[noidea]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

Most reputed centres throw away the old weights or sell them as scrap. A reputed centre like ours will not re-use the weights on another customer's car.

If someone is reusing the old weights on your wheels, you need to question them.

I don't mean to be disrespectful, but why cannot the old weights be used again?
This is just for my academic knowledge.

[Nikhilb2008]

1. Sticker weights: The adhesive wears out once you remove the weights.

2. For normal weights, the clip is a little flexible. When the weight is fixed, it is meant to stay there on the rim lip for the life of the balancing. Maybe 5 or 10k kms. But if you remove it and put it back after 5k or 10k kms, the tension is lost and it may fall off after a few hundred kms which will basically mean that your balanced wheels become unbalanced after a few hundred kms.

If you insist, any tyre shop will use your old weights for you to save on weights but the saving is relatively small so most people prefer to use new ones.

[nitrous]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

1. Sticker weights: The adhesive wears out once you remove the weights.

2. For normal weights, the clip is a little flexible. When the weight is fixed, it is meant to stay there on the rim lip for the life of the balancing. Maybe 5 or 10k kms. But if you remove it and put it back after 5k or 10k kms, the tension is lost and it may fall off after a few hundred kms which will basically mean that your balanced wheels become unbalanced after a few hundred kms.

If you insist, any tyre shop will use your old weights for you to save on weights but the saving is relatively small so most people prefer to use new ones.

Yeah, best for the store to recycle them.
So, has the majority of the tyre dealers moved away from lead weights, Nik?

[nitinbose]

Originally Posted by nitinbose

I can understand scrubbing of tires. What I'm referring is the cuts inside the threads and that too at multiple places. Its so far occurred only in one tyre of four which by itself strange since all four tires do trod the same surface.

I had the tire inspected by the engineer from Continental. According to him, this is caused by chipping when the car runs over rough surfaces and is not a serious issue. Hence Warranty cannot be applicable, though he can arrange for a trade-in.

I'm now left perplexed. I hope this wont cause any serious issues while driving. :-(

There was a puncture in one of the tires, which went unnoticed. Madhus team repaired the puncture and am no longer getting the tire pressure warning.

[nitinbose]

In continuation to my previous post, does anyone have the contacts of some senior person in Continental, so that I could escalate this? In any case, I'm doubtful whether I would choose Continental again.

[Nikhilb2008]

Originally Posted by nitrous

Yeah, best for the store to recycle them.
So, has the majority of the tyre dealers moved away from lead weights, Nik?

Well, not really. Many still use Lead Weights. We are still using Lead Weights. Some people are now using Iron weights as they are more eco-friendly.

[Vipin Kumar]

I took my Fiesta to a small tyre shop to check why my tyres make gud-gud noise while on smooth surfaced roads. The tyre shop people advice me that I go for wheel alignment, and wheel balancing. They go with the assumption that my steering reflects this problem. I do not feel any instability on the steering though. The vehicle is very steady, except for the sound. The Ford people had told me that it is a problem of the tyres, and once I change the tyres, it would go.

But it is too early to change them now. Thus my queries are the following:

Is steering instability a necessary reflection of a problem that calls for wheel balancing?
Can there be just this noise?
Is rotation a must after running for 23000+ kms? I had got only alignment done so far. Is the noise a reflection of this?

My vehicle is still under warranty. I hope Ford people themselves do only wheel alignment, not balancing.
Where can I potentially go in Lucknow, if anyone knows, for balancing? Any tyre mechanic? I am yet to see an elaborate tyre shop with ample facilities here.

Vipin.

[Ragul]

Greetings,
I have a slight bend in one rim of my Gypsy. Can the wheel balancing guy correct this with some gentle hammering or do I need to find a specialist?

What are the dangers of doing this incorrectly from a non-specialist? I heard many roadside shops will just use the hammer and pose a risk.

Any recommended place to do this right? These are steel rims.

Thanks
--R

[Nikhilb2008]

We dont have a proper rim bend removal machine. You may need to look elsewhere.

Wheel Balancing doesnt solve rim bend issues.

[guyfrmblr]

The Apollo Aceleres on my car gave me a very good service for 58K km and it was time to change them. Hence I got Yokohama A-drives installed from Madhus this morning. It was overall a very good experience. Even though Nikhil wasn't there, he had asked Mosin to look into it. Mosin and his team were very professional in their job. The road force balancing was done and the tyres were changed very quickly. Meanwhile Mosin handed me an ipad which had videos about the balancing techniques. I browsed the videos for around 15 minutes. The job was finished in about an hour and it was very neat . I found out the right place for all my future Tyre needs.

[Ravindra M]

Last month I got the front wheel alignment done at Madhus ( Langford Rd) for my Ford Ikon. Rear wheels adjustment not possible I was told.

Everything went well, job done quickly.

However I have an observation. I read the instructions which were displayed on the screen. It suggested to bounce the front of the car a few times inbetween the adjustment process ( to settle the new adjustment properly ?) ... but the guys did not follow that. Upon prompting, they nodded it is not needed. Somehow I am not convinced.

[Ajaybiz]

I got my Swifts wheel alignment, rotation and balancing done again with Madhus and this time the balancing was done with new machine known as "Road Force" which actually balances the wheel with load on Tyre and also suggests the rotation of tyres, happy with the service, next time i have to replace the 7 year old 47K kms done Michelins.
I think Nikhlib2008 was the guy who has taken care of my car this time, thanks mate.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Ravindra M

Last month I got the front wheel alignment done at Madhus ( Langford Rd) for my Ford Ikon. Rear wheels adjustment not possible I was told.

Everything went well, job done quickly.

However I have an observation. I read the instructions which were displayed on the screen. It suggested to bounce the front of the car a few times inbetween the adjustment process ( to settle the new adjustment properly ?) ... but the guys did not follow that. Upon prompting, they nodded it is not needed. Somehow I am not convinced.

Even I have observed this and have got the same reply when I pointed it out to them. My question is why would a manufacturer include this step if its not important?Surely everyone wants as minimum steps to finish the job. Hence if the manufacturer has included this bouncing the wheels step it must have some significance .

Maybe Nikhil can throw some light on why its skipped ?

[shankar.balan]

Originally Posted by Ravindra M

Last month I got the front wheel alignment done at Madhus ( Langford Rd) for my Ford Ikon. Rear wheels adjustment not possible I was told.

Everything went well, job done quickly.

However I have an observation. I read the instructions which were displayed on the screen. It suggested to bounce the front of the car a few times inbetween the adjustment process ( to settle the new adjustment properly ?) ... but the guys did not follow that. Upon prompting, they nodded it is not needed. Somehow I am not convinced.

Not able to understand this. My vehicle is an AWD and every time I go for wheel alignment and balancing, I have to perforce get all 4 wheels aligned and balanced.

[Vid6639]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

Not able to understand this. My vehicle is an AWD and every time I go for wheel alignment and balancing, I have to perforce get all 4 wheels aligned and balanced.

AWD has nothing to do with alignment. Alignment depends on rear suspension design. If the vehicle has an independent suspension setup at the rear, you need alignment. If it is a fixed torsion beam then there is no alignment needed.

Balancing has nothing to do with the car at all. It's to balance the wheels/tyres which by design defects maybe unbalanced.