Having your new or used tires balanced can be the difference between a good drive or bad drive in your vehicle. Properly balanced and installed tires and wheels improve driver/vehicle safety, reduce tire wear and damage, increase your vehicle’s fuel efficiency and give you a comfortable vibration free ride. If you are experiencing a vibration in your steering wheel and/or through your seat, or if your tires have an irregular wear pattern, your tires may be out-of-balance. We can fix that at GV Tires.
INSTALL AND BALANCE
SERVICE OVERVIEW
If your cars or truck tires are out of balance you’re going to notice this while driving, shaking and wobbling in the wheels and steering wheel is the most common indication of unbalanced wheels. This vibration normally occur after your speed reaches around 50KM per hour or more. But it’s not only the vibration you need to worry about, uneven tire wear will occur and poor control of the vehicle at higher speeds.
WHY CHOOSE US
Greater Vancouver Tires provides additional services at our New Westminster tire shop. Our car mechanics are skilled at wheel alignments, which prevent vehicles from shifting from side to side on smooth roads. Alignment problems can cause uneven tire wear and tread wear to occur much faster. Expensive components of the steering system may also be damaged.
Signs you need a wheel alignment include the car pulls to one side or another, it wanders, or there are unusual vibrations or changes in steering response. The steering wheel may even be crooked. Our mechanics check for signs of misalignment to ensure no other factors are affecting your ride. They can detect subtle changes in wheel angle from the center as seen from the front (camber) or the angle of the steering pivot as seen from the side (caster). Variations in distance between the front and back of front tires (toe-in) can also be examined.
When we balance your wheels, our car mechanics:
- Remove the vehicle’s tires and wheels.
- Mount them on an advanced balancing machine.
- Spin the wheels to see if their weight is balanced evenly.
- Attach small weights to correct imbalances.
- Re-install the tires and wheels to your vehicle.
POPULAR QUESTIONS
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How Do Wheels Get Out of Balance?
Everyday wear on tires will contribute to imbalance. Normal manufacturing imperfections are also a cause: Tires and wheels don’t have precisely equal weight distribution. They’ll be slightly heavier in some spots.
Just half an ounce in weight difference is enough to cause a vibration when you’re driving.
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How Tires Are Rebalanced
Rebalancing is done in a tire shop by putting the wheel-tire unit on a tire balancing machine that takes measurements to pinpoint lighter or heavier areas and making adjustments to account for these weight differences. The best time to get it done is when tires are being rotated, both for convenience and because you might have a tire out of balance on the rear of the vehicle and won’t feel it until it is moved to the front.
Here’s how it’s done:
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- A tire mounted on a wheel is attached to a tire balancing machine.
- The wheel is spun while vibration measurements are taken. This tells the tech if the weight is spread evenly, how much weight to add and where on the wheel to attach it.
- If an imbalance is found, the technician may be able to rebalance and adjust the weights (adding more). But sometimes it requires the tech to also move the tire on the wheel and then rebalance. This is because a heavy spot on the wheel and on the tire can sometimes line up together, causing a greater imbalance that needs to be corrected.
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Balancing Versus Alignment
Though both should be part of regular auto maintenance, balancing isn’t the same as getting an alignment. Alignment is about correcting the angles of the tires so they’re properly positioned in relationship to each other and to the road. It gets the wheels all traveling in the same direction and makes sure the tires make contact with the ground as they should.
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