Tire Balancing?

[Ralph Wiggum]

To you mechanics out there, how often do you recommend balancing your tires? I'm going to rotate them, but I don't know if I should bother getting them balanced. They've got 46,000 miles on them and they're on a 2004 Honda Accord.

Thanks much!

[Rost]

I may be totally wrong here, but I wouldn't worry about it unless they start to shake or vibrate.

[somedays]

worked at a tire shop for a few years.

most tire companies recommend every 24000 but it is not as important as say an oil change. performance cars and trucks should have it done every 24000 because of the tight suspension on fast cars and amount of weight on truck tires. your owners manual will have an idea on this also.

[Jeremy airjer W]

Typically you will not feel a tire that is out of balance on the rear of the car, unless it is really out of balance (if thats the case the tire may have other issues). So, what I do on my personal vehicles is to balance the tires that will be rotated to the front. So in effect they are balaced every 18,000 miles (I rotate every third oil change or 9,000 miles) but I don't have to pay for all four at the same time.

[Macgyver55]

I'm lucky enough to have a balancer of my own (old but works) so I pop them on once a year. Since the kids both have their own vehicles mine tends to get only about 12000 miles a year now.

PS. They are never really very far out of balance and more times than not they need only a very small or no correction.

[ChuckN]

I can't tell you how many times I've lost the weights off my vehicle's tires and didn't know it. When I rotate them I inspect the weights and some are just plain rusted and easily break off.

I would bring the car in for a rotation and just have them balance the tires in the process. I've wasted too much of my own time rotating myself to find the tires thump, or the car swerves right/left after all that work. Then after bringing the car in to get them balanced, it drives like a dream again.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Thanks, guys. It won't cost that much more to balance them while they're rotating, so I might as well get it done.

[Rost]

Good luck Ralph- I'd definately listen to the others advice and not mine! We both learned something new today.

[Powerstroke]

Hey Ralph. I see you're in Crystal so I would recommend going to Discount Tire. The one on 694 and Boone Ave is prolly the closest for you. I have all my tire work done there. They offer a price for lifetime rotations and lifetime balancing.

I have an SUV with MUD tires so they come out of balance more often and need regular rotations. I just have them balanced every other rotation or 10-12K miles. It costs me nothing after the first time. I just drop it off and they do the owrk and say good bye. Its a really good deal especially if you lose a weight or something.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Thanks, Powerstroke. I work about a half mile from there. I'll probably end up buying new tires there before winter. I got some rims from them when I bought the car and was happy.

[Powerstroke]

I've bought 3 sets of tires from them and they also sold me road-hazard warrenty on a set of tires I didn't buy from them. So far they've been a class act and I highly recommend them.

2 weeks ago I had a flat tire that was a slow leak because of the bead seal. I planned on dropping my truck off and coming back later. They said they could fix it asap and I'd be out the door. Problme was I didn't have my wallet. They said don't worry about a $10 repair as long as I keep bringing them my service. I said no problem.

I recommend quailty and fantastic customer service and that is what I've received from them. If you're looking at tires, they are competetive and price-matched the lower price I found on the tires for my wifes car too. I send all my friends there.