Rotating and Balancing

[Adverse2Change]

I finally got around to getting the needed tools to rotate my own tires among other things... but am I better off paying a shop $10-25 to rotate/balance each time? I'm only worried about the balancing part, as the rest of it isn't a problem. What all is involved in balancing the tires?

 

[V6muscle00]

Yea u should def get your tires balanced before you put them on. To balance a tire a mechanic will add little weights on the rims to compensate for any imperfections the tire has. Since the tires arent going to be perfectly round, this allows the whole wheel to spin in a more balanced fashion. Idk what happens if you don't have them balanced but i can guess your treads would wear unevenly or quicker than normal.

 

[Adverse2Change]

Well the things is, they are already balanced... my car only has ~5k miles on it currently (not the stang). I want to save a little $$ for other things and rotate them myself; however I don't want to mess up the balancing of the wheels...which I guess it really wouldn't matter if I was only rotating them.

If things start messing up I can just take it in for a balance.... hopefully far down the road!

 

[Skymarshal]

Rotating the tires is no problem- all you need is a jack and a pair of jackstands.

Balancing the tires needs to be done professionally. There are gizmos you can buy that lets you do the job yourself, but they involve balancing the wheel on a central pivot and adding weights as needed. A pro will use a far more accurate dynamic balancing machine that will spin the wheel and tell exactly where and how much weight to add. Normally a new car's tires are already balanced, but you'll still need to have it done every so often due to tire wear, lost weights, etc.

The next time you buy tires, spend the extra $10 per tire for lifetime rotate/balance. It's the best money you'll ever spend, since it's a job really not worth doing yourself.

 

[BlackGT4.6]

You need to have your tires balanced every 6 thousand miles. It will cause the tires to vibrate making the car shake as you go down the road. If you go to Wal-Mart service center you can pay $30 bucks atleast in my area and they will rotate and balance the tires. After that they do it for free for the life of the tire.

 

[Roland69]

and for a rear wheel drive you bring the back tires strait up to the front and the front tires get crossed over and put on the back..

 

[97sally6]

unless they are directional tires.. then only rotate front to back on the same side unless you get them remounted on the opposite side

 

[DTNODYA]

unless they are directional tires.. then only rotate front to back on the same side unless you get them remounted on the opposite side

+1

That is how I rotate tires on every vehicle I've ever had ... directional tires, radials, I think it's the best way. The X method, I've read with radial tires it can screw with the threads inside the tire because it is making them rotate two different directions. I just stick with front to back / back to front on each side. But don't X directional tires or it can be dangerous.

 

[Fast_Mustang87]

I used to balance tires in my shop class back in school, i never liked doing it. I would just have a perfessional do it

 

[Silentst2000]

You don't need to have your wheels rebalanced when you rotate as long as you don't knock a wheel weight off.



Rebalance the wheels every 6 k?????

 

[Quintz71]

the reason for the re-balance is that tires will not really ever wear evenly, even with just normal use. About every 5-6k miles you should go ahead and have your wheels/tires rotated and balanced, or like previous said, when you get an oil change since it could be included for a small price and possibly your car will be up on a lift anyway.

 

[Adverse2Change]

Anyone have a diagram of jacking points for an independent rear suspension vehicle? I got frustrated last weekend when I was planning on rotating that I ended up giving up and getting my windows tinted instead.