Have tried several times to get wheels balanced. Sometimes when force-balanced they do pretty well, but never perfect. Last 2 times, they are way off at speeds below 40. Is the machine off? Is there something wrong with one of the wheels? The G tire company people are nice and try to get the job done. They have not charged me, as these are their tires, but I can’t stand the bouncing steering wheel and I don’t think it could be safe to let this go on. Help!
Do you have wheel covers? Are they on when the tyres are balanced? Is there any noticeable wave of the tread? How is the air pressure?
Tire balance is seldom a factor below 40mph…More likely, you have a defective or damaged tire, broken belt or ply separation…Are these stock wheels and tires?
I’m with Caddyman, except that an internal tire problem would show up under road force balancing.
I’d schedule a look-see on the rack of a reputable independently owned and operated chassis shop. I’ll wager that they’ll find a worn out chassis component or two.
When I was at the Porsche dealer, they told me they had a similar problem with a customers car. They found out that the lubricant they used to mount the tires was causing the tire to slip on the rim while driving, causing it to go out of balance after driving a short distance. Ask the tire place to mark the tire and rim after balancing and then drive it for a little bit and check to see if the mark has moved.
Once a tire is balanced, it’s balanced - but it might be “out of round”. Road Force can determine how much “out of round” the tire (and perhaps the rim) is. But it doesn’t correct it.
There are a number of things that can go wrong when balancing or Road Force measuring:
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The rim might not be properly centered Some rims have bigger centerholes than what is normally provided with the standard machines. If the shop didn’t purchase the extra adaptors, they can try to balance all day, and will never get it right!
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It is not uncommon for some vehicles / drivers to be overly sensitive to vibrations - and the normal Road Force limits will generate complaints.
But I suspect the problem is not tire or wheel related. Usually these show up between 50 mph and 70 mph. I suspect there is something else.
I see that pseudonym starts with “Sierra” so, do you have a GM pickup? If so, there have been some reports of center u joint problems.
I once had a tire that seemed to go out of balance randomly. The shop would spin balance it and all was well. As I would leave the shop, the tire would show signs of unbalance. Short ending – Whenever the shop deflated the tire the first time to reposition it on the rim to optomize the balancing, they did so by simply pulling off the valve stem like most shops do. What they didn’t know was that the inside half of the stem remained free in the tire which would cause an out of balance condition at a different location every time the tire stopped.