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After Tyre Change: Balancing/Rotation or Alignment or Both?


Sabian
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Tyre Noob here.

 

Trawled through the forum, it seems different tyre shop has different practice.

 

What is your normal SOP and what are the charges like?

 

 

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whenever change new tyres, balancing is a must

 

rotate tyres....

if u change 2 tyres only, then the older one will put to the front and newer one will put to the back (usually this case) as u want the older one to wear out faster but to some ppl, they want the newer one to put infront

if u change all 4, no need to rotate liao

 

do alignment only if you feel your steering goes to one side when driving or upon changing tyres, one side is botak (uneven wear)....however no one is stopping u from doing alignment whenever u change tyres if u have deep pockets

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After tire change, the tire shop ppl will balance the wheel by putting the wheel on a rotation device and "free spin" & pasting small counter balance on your rims where it stops. Think scotch taping a 20cent coin onto your standing fan's plastic blade, when you switch on your fan you can see that the one blade which is heavier will rotate in an awkward way. If you let it spin like that long term the shaft will eventually give way.

 

Now the new tire & rim together is like the fan blade with a 20cent coin. What ppl do is add little strips of square metal weights to balance the lighter part of the wheel to balance it.

 

Rotation is a swap between your front 2 wheels(to the back) & rear 2 wheels(to the front). Most ppl will do that on 10k km intervals for even tire wear.

 

Front wheel alignment is about the same at 10k or 20k km intervals. You are the driver, you know best when to do it. Note that roads are gently sloped to the drainage system to prevent standing water after rain. So dun vent your anger at the alignment workshops when your car starts to pull one side all the time. When your car's steering is light, the pull is quite obvious. In an event of an accident like a slight bump from the rear, the alignment will be out also.

Edited by Watwheels
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whenever change new tyres, balancing is a must

 

rotate tyres....

if u change 2 tyres only, then the older one will put to the front and newer one will put to the back (usually this case) as u want the older one to wear out faster but to some ppl, they want the newer one to put infront

if u change all 4, no need to rotate liao

 

do alignment only if you feel your steering goes to one side when driving or upon changing tyres, one side is botak (uneven wear)....however no one is stopping u from doing alignment whenever u change tyres if u have deep pockets

 

most shop balance the front tyres, reason ??? not that the tyres need balancing , instead they balance BECAUSE the driver can feel the virbation from the front tyres.

 

BUT is it the correct thing to do ?? DOES it mean you cannot feel the virbation from the rear tyres , SO u dun need to balance it??

 

some of the old uncle or new tyre man dun even know why they are doing the balancing, they are doing 'dead work' only front 2 balance.

 

drivers? , worst , 80-90 % dun even know what is balancing .

 

 

 

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most shop balance the front tyres, reason ??? not that the tyres need balancing , instead they balance BECAUSE the driver can feel the virbation from the front tyres.

 

BUT is it the correct thing to do ?? DOES it mean you cannot feel the virbation from the rear tyres , SO u dun need to balance it??

 

some of the old uncle or new tyre man dun even know why they are doing the balancing, they are doing 'dead work' only front 2 balance.

 

drivers? , worst , 80-90 % dun even know what is balancing .

 

it depends on the car whether is FD, RD or AWD...how many really can feel rear tyres vibrate whereas most of the feedback from the front and is very noticebly, vibrate can be due to many factors like warped rims, uneven wear etc etc...looks like u have indepth knowledge and experience, may i know u from which trade...tyre????

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true...planned maintenance work is good but also a routine maintenance (i.e. balance every 8-12k depends on ppl preference but usually at 10k) is best recommended rather than u wait for every 2 yrs.... :)

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it depends on the car whether is FD, RD or AWD...how many really can feel rear tyres vibrate whereas most of the feedback from the front and is very noticebly, vibrate can be due to many factors like warped rims, uneven wear etc etc...looks like u have indepth knowledge and experience, may i know u from which trade...tyre????

 

i am doing tyres, but i only want to discuss here, tyre rotating is like a 'top' spinning on a table.

 

imagine how the 'top' will spin if it is unbalance?? (woobleing etc etc) now imagine the top is spinning at the speed u are driving , 90 km/h??

imagine your tyre is unbalance, of couse at the rear u wont feel the virbation , but after a long period, u will have uneven wear of rear tyres.

 

when u do tyres rotation , and swap the rear tyres in front, u might have problem, of course most of the time the problem is over look, they thought tyres is old, normal, etc etc .

 

but 1 thing i can be sure is, even if u go to MAJOR shop like stamford or autobak, the same thing happen, only front 2 wheel is balance . -.-

 

 

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uneven wear on rear tyres are affected by many factors such as overinflate/underinflate air pressure, rim warp, incorrect balancing, suspension, irregular or no rotate n balance. the practice and proven of performing front 2 wheel balancing has been going on for so many yrs and majority of car owners has no such problem. Of course as i said, to have a peace of mind, pamper the tyres abit and dun mind paying abit more for the effort, one can always opt for all 4 wheels to be balance when comes to rotate and balance maintenance....:)

 

 

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Mm... After hearing out all of you, seems like there are quite worthy reasons to do a balancing of the tyres. So how much should one expect to pay for balancing of 2 and 4 tyres? Thanks!

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Mm... After hearing out all of you, seems like there are quite worthy reasons to do a balancing of the tyres. So how much should one expect to pay for balancing of 2 and 4 tyres? Thanks!

 

Wheel balancing can be done during your regular servicing with your trusted mechanic. Wheel alignment is best done every 10k or 20k mileage.

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