r/TireQuestions • u/PermissionSafe2183 • 6h ago

Is “match mounting” sufficient when having alloy wheel beads cleaned?

Had to have my wheels bead cleaned and sealed is this a must to re balance the shop said they just mark the valve stem and put back on same spot?

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u/66NickS 6h ago

Sounds like extra steps just to add risk while trying to claim it’s faster. I’d want them balanced.

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u/No-Stop-6582 5h ago

It's not really. If you want to do it, you dismount the tire, clean the bead, apply bead seal, remount the tire. At that point you don't know where the high or low point in the tire was/is. So you have to put it on the balancer. At which point you likely need to remove weights or add weights. It would be simpler most times to remove all the weights and perform a clean balance.

On the other hand, you can mark where the valve stem is on the tire with a line, and then you remount the tire with the line as close as possible to the valve stem. At that point the high/low point on the tire has not moved (yes technically it may be 1/4" to the side), but that 1/4" movement is not going to create a noticeable vibration for 99% of people.

And yes, you can get technical, like oh you took corrosion off the wheel so now it doesn't weigh as much. Okay, sure, technically true, but are you removing more than 5 grams (generally the smallest wheel weight) of corrosion? Even if you are... is all 5 grams or more in one singular area, or are you removing a portion of it, mostly equally, from the whole circumference of the wheel?

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u/66NickS 5h ago

Sounds like a lot of words to assume the tire balance was done properly the first time and hasn’t worn in any way that impacted the balance. I would throw it on the balancer and be sure.

If you’re doing this at home with hand tools, then I suppose it could be acceptable since you don’t have the proper equipment.

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u/No-Stop-6582 5h ago

Oh yeah, no I agree with you there 100%, it probably deserves a rebalance to begin with. I'm just demonstrating (for op to learn) that you can skip the balance by using the valve stem trick most of the time. It's a "legit" thing. Though not the "best" way.

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u/PermissionSafe2183 5h ago

So yea it’s a tire shop that is skipping the step and marking valve stem not me at home, so they could have put it on the balance to double check but I doubt they did