, attach a new weight about 45 degrees from the marker. You continue doing this until there are no points with a higher vibration rate.

If there is still vibration, rotate the wheel another 45° and redo this process. It will help you find the position you need to add the extra weight and complete the balance!

When Do You Need To Balance Your Wheel?

According to the manufacturer’s recommendations, you should balance the tires around 7000 miles/time. The best way to follow this rule is to have your wheels balanced every time you have a schedule to change the engine oil. Besides the fixed schedule, when you notice some symptoms below, it means that your car needs to be balanced:

  • When your vehicle is driving straight on a flat road, you still have the feeling that the steering wheel is vibrating abnormally, or the body of the car is shaking uncontrollably.
  • The tires have abnormal wear and tear
  • When you do tire changes, tire rotation, tire patching, etc., you must definitely balance the wheels to help them stay in the most balanced position, to help tires operate smoothly, and to ensure safety on the road.
  • When your car is changed from a normal valve to a tire pressure sensor valve, it is also necessary to dynamically balance the 4 wheels.

>> Related post: 5 Symptoms Of Unbalanced Tires In Your Car

SUM UP: How To Balance Tires At Home?

What will happen If your tires are imbalanced? It’s not only a big threat to your safety when driving a car but also causes significant damage to other parts of your vehicle. It will be helpful when knowing that you can do this important maintenance at your home. If you understand mechanicals because in most cases, drivers are always advised to go to the mechanic to finish this step. Actually, balancing wheels is not a completely complicated problem. It will take you about 30-60 minutes to balance all 4 tires.

By the way, we want to note that you should balance all tires at the same time. If there is a problem with vibration, all four tires are usually balanced at the same time. The reason is that it is difficult to distinguish which tire is the cause of the vibration. If only one tire is repaired, just rebalance that tire. However, when you are planning to balance your wheels at home, you should remember this: Safety should be your priority. If you are not sure about the steps to do this process, don’t hesitate to take your car to the repair center. 

Do-it-yourself wheel balancing in the old fashioned way, on a machine and granules: how to check

Wheel balancing is one of the measures that ensure the stability of the car on the road and affect traffic safety. Many car owners believe that only service stations can do high-quality balancing. They are partly right, but it is not always possible to contact the masters, and it is impossible to delay the procedure. In this situation, you can do the balancing of the wheels with your own hands in a garage. There are ways to carry out this procedure without professional equipment. nine0003

Contents

  • 1 Why balancing is needed

  • 2 How often to carry out

  • 3 Signs of imbalance

  • 4 Balancing methods

    • 4.1 Without wheel removal

    • 4.2 On a homemade stand

    • 4.3 On machine

    • 4.4 Balancing with pellets

    • 4.5 Video: do-it-yourself wheel balancing

  • 5 Errors during procedure

Why balancing is needed

Uneven tire wear or disc damage lead to imbalance, that is, a violation of the distribution of the mass of the wheels relative to the horizontal and vertical planes. There are two types of unbalance:

  1. Static, when the axis of rotation shifts relative to the axis of inertia and starts to move the center of gravity up and down.
  2. Dynamic, when the axis of rotation intersects with the axis of inertia, disturbing the horizontal distribution of the mass of the wheel. The disc writes a figure eight while the car is moving. nine0010

There are two types of unbalance: static and dynamic

Unbalance causes the wheels to vibrate while driving. The imbalance of the wheels, especially when driving at high speed, impairs handling, increases the length of the braking distance, and leads to premature wear of the running gear.

Unbalanced wheels while driving at high speed cause loss of control. But even if the accident did not happen, constant vibration renders the hub bearing unusable, and over time, the entire suspension system of the vehicle breaks down. nine0003

The task of the procedure is to restore balance to the wheels during rotation. The result of balancing is a uniform distribution of the mass of the wheel relative to the axes of rotation.

How often to carry out

There are no clear and specific recommendations for all vehicles on the frequency of balancing. It all depends on the operating conditions of the vehicle, the condition of the wheels, and other factors. Experts recommend balancing:

  1. When changing tires. In reputable service stations, the procedure is included in the cost of the service for “changing shoes” for a car. nine0010
  2. If the wheel hits an object or falls into a pit. Such situations lead to damage to the disc and imbalance of the wheel.
  3. After 15000 km. During the season, few motorists wind up such a number of kilometers, so balancing when changing tires is enough for a standard car.
  4. Every 8000 km for lovers of aggressive driving style.
  5. Before traveling over 1500 km.

Signs of imbalance

The main signal of imbalance is the appearance of vibration. The intensity of the vibration transmitted to the passenger compartment depends on the degree of imbalance. Sometimes at speed the car starts to literally tremble with the whole body.

The nature of the vibration indicates which wheels are unbalanced:

  • the front ones give pushes to the steering wheel;
  • rears make the rear seats vibrate.

Other signs of imbalance are increased fuel consumption, tire noise while driving, uneven wear and regular flat tires. nine0003

Balancing methods

Using the advice of experienced drivers, you can independently carry out balancing in the old fashioned way without using a special machine. This will take more time than the master would spend in the service, but will save money.

If desired, wheel balancing can be carried out independently in a garage

To perform the procedure yourself, you will need the following tools and materials:

  • jack; nine0010
  • balancing weights;
  • chalk or marker;
  • set of keys.

Interesting! To balance wheels on cast or forged rims, it is advisable to purchase self-adhesive weights. But in winter, such weights can come unstuck from temperature changes.

Balancing weights required for balancing

Without wheel removal

Self balancing process consists of the following steps:

  1. Preparatory. The wheels are cleaned of dirt, stones stuck in the tires, the caps are removed, the pressure in the tire is lowered, and the old weights are removed. The jack is installed on one side of the vehicle, freeing 2 wheels. Check the free rotation of the wheels. If the wheel turns hard, you need to unpin it and loosen the hub nut.
  2. Light point definition. The wheel is rotated counterclockwise and waited for it to stop. Mark the top point. Then turn the wheels clockwise and again mark the top point. The middle between two marks is a light point. nine0010
  3. Installation of weights. With a hammer, weights weighing from 10 to 45 grams are stuffed onto the found point, starting with the lungs. After that, spin the wheel and wait for it to stop. The weights should be at the bottom. If it didn’t work out, light weights are removed and heavier ones are stuffed. It is not recommended to use more than 60 grams of cargo per wheel.
  4. Static balancing. As soon as after stopping the weights were at the bottom, they begin to move apart in different directions. The wheel begins to rotate and spread the weights. The purpose of the process is to ensure that the wheel stops in a different position each time. Once this starts to work out, the weight is distributed evenly, that is, a static balance is achieved. nine0010

In this sequence, carry out the procedure with each wheel. To check the correctness of the balancing performed, you need to drive a car for at least ten kilometers at a speed of more than 90 km / h. If there are no shocks and taps during movement, then everything is done correctly. If the procedure is performed incorrectly, specific shocks to the steering wheel appear.

For your own confidence, at the first independent balancing, you can undergo diagnostics at the service station. If the masters confirm that everything was done correctly, in the future you can do the procedure yourself. nine0003

Important! Self-balancing in the garage is only permissible in case of static imbalance. The elimination of dynamic imbalance requires the use of equipment. Experts recommend contacting the service if the car has worn tires and old bent wheels. It is impossible to balance such wheels without special equipment.

On a homemade stand

You can make the balancing process easier by making a homemade stand in the garage. In this case, you do not have to remove the brake pads from the wheel and loosen the stepped nut. nine0003

A self-made stand simplifies the wheel balancing process.

The stand is assembled from an old hub with a working bearing. The hub is mounted on the frame in such a way that the wheel rotates freely, and the whole structure firmly rests on the surface. It is convenient to use vertical metal racks as a frame, between which the wheel is attached. Further balancing steps are the same as the previous method of performing the procedure.

Machined

Even an experienced motorist in garage conditions carries out balancing “by eye”. Therefore, there can be no complete confidence in the correctness of the process. In specialized workshops, balancing is carried out on computer-controlled machines.

Modern workshops are equipped with CNC balancing machines

The machine consists of a cone-shaped support for mounting the wheel, a rotating electric motor and sensors. The wheel rotates during tire fitting, and at the same time the computer determines the vibration and pressure. The readings of the sensors help to accurately calculate the weight and installation location of the weights. nine0003

Workshops are equipped with two types of machines:

  1. Manual - on which the master measures the wheel with a ruler and manually enters the data.
  2. Automatic - information is read by sensors and displayed on the monitor in digital or graphical form.

According to the type of supports used, the machines are divided into:

  1. Soft, measuring wheel parameters, taking into account vibrations of the supports.
  2. Rigid, measuring pressure and rotor phase.

Interesting! On rigid machines, various parts can be tested, but the quality and accuracy of measurements for this reason is reduced.

Most modern workshops are equipped with automatic balancing machines. The master puts the wheel on the shaft, clamps it with bolts and spins it. The sensors determine the points of end runout. The computer determines the intensity of the push and calculates the mass of the load that must be attached to the calculated point. The computer will also tell you if the wheel cannot be balanced. nine0003

Balancing with granules

One of the newest methods of wheel balancing is the use of special granules instead of weights. The essence of the technique is the filling of special granules into the tire, sliding during movement in the internal space. This free movement eliminates imbalance while moving at speed.

Modern methods of wheel balancing involve the use of a microbead

The advantage of this method is that the granules are poured once and they perform their intended function throughout the life of the tire. The disadvantage of this balancing method is the high cost of granules. Therefore, balancing in this way has not gained popularity at the present time. nine0003

Video: do-it-yourself wheel balancing

Errors during the procedure

If the balancing process is carried out in violation of the technology, then the vibration problem will not be solved at best, and at worst it will further worsen. The most common errors:

  1. Balancing with dirt on the wheel. Additional imbalance can break even pebbles stuck in the tread. The overall picture, even on precise equipment, will be violated, and it will not work to bring the wheel to zero. nine0010
  2. Balancing a wheel with an incorrect tire or rim geometry. If the disk has even slight dents or distortions, it must first be rolled on a special machine. Straightening the disk with a hammer or other percussion instruments is unacceptable.
  3. Incorrect tightening of the hub bolt on the balancing machine. Excessive force will lead to a misalignment of the wheel, and the balance will be incorrect.
  4. Violation of the technology of mounting the tire on the disk. Often even experienced installers perform work in violation of technology. As a result, the wheel is given additional inertia. nine0010
  5. Violation of alignment during the installation of the wheel on the axle of the vehicle. This problem occurs due to a violation of the tightening order of the bolts. Even if a properly balanced wheel is installed out of alignment, it will vibrate.

In order not to encounter such troubles, it is necessary to carefully choose a car service and control the work of the masters. Qualified specialists give a guarantee for their own work and show the balancing results on the machine display. If the master forbids the presence of the owner of the car during work or does not give a guarantee, it is advisable to refuse his services. nine0003

Wheel balancing is an important element in monitoring the technical condition of the vehicle. A timely procedure will help not only increase the safety and comfort of driving, but also extend the life of the car, preventing premature wear of the parts of the running system.

  • Author: Andrey