Today I just wanted to bring up the topic of Wheel Balancing. Not a fascinating coffee time topic for most people but if you have ever been driving along the motorway with your family in the car and it has developed a terrible ‘wobble’, then it’s something you should be aware of at least.

Tyres are generally speaking made in 2 sections, carefully moulded together to make a complete and even hoop or circle. Unfortunately not all manufacturing processes are entirely perfect and this can create a very slightly imbalance of weight on one side or the other. This is very rare because the tyre manufacturers spend millions on quality control to make sure that the tyres that arrive on your vehicle are as close to perfectly round and balanced as they can. What is much less rare is imperfections in our driving or our driving environment. Yes, even you Jenson Button can stray a little close to the kerb or over that pothole you didn’t see in the dark or under the puddle. Us drivers in the UK are also permenantly hurdling ever increasing speed mountains to keep us at 20mph or less in our suburbs and cities. So with all this careering around our tyres and wheels inevitably take a few knocks and bruises. The strong construction of tyres absorbs most little accidents but after a while they can create minor imbalances of weight across the tyre.

So what you ask? Well at 20-30mph so what indeed but at 60-70mph even a very minor imbalance can lead to quite a vicious ‘wobble’, ‘crabbing’ or ‘juddering’. Your car may vibrate, the steering wheel will shake and it can become quite a noisy and uncomfortable ride for you and your passengers. If you have a heavy car, a 4×4 perhaps, then the effects of a tyre imbalance can be masked by the weight of the car pushing the tyres on to the road, but the effects are still there and your fuel consumption will seriously suffer and other defects could become apparent. You could develop some movement in the suspension system, trouble with your brakes any number of issues.

The crazy thing is that all this can be put right by a very simple and relatively inexpensive procedure – Wheel Balancing. For £20 – £40 you could have all 4 wheels professionally balanced. The garage will remove your tyres, put them on a digital machine that spins the tyre and measures the imbalance and the technician will then apply a small weight to counter the imbalance. Your tyres will then be rolling straight and true again.

When a tyre fitter fits new tyres to your vehicle, they should always check the wheel balancing there and then. We ensure that all tyre quotes from tyrequote.com include wheel balancing as standard, so there are no added extras when you get to the fitting centre.

Just remember, that it’s worth calling in to your fitting centre to check your wheel balancing from time to time – not just when you get new tyres. Some drivers may go a long time between new sets of tyres and some may clip a few kerbs more than others, so save yourself some money and trouble – get your wheel balancing checked and get rid of that wobble!

If only other ‘wobbles’ could be removed for £20-£40!

James