Advice sought…..

Had 4 new tyres fitted to my Freelander 2 yesterday, came away with long strips of weights on Fr L alloy and Rr R alloy as the chap said this was due to the balancing and alignment calculated by the ‘machine’. Back alloy has a strip of about 6 weights glued behind a spoke. However the Front has a strip of about 15 and is quite visible, to be honest rather ruins the look of the alloy. Now i’m no mechanic or wheel expert, but to me it looks like a rush job and shoddy workmanship coupled with BS to get rid of me. Is this correct? Worried my alloys been ruined.

the Front has a strip of about 15 and is quite visible

Are you saying they’re on the outside of the wheel? If so, I wouldn’t be happy with that. Even if they’re on the back that sounds like way too many to balance a new tyre on an undamaged wheel. I don’t remember ever seeing as many as 6 being required to balance a wheel tbh.

From memory steel wheels should have weights attached to the outside lip. On all my alloy wheels the weights are glued to the inside of the wheel so you can’t generally see them.

It’s not going to ruin the alloys. I think tyres have coloured dots on them that should be used to lign up the tyre with the valve hole. If the fitter hasn’t lined the tyre up correctly it may require more weights than would be necessary if it was aligned correctly.

Edit: http://www.tirebusiness.com/article/20070813/ISSUE/308139967/are-you-seeing-dots-those-color-coded-sidewall-markings-serve-a

@ johnners yep on the both front and rear wheels they are on the outside (most visible) edge of the alloy. The front has a (squint) strip of 15 that crosses about 3 spokes and looks awful. My thoughts were the balance machine is out of calibration or something and hes simply compensated by using lots of weights. I’m worried if i take it back to the same garage and request it rectified then based on the workmanship so far its not going to be any better. However if i take to another garage to be sorted its more ££ out of my pocket.

Yep wouldnt be happy with weights on the outside of an alloy!

Do you get any sort of vibration through the steering when driving? if there’s too many weights it’ll throw the balance out.

Thanks for that link jeffl. According to the tire business guide the coloured dots should be aligned with valves as you correctly stated. 3 out of 4 wheels, the dots are off by a good 8inches or so.

@ toofarwest not as yet. But not been above about 40mph since the tires were fitted.

Do you get any sort of vibration through the steering when driving? if there’s too many weights it’ll throw the balance out.

Aren’t the weights there to balance the wheels?

Yeah sounds like there are two issues. First is that he/she’s not aligned the tyres correctly. This has mean t they’ve had to use loads of weights to counterbalance this and for whatever reason has banged them on the outside. So basically full of wrong. I’d take it back and offer them the opportunity to rectify the problem.

How about a Pic so we can see?

Bear in mind the alloy could be damaged.

cynic-al – Member

Aren’t the weights there to balance the wheels?

They are, so if the wheel actually needs that many there shouldn’t be any vibration (assuming the tyre has been fitted correctly)

Thanks for the advice. It was all arranged through the blackcircles website so I’ll contact them first as it was they who arranged the garage. They’ll more than likely suggest take it back as you have suggested.

Not sure how to post an image. Img button above wants a url?

Yeah sounds like there are two issues. First is that he/she’s not aligned the tyres correctly. This has mean t they’ve had to use loads of weights to counterbalance this and for whatever reason has banged them on the outside. So basically full of wrong. I’d take it back and offer them the opportunity to rectify the problem.

This.

A pic would really help here.

Not sure how to post an image. Img button above wants a url?

You need to post it to a hosting site like Imgur first, then copy the link here.

It’s not going to ruin the alloys. I think tyres have coloured dots on them that should be used to lign up the tyre with the valve hole. If the fitter hasn’t lined the tyre up correctly it may require more weights than would be necessary if it was aligned correctly.

Well you learn something new every day. Sounds like your tyre fitter needs more training

Having fitted a lot of tyres over the years it’s pretty much impossible to badly fit a tyre. The beads are a tight fit. The valve spot being in the wrong place would make about the same difference as one small weight. If you need that many weights the tyres are damaged/defective or the wheel is damaged/defective. If you put that many weights on that weren’t needed you’d feel a bad shake at even 50mph. If it didn’t need that many weights before you changed then there’s something wrong with the tyres.

As for where to put the weights, the machine tells you that; it gives the weight needed and whether to put it on the inside edge or outside edge.

What kind of tyres are they ?

I’ve seen all terrains and muds that come pretty much unbalancable……

Now i’m no mechanic or wheel expert, but to me it looks like a rush job and shoddy workmanship coupled with BS to get rid of me. Is this correct?[/I]

Since you’re not an expert (which it seems no one trust anymore 🙂 ) I’d google why wheel weights are there first… And I reckon the bigger, deeper tread of 4×4’s probably makes it more likely to have extra weights.

The tyres are pirelli scorpion verdes. Described as all season high performance tyres. Bought based on good reviews for wet weather and fuel economy. They aren’t big chunky 4×4 tyres as people are suggesting. In fact the treads seem no deeper than the pirelli p zeros on my other car. @br the first thing i did was google the issue. And drew my own conclusions however as you alluded to in your copy and paste of my original post ‘i am no expert’ so to further my own conclusion thought i would raise the question on here. Its a 2 year old car, surely if the alloy was damaged it would have been raised at service or by the tyre fitter?

As for where to put the weights, the machine tells you that; it gives the weight needed and whether to put it on the inside edge or outside edge.

I thought that was just for steel wheels, alloys are always inside?

Not always, Cougar, you stick them where the machine says within the constraints of the wheel. A lot of modern cars have lots of inward offset so there’s plenty of inside rim to play with so long as the weights aren’t going to catch the brakes. On older designs there’s less offset, so less flat rim inside, and plenty of suitable space to stick weights on the outside when its the best place to put them for balance. If the OP posts pics of his rims a think we’ll see that’s the case.

Front left weight strip

Rear with coloured dot offset

Normal position for them to go, if the number is a little excessive.

oh jeez I thought you meant on the outer edge of the rim! I wouldnt be too upset about that.

The problem isn’t the dot offset, I reckon it’s the tyre that’s badly balanced and needs lots og weights to compensate. They’re well placed.

Sorry if i wasn’t clear about positioning. As they say a picture tells a thousand words. The close up image is what i meant by outside of rim.

That’s exactly where they are supposed to go.

@ edukator is there a way to correct the poorly balanced tyre and get all the weights removed? Apologies if you covered this in previous post.

No, but if you want to avoid the problem future go for a premium brand that will have tighter quality control tolerances. I’ve never seen that brand before.

They are pirelli

Pirelli? I would have thought they were decent?

Oops, sorry, I can’t see. Anyhow, if it drives at 70mph without shake I wouldn’t worry about it.

a good friend of mine owns a company which services tyre machines and balancers for a major tyre fitting company chain. if theres tons of weights on the wheel then odds are they set the machine wrong, or the machine needs calibrating. the way to check is stick the wheel and tyre on the machine and let it run, remember the result and do it again without changing anything. if it doesnt give the same numbers something is wrong. thats what i do on my own machine – i’ve never needed more than about 50grms in a couple of places and that was on a slightly bend rim – are all the wheels like this or just one? the tyre might be fitted wrong, see if it’s fitted straight by jacking it up and pushing it round – if you can see wobble you’re in trouble

who fitted them?

Have you checked the inside of the wheel where it meets the tyre on the opposite side to see if any old previously used weights are still in place. Just a thought

They should remove all old weights before fitting tyres but there are some lazy feckers about.

FWIW our FL2 has a load of weights on, 235/19’s Michelin’s.

Okay thanks to all contributors. If anything i’m certainly alot more knowledgeable about tyres/wheels than i was before.

Its just the front left that the fitter has put a massive strip of weight on. All the others have one maybe 2 here and there. Thats what makes me think it was odd. Does seem to drive fine tho and had it up to 70 on the a1 with no vibrations.