140G Weight Balancing - Safe?

[milanr34]

Hey all,

I bought some rims from a member which were apparently in good condition. Few months went by (tyres were in storage and me overseas for work) I went to a place to fit some tyres on it.

I've bought some ku36's (235/40/18) which fit quite nicely however two of the rims are pretty effd. The guy showed me the rim on the machine as it was wobbling as it was spinning.

He had to put some weight to try and make it work, normally i see up to 40g of weight being added on - however he had to put about 140g on one and 85 on the other.

Going by that the other two good nic will be at the front and these in the rear:

- Is this safe to drive?

- Will the car constantly need wheel balancing/alignment because of it?

cheers for the input guys

[Spunky Munky]

I had a similar probably and was advised that any wobbling whatever on a wheel spells trouble and needed to be professionally fixed before being fitted as it would creates vibrations and imbalance when driving.

So I suggest you get them fixed before driving with them fitted.

Another mate of mine only had minor damage on when wheel and it creates severe vibrations when driving and can actually affect the stability of the car and your wheel alignment too.

Did the seller know the two rims were damaged and had advised you?

[milanr34]

Thanks for the reply,

Well on the day when I came to buy them I asked if they were in an accident or damaged - he said they were in perfect condition, now he claims that I should have tested them within two weeks and that I've caused the damage to them even though there isn't a scratch on them. He keeps altering his mind which is the frustrating bit from the wheel balancer doesnt know what he is doing, those rims are better then the ones he has, i've caused the damage and to the latest "what do you expect from 10yr old rims".

He must have known as there is a reason they were all marked (L Front, R Front, L Rear and R Rear) so he would know where to put them.

I can understand they wont be perfect but I took his word thinking it would be ok.

Ill have to chase it up - do you know any places in VIC?

I've been told by some people its fine however not to exceed the 130km/h mark because then you might notice it.....still prob not worth the risk really

I found a place near my house which aint bad, ill get a quote and let people know just in case.

Appreciate the help bud

Edited March 19, 2013 by milanr34

[sweefu]

Did the person fitting the tyres try rotating them on the rim?

[boostn0199]

You can use them no worries, they get annoying at high speeds with really high vibrations, pretty much was drifting on my front that were wobbling hard on the balance machine and anything over 80ks felt like something had broken the amount of vibrations there were prob did contribute to me killing two racks from the vibrations at 140+ while sideways but yeah they are usuable.

[milanr34]

Rotating them on the rim? Not too sure what you mean, but he put the rim only first and turned them on (prob to test them out) then came the tyre and balancing.

Alright so as long as im not going 140km/h sideways im sweet haha

tnx fellas

Ill post the results when I visit the shop

[GTSBoy]

"Rotating them on the rim" refers to the fact that if the wheel has a mechanical imbalance (ie more weight on one side than the other) and the tyre is also unbalanced, you can minimise the amount of balance weight that you need to add to the assembly to make it stop vibrating by simply rotating the tyre around the rim a bit, re-inflate and spin it up again. Something of a suck and see approach. Once you find an alignment that vibrates the least, you balance it like that and use the least weight.

But your real concern is really whether the wheel is simply a shit poor wheel (ie, phycisally unbalanced, with more alloy on one side than another) or bent/distorted/out of round in some way.

If it is a simple unbalance issue, then I'd piss the wheels off and not use them because there is no reason for such shittly manufactured wheels to be sold, let alone used. if they are damaged, then you need to find out if they can be massaged back into shape without weakening them further (cast alloy is not as forgiving as steel). And then you need to find out if the cost of doing so wouldn't be better spent on new wheels instead. For eg, if it's going to cost $150 per wheel to fix them, and new wheels from the tirerack.com are only $250+freight.......you have to work out what you'd rather do.

[milanr34]

Thanks for the info GTSBoy, they are r34 GTR rims so im presuming they should be good if they were to be put back into shape.$150 i guess it isnt so bad, especially since i just bought the kumhos they are only 2 days old haha

Ill see how it goes. Tnx for the info all

[sweefu]

As GTSBoy said, might be as simple as breaking the bead, rotating the tyre and having another go. Tyres have an orientation on a rim, look on your tyre to see red or green dots/markings, this tells the tyre fitter where to put the tyre (red dot near the valve, etc)

I've had balance pretty far out before, tried rotating the tyre a few times and got it down to 40grams.

[milanr34]

Cheers for the info, haven't had time to look at this prob as ive been swamped with work..

The guys at OTR surely know how to put a tyre on else they would be known by all SAU members.

Will have to do it one of these days.

Also happen to get negative feed back from the seller haha