wheel balancing on the car

[craggy]

when i had my escort and upgraded to alloys and no matter how many garages i took it to , the alloys although balanced correctly, the car would never stop vibrating at 50mph -60mph , until one mentioned about getting the wheels balanced on the car. it was rare back then , and it took along time to find someone who still did it, i did find one and it used to be an 80 mile round trip to get it done.

when they balanced them on the car it drove great, and ive always wondered why it would make a difference like that, is it actually better to balance wheels on the car , there must be something else that would be getting balanced out also when its done, why is it not done anymore and did anybody else use to have this done , if not then just ignore me as a stupid old f*rt

[squaddiefox]

have you had the tracking done recently? or is one of your alloys damaged? both would cause the vibration, along with balancing.

[homeless]

some used to have the drive shafts go out of balance, felt worse when accelerating...basically your balancing the hole side at a time inc the drive shafts.

Remember to mark the wheel in relation to the studs/nuts on the hub so if the wheels are ever removed they can be put back in the same place.

[Big Bob]

When I were a lad we used to balance on the car but it went out of favour when front wheel drive became the norm.

If the wheel/tyre is in balance then something else could be out of balance, disc, hub, shaft, or a bearing fault (unlikely to be a bearing if it is cured by on vehicle balance). I have known vibration induced by incorrect tyre pressures (as little as 5psi), over tightening wheel nuts and wheel not sitting square on the hub due to dirt, rust or deformed rim.

The main problem with balancing on car is if the wheel is moved it is no longer in balance.

[stu8]

might be your drive shafts or tracking does it knock going around corners

[oto]

when i had my escort and upgraded to alloys and no matter how many garages i took it to , the alloys although balanced correctly, the car would never stop vibrating at 50mph -60mph , until one mentioned about getting the wheels balanced on the car. it was rare back then , and it took along time to find someone who still did it, i did find one and it used to be an 80 mile round trip to get it done.

when they balanced them on the car it drove great, and ive always wondered why it would make a difference like that, is it actually better to balance wheels on the car , there must be something else that would be getting balanced out also when its done, why is it not done anymore and did anybody else use to have this done , if not then just ignore me as a stupid old f*rt

I remember me trying to balance shagged out discs this way years ago when I couldn't afford to change them. It didn't work, by the way, as there wasn't enough room for all the lead. You can probably buy discs nearly as cheap as a good balance job these days!