KevinC
09-15-2007, 10:39 AM
My '07 M Coupe's wheels were horribly out of balance from the factory. A quick glance revealed a buttload of weights on each wheel at all 4 corners.. probably not a good thing. I took the car to a local Discount Tire store to have the wheels balanced on the Hunter 9700 machine, which I've had done before with great success. Tire Rack uses this rig to balance all tire/wheel packages, and for good reason.
Well, I get the car back and it's no better off, still shaking like Michael Vick at a PETA convention. A look back at the driver's side wheels showed that ONE of the small weights that were originally installed had been removed during the re-balance.
I returned last weekend to Disco and discussed with another tech. I told him that I thought it was proper to remove all of the weights before putting on the road force machine, which he seemed to agree with and was surprised I'd gotten the car back the way it was. I told him I wanted it redone that way and he said they would. Well, the same tech who did a crummy job the first time did it again, and disagreed that the original weights needed to be removed (after the job - if before I'd have forced the issue) and again I got it back with most of the original weights in place.. much better balanced this time, but still not right, still shaking at several different speeds.
My question is - am I right in assuming that he should be starting with a "naked" wheel? I'd think that he's confusing the machine by starting with a wheel that's already got weights on it.. too much weight. I want to return armed with the facts.
Well, I get the car back and it's no better off, still shaking like Michael Vick at a PETA convention. A look back at the driver's side wheels showed that ONE of the small weights that were originally installed had been removed during the re-balance.
I returned last weekend to Disco and discussed with another tech. I told him that I thought it was proper to remove all of the weights before putting on the road force machine, which he seemed to agree with and was surprised I'd gotten the car back the way it was. I told him I wanted it redone that way and he said they would. Well, the same tech who did a crummy job the first time did it again, and disagreed that the original weights needed to be removed (after the job - if before I'd have forced the issue) and again I got it back with most of the original weights in place.. much better balanced this time, but still not right, still shaking at several different speeds.
My question is - am I right in assuming that he should be starting with a "naked" wheel? I'd think that he's confusing the machine by starting with a wheel that's already got weights on it.. too much weight. I want to return armed with the facts.
