Wheel balancing

Steering vibrations is a consequence of your tyres not being balanced. This shimmy or vibration normally occurs at speeds of over 30 mph the vibration will become more intense as the speed increases so at 60 mph and above it will feel like the whole car is shaking. In most cases if you feel the vibration and shaking on the steering then it?s your front wheels that need balancing and for those that feel it on their rear then it?s the rear wheels that need balancing.

Keeping you wheel balanced not only extends the life of your tyres and suspension it also makes the driving experience a lot more comfortable and easy.

The reason why these vibrations occur and why you need wheel balancing is not so apparent although every tyre looks perfectly round and rigid. There are actually there are heavy spots that cause balance problems in the wheel.

If the wheels are not balanced, driving can be very annoying and this imbalance has a knock on effect on other components including suspension and tyres. Tyres that are not balanced could wear unevanvley and may need repalciing prematurely..

The proper procedure of installing a new tyre is to balance the wheel before installing it on the vehicle. This is done on a computerised balancing machine similar to the one in the picture on the left. The machine spins the wheel and is able to calculate where the imbalances are, these are the heavy spots are. It then calculates the amount and location to place the weight. Wheel balancing weights are either clipped onto the edge of the rim or stuck on the rim.

Not all problems to do with steering vibrations are because of an imbalance. You will also experience similar faults if the tyre has gone of shape whereby the structure has been damaged. If one of your rims has been buckled, etc. The best course of actions is to have the wheels and tyres checked immediately as it could be a very serious issue. Often wheel balancing weights can drop off which will mean the wheel is no longer in balance if this is the case it can easily be corrected by re-balancing and adding new weights.