[ghodlur]

Thane BHPians,

Need your help in finding the best Wheel alignment/balancing centers in Thane. I could locate two one is Premji's Tyre plus at Balkum opp Colour chem and the other at Pawarnagar bus stop (last) I dont remember the name. Premji's quoted me 400/- for WA and 400/- for WB whereas the other shop has quoted 1K for both.
Any other better shops???. I am planning to do the WA/WB tommorrow or on Sunday.

[iamswift]

Originally Posted by Nikhilb2008

SmartWeight® Balancing Technology

See this. This is a new technology being introduced to reduce the amount of lead weights that is used on a wheel. I've seen from my experience that it actually does make a difference.

In western world, I think lead is replaced with zinc now. More environment friendly.

BTW, on going through the thread, the general perception I get is, whenever you remove the tyre (for say, puncture), the tyres are to be balanced.
What I understand is, this is applicable when the tyres are already balanced - each will have its own weights and hence balancing to be done.
Balancing need not be done where none of the tyres have weights (from balancing) in it but removed for puncture.
Is my understanding correct?

Another question: Whats the average charges for allignment, balancing? I'm just wondering, in process of extending the tyre life, will we end up paying more in allignment and balancing than the cost of new tyres?

[ghodlur]

I had got the wheel alignment/balancing/rotation done for my Fiesta which had covered 7.2K kms on the odo on last Saturday at Premji's Tyre plus, Thane. Overall a good experience, was the first car to be taken in the morning. The entire process took one hour and costed me Rs 800/-. Got a free exterior car wash & Tissue box as complimentary. The technician Hussai was quite good at doing things and the owner Mr Mark Premji at hi affable best.
The spare wheel has now moved in the front and one of the rear tyres has been kept as spare
I have attached the car alignment report. Maybe nikhilb/GTO/Other expert BHPians can try to make it simple for me to understand. All I was told by the technician was there was a toe out in the steering wheel, rest of the alignment was good. I tried to understand what he meant by that but could not grasp.

[mooza]

What are the probable causes for tyre shimmy ?

I see so many cars (cabs, especially) with their tyres wobbling, particularly at the rear wheels (I do not know if the occupants even realise this, unless the tail of the car is wagging a lot ). Most of the times, they continue to drive on, regardless.

While toe adjustments can get disturbed due to the constant strain on the tie rods (especially on bad roads), I could not fathom the real reason for tyres to behave this way.

What is the remedy ?

[anarkanu]

Dear All, I have been having this issue since past year or so with my NHC 2005 driven around 29K km. The car wobbles/vibrates at the front at only low speeds(20-30 kmph) once accelerated, the same is not felt. This initially happened after long out of town drive to Kerala last year. Got it rectified once sent for servicing thru usual Wheel balancing/Alignment. Therafter it was fine while in city.

Lately it's happening more often, last trip i went to Coorg a couple of months ago and after returning got the same problem while returning , got the same checked and corrected from honda workshop, but this time wthin 10 days it started happening again this time while city driving only.

Also just to inform I had got 2 new OEM tyres changed just before going on the coorg trip due to side wall/wear n tear issues. Put the new ones at the back and fixed the older 2 at front. Could it be because of the same?

Please advise as to what possibly could be the problem. Had got the suspension also checked during the service and that was fine too as per the service guys. Also please advise if anyone knows of good place in Bangalore to get this problem checked and rectified once and for all.

[Jaggu]

How much has these tyres run? Old worn out tyres can cause wobble even if balanced. Also do check if the suspension and steering components are in good order.

You can try putting the new tyres in front axle and see if the wobble goes away, if so but 2 more tyres so that you have a full set of new tyres.

[Nikhilb2008]

NHCs came with Goodyear GPS2. They could be a culprit. They are trouble prone tyres.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by anarkanu

Dear All, I have been having this issue since past year or so with my NHC 2005 driven around 29K km. The car wobbles/vibrates at the front at only low speeds(20-30 kmph) once accelerated, the same is not felt.

I had the same issue. There is no problem with suspension, wheel balance or wheel alignment. Its the tyres. The Goodyear tyres had run around 30K and it was the culprit. When the tyres were replaced, the problem went away.

[aajtaksabsetej]

I have a Civic which had Goodyears stock in them.They were worn out so got it replaced with Yokohamas 225/45/17 A Drive.I had sent my car to Honda before the upgrade and the technician told me that it is the Goodyear which causes alignment and wobling problems.Now Hondas mainly come with Michelin fitted in them.Just get good set of rubber and your problem would be resolved.

[guptavis]

Hello all,

I have a 2007 Alto with stock JK Ultima XP and done 22k Km. Wheel balancing and alignment was done in every service. Last service was in Dec2009 at 16k KM.

I have noticed that the rear Tyres have worn out more on the inner sides. Especially the rear left tyre. Its good as new on the outer side and very worn on the inside.

The first two pics are of the problem tyre- Rear Left
The third is rear right which is also slightly uneven but nothing major.
the fourth is of front right tyre. Both front tyres are as good as new and perfectly even.

I believe there are no rear toe-in or camber adjustment for Alto. If i dont get it fixed soon it will cause problems. How can i correct this uneven wear?

[Hashim]

@guptavis: Get it checked at an independent wheel alignment shop and don't depend on service center as they might not do a good job in alignment. Any tyre shop equipped with digital alignment machine will do it good. Just check the comp. screen in their machine and confirm the results.

You should also do tyre rotation afterwards for even wear on all five tyres.

[guptavis]

Thanks Hashim,
Will take to an independent soon. Will they be able to fix the rear wheel toe-in or camber ?
Or is there some other way of correcting this?

[humyum]

Looks like the front had some problem with alignment and hence caused the uneven wear which resulted it them being sent to the rear and rear good ones being sent to the front ( Assumption )

There is no adjustment of any kind in the alto for the rear suspension.

Anyway no one other than a Maruti Authorised service station will be able to solve this problem of yours 'if' there is something wrong with the rear suspension.

[abhibh]

Originally Posted by guptavis

Thanks Hashim,
Will take to an independent soon. Will they be able to fix the rear wheel toe-in or camber ?
Or is there some other way of correcting this?

The problem seems to be with the front suspension / alignment. Was tyre rotation done recently ? If yes then they can fix it faster and better than service center. Try the wheel alignment guys in sector 32. The guy name is Sharma Alignment. Ask anyone in sector 32 and they will let u know.

I recently got my axles changed and my car's camber was waaay out it, and it was late like 9pm so couldn't get the alignment and camber fixed. Within 50KM's my tyres lost more than 50% of their life. Got it fixed from those sector 32 guys and now car is fine. Have already driven more than 3000KM since then and its perfect. Going to Swap the rear with fronts tomorrow.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by carboy

Basic fact of the matter is nothing will go wrong if you do something more frequently than adviced in the handbook. For eg. You do can do an oil change every 3000kms instead of 10000kms, but is it neccessary. Most regular oils (mineral not synthetic) stay good upto 10000 kms atleast. So you are essentially wasting money by doing oil changes when not required. Likewise, I think balancing also should be done when required, not some arbitrary mileage figure which has no basis.

I went through the links. Only the first link talks about balancing - the others don't. Even the first link is pretty vague. From your first link

It doesn't say what is a "regular interval".

To counter that, take a look at these links
Car Talk

Car Talk

Car Talk is a radio show on NPR in the USA.

Replying to an old post of mine.

I changed my tyres today at Supertyres Mulund. I talked to the senior mechanic at this shop today (the guy who does the alignment and balancing).

His opinion about balancing was the same as mine (from what I researched). Balancing needs to be done only when the tyres are removed from the wheels. On Tubed tyres, this will be when you do a puncture repair. On tubeless, this will be never.

He said to get alignment typically needs to be done every 5K when driving on Bombay roads, but balancing typically never.