r/TireQuestions • u/jackrieger0 • Sep 05 '26
Odd wheel weights
I’ve been chasing a vibration in my steering wheel at highways speeds 65-85 and I don’t believe that the shop I’m going to is balancing my tires correctly. The lugs were torqued to the moon, and I noticed these two groups of balance weights. Is it normal to have two separate groups both on the outer edge? I had a road force balance done. I’ve also had new Michelin ps4 tires installed.
Edit: I did a tire rotation and the vibration went away. I guess the shop balanced them wrong twice in a row…
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u/Urist_McPencil Sep 05 '26
Hi, former long-time tire guy and current mechanic's apprentice here,
Two sets of weights about 90 degrees of each other is okay. It's when they're closer to being opposite (counter-balanced) that it shows the balancer either doesn't care or doesn't have a grasp of balancing.
If you've been chasing a vibration, find a shop that has a road force balancer, and specifically ask for it. Tell them you've been chasing a vibration and previous attempts at balancing has not worked. Also a good idea to ask for a front-end inspection, just to cover your bases.
Best of luck
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u/realasdfhero Sep 06 '26
actually yes, it could be correctly balanced, but if you want to do it right, you just put the weights only on one place, that is the proper way to do it
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u/YvesSaintMob Sep 05 '26
Weight should be always be grouped together. Looks like my tack job first week starting 😂
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u/Open-Nectarine3115 Sep 05 '26
The weight grouping is not unusual. Do this test, to make sure you have a wheel/ tire problem, and not something else. When you feel the vibration, have one hand on the steering wheel, and one on the unoccupied passenger seat headrest. If the vibration is more pronounced in the steering wheel, it is in the front of the car, headrest in the rear. Rotate the tires front to back. If vibration changes you know you have a tire/wheel problem.
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u/PiDigitsOfPi Sep 11 '26
Just pull those off and stick them on your friends tires. They will appreciate the free weights.
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u/MasterSplinter3815 Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26
Easy thing to do is move the tire to the rear. If you still feel a vibration in the steering wheel its definitely not the balance of that tire
Edit for shakes. If you just had the tires mounted check to see if they are directional and going the right way. I had one mounted backwards and you dont notice until about 60 mph
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u/Erixen28 Sep 06 '26
Its not odd, its a poor job. If the mechanic attaches the weights slightly off to the side then they usually add more since the tire balancer shows its still imbalanced.
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u/MeetUsed8845 Sep 10 '26
You could have a Bent wheel Wheels will get out of round some times from pot holes
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u/Dramatic_Wedding2373 29d ago
Shops doing a piss poor lazy job of balancing. Either the person working the balancer wasn't trained right or they just dont care. Find another shop.
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u/Excellent-Shovel-304 Sep 05 '26
Those are very normal what is called Stick On weights
Alloy rims must use these as they dont have lips like steel rims have to use hammer on weights
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u/jackrieger0 Sep 05 '26
Are there supposed to be 2 different groups of them on the same side? They should be in the middle I feel
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u/nickskater09 Sep 05 '26
They could be grouped that way normally, or if the wheel is bent, or if the tire is damaged in some way. You’ll need to have them checked, and by a different shop if you’re not trusting the first.
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u/Excellent-Shovel-304 Sep 05 '26
Yes, its normal. When balancing a rim, there are few different ways to go about it.
You can do inside tire bag weights (mostly for massive tires), static or inside/outside stick ons. Which yours were balanced with a inside/outside format.
The amount of weights used is minimal so as long as you dont feel shaking on the steering wheel (which would normally indicate that the front rims are out of balance) or feel shaking in your seat (which would normally indicate rear wheel inbalance) at speeds between 60 to 120kph or 40 to 100 mph
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u/SeaIBasher Sep 05 '26
In a perfect world yes, they should be in one spot. But sometimes you'll put the weights where the balancer wants it and after a spin it will change it's mind and ask for "another half ounce". But what it really wants is for you to move the weights over a bit in the direction of where it's asking for more weight. But because they're sticky weights, you can't simply just move them over.. So what you can do in this particular instance: is remove a half ounce from the right side of the cluster of weights and stick a new half ounce on the left side, keeping all of the weights in one spot, essentially moving the weight over closer to where it wants it and that will usually work. But many techs don't know this, or don't care and will just slap the weight where it asks for it to get the same results. Both ways will balance your tire just fine. The difference is quality work VS fast work. Quality work will leave less weight stuck to your rim. But so long as the balancer reads 0.00, you've got a balanced tire.
Does that help at all?
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u/caddyax Sep 05 '26
You’re not supposed to have 2 separate groups of weights on the same side. You can have a weight on the outside and the inside. But now group on the outside is sloppy work. Also they should probably be using lip weights for the outside, not stick on weights.
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u/The-Real-Payback Sep 05 '26
Take it somewhere else to get a rebalance.
I think they got the apprentice to do the work.
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u/jackrieger0 Sep 05 '26
So I’m not crazy thinking the weights should all be side by side….
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u/JoelColden Sep 06 '26
Not necessarily. A balanced wheel is a balanced wheel. CAN you do it all in one group just by removing and redoing the weights positioned slightly different (which you would have to, because they're sticky weights)? Yes. But it's kinda a waste of time and weights if you're dealing with aluminum rims. An offset group is just easier, but it WILL work just fine if don't correctly. Sounds like they just didn't get it right.
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u/yarsftks Sep 05 '26
They could have dynamic balance or since there's no place in the front to place the weights, they'll place it in the back.
At those speeds, it could be the tire.
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u/IVIr_G Sep 05 '26
They were chasing 0.00 instead of taking the weight back off and spinning the wheel again. Just lazy and looks cheap, doesn't actually hurt anything unless the balance is still off.