Wheel Balancing
At Tyre-Smart we use the Haweka wheel balancing system to mount alloy wheels to our touch screen laser guided balancers. The advantage of this system is that the wheels are fitted to the balancer with finger plates and not the standard cones. The Haweka system simulates the mounting of the wheel to the hub of the vehicle. Quite simply, in today’s world of bigger tyres and wheels, using only a cone to secure the wheel on the balancer shaft does not guarantee correct centring, and an incorrectly centred wheel cannot be accurately balanced. We treat balancing as an art form and pride our self on the quality of our customer’s satisfaction of not having any wheel vibration on their vehicle.
Wheels that are not balanced generally produce a vibration that is uncomfortable to drive and results in premature wearing of suspension and steering components.
To keep the tread in constant contact with the road, the wheel and tyre have to be correctly balanced. If the vehicle was to be raised on a jack and the wheel spun by hand, an unbalanced wheel would always stop at the same point - with the heavier imbalance being of course at the bottom of the wheel.
On the road, wheel imbalance can actually lift the tyre from contact with the road creating vibration through the steering wheel, causing steering and braking problems. This vibration causes high-pressure stress in the steering, hub assemblies and suspension, resulting in excessive mechanical wear and high fuel consumption as well as tyre wear. Damage to the suspension, wheel bearings and steering components is unavoidable if the imbalance is left unattended.
Incorrect wheel balance is easily corrected by using a computerised electronic wheel balancer to measure the imbalance, and then adding small metal weights to even things up. It is essential that you have your wheels balanced whenever you replace a tyre or have a puncture repaired.