For the experts.

What is a reasonable amount of balancing weights on new wheels with tire that have about 10k miles on them?

Depends on multiple variables, but generally speaking, if it looks like a lot, it probably is a lot

Tires size
Wheel size
Vehicle
Are any of the wheels bent?
Location of weights? (Sides or tape weights)
Size of the weights? (If wrong weights applied, you could have 10 1/4oz weights instead of one 2.5oz weight)

As Silvy mentioned, there is not really an appropriate answer given the lack of information.

Looks like a lot to me. Assuming each weight is an ounce?

Variables.

Had a routine b&r done. Had noticed no issues and I'm pretty anal about little things with my car. Car then went on spring break with my wife. She noticed vibration on the highway. When I got it back I noticed it as well.

Took it back to Discount to have them double check the balance. They told me I had three bent rims and showed me one hopping on the balancing machine. Asked why that wasn't noted originally when the routine b&r was done. Got no answer.

Debated with myself about having the wheels repairs or buying new wheels. Never questioned the diagnosis, even though 3 bent rims seemed weird, but the road suck and they had 90k on them. Finally decided I could buy new wheels for slightly more than repairing them and reduce the chances of not having a successful outcome. Went back and ordered them.

Noticed immediately that the three wheels that had been identified as bent had 8 or 9 weights on them and the fourth had 3. On the highway the next day noticed there was still vibration, though the speed range it occurred had changed


Stopped back in after few days and suggested that I thought the tires could have been damaged by whatever impacts were bad enough to bend rims even though there is nothing visibly wrong with the tires. The guy started wavering and said the tire certificates wouldn't cover that damage. Wanted to have his "best tech" rebalance them.

Tech said the balancing was slightly off, but "not that bad." Could see that they moved the weight a few inches on the three wheels but the numbers stayed the same.

Again, slight change. The vibration around 60 mph went away but now there is worse vibration at above 75mph.

My thought is that it is the tires and that with a half a pound of weights on the wheel there is no way to achieve balance through the entire speed range.

So now I'm pissed. I bought new wheels had no interest in to fix this problem on an older car I only plan to keep a few more years and it isn't fixed. While discount has always been great on the warranty cert thing, they seem to be digging in here. Planning to go back and talk to the store manager this week.

2017 Infiniti q50 rwd with 92k

Think the tires are 255 40 r19. Michelin pilot sport 4 whatever models

Wheel are brand new (see story above)


The wheels identified as bent were the fronts and left rear. They were not bent enough to see a visible indication.


Weird to me that I noticed no vibration before the b&r. Best theory I could come up with was that having two bent on the front rather than the rear made it noticeable.

Your wheels are bent and that's easy to happen on a lower profile tire (even though yours aren't that small) like yours. A bent wheel is going to take a significant amount of weight to counter the hopping that occurs.

If I were to guess, the original tech just balanced them thinking you already knew the rims were bent. They probably balanced them correctly but you're probably always going to feel a vibration if it is that noticeable. The reason it shifted and/or changed vibrating is because the tires were rotated. Either you had less bent wheels on the front now or they're just balanced better now with the recent balance.

Either way, I'm not sure why I would be frustrated with anyone other than the driver of the vehicle that bent the rims…

And reading this again, were all the weights in one spot in the middle of the wheel? That type of wheel (I think) should have a either a dynamic tape weight (weights on inside of wheel on two sides) or tack on weights on inside lip of rim + tape weights near front of wheel (visible through spokes - if applicable).

If it was static tape, with a ton of weights in the middle, it's probably because the rims are bent and I would guess it's a lot of weight.

I'm not 100% familiar with the tape weights they're using now but fairly certain they're still 1/4oz at a time. Don't know for sure though

ttha is on track. If you have 8-9 1/4 oz stick on weights, that's only 2-2.25 oz which is pretty insignificant. Whichever wheel is bent, needs to be on right rear, rotation be damned.

I don't know why they would say a wheel is bent if it doesn't wobble on the balancer. If these are aftermarket wheels, do you have hub rings to center the hub bore of wheel on hub of vehicle?

Photos would help this thread

Think you missed the part about buying brand new wheels. Not really questioning the originals being bent.

I'm upset that I have spent 1300 on NEW wheels to fix the problem and the problem is worse. Talking about the weights on the New wheels. Assuming that new wheels should be pretty close to perfectly round.

Original wheels were stock. New wheels are aftermarket. Of the new wheels are bent, they came that way as the vibration was noticed immediately.

Will take some pictures later when the rain stops.

New wheels is pretty critical piece of info that wasn't necessarily clear.

I'm pretty sure you don't have hub rings, you should get some. They're not expensive. If you buy metal ones, use antiseize to avoid them getting stuck on the hub.

I had a ring get stuck on the hub and I had to figure out how to get it off while on the side of I-10 in Louisiana. I found a wire on the side of the road and managed to work it between the hub and hub ring.

ETA it was clear, I just don't know how words work

I read it again and it still wasn't really clear you actually put the new wheels on. Regardless, I would say the tires are probably fine. Someone would've caught an impact bubble, which I'm actually surprised one tire didn't have given how bad the wheels were allegedly bent.

Wheels aren't perfectly round, same as tires. There are heavier spots in both and countering these discrepancies is how balancing works. I would probably ask to have them road matched and see if manipulating the tire location on the wheel impacts ride of the tire.

Silvy also has a good point on new wheels being hub centric. Not sure if that is playing a role or not but can absolutely impact ride.

If it does not improve, you may want to start thinking about checking out something in the suspension. If you can bend 3 wheels that badly, this could very wheel be related to something in the suspension too.

Wouldn't they install hub rings if required? I will ask about that.

To be clear, I really don't feel the old wheels were bent badly at all. They had some curb rashes, but no visible dents or indications of being bent at all. Visually the tires show no abnormal wear and tear. They also never had as many weights installed as the new ones have. And before the routine balance and rotation I had not noticed any vibrations at all.

I accepted the diagnosis not because I knew they were bent but because roads around Dallas suck and even being careful it is hard not to occasionally hit a bad spot harder than you would like and they had 90k miles of Dallas roads on them.

I only brought up the tires as a possible problem because that was one of discounts possible reasons for the continued issues. They said the tires may have "reformed" to match the old bent rims. Which again seems weird because the rims looked fine.

I know people can downplay their own faults and such. But truly the old wheels were not mangled or anything. There was no incident that I am leaving out where they would have sustained terrible damage. Not trying to place any blame on anyone. I just want the problem resolved because it drives me crazy.

In theory, the new wheels are centered on the hub via the lug nuts. This is called lug centric and works for the vast majority of setups, but not always.

When I installed aftermarket wheels on my Golf, it had hella vibrations when lug centric. When I bought hub rings and made it hub centric, vibrations went away

Will definitely ask them about hub rings.

Let us know the outcome. Hopefully this gets resolved relatively easily. Best of luck!