HELP!!!! Need recommendation for new tires and wheels

[Rick Hunter]

Could be a tossup, since their rebalancing act will most likely still yield weights in visible areas (even if there are less weights). My bottom line is if you're not experiencing any vibrations (steering wheel, etc) and that the ride is smooth then I wouldn't mess with it for now. Anyways, if they do rebalance the wheels you'll also get the old stupid double sided tape that the installer neglected to remove fully. That would annoy me more than anything else.

If you paint your weights, won't that throw off the balancing?

So where did you end up sourcing your wheels?

 

[GP20]

Now the million dollars question: how is the balancing of the low priced replica rims compared to, let's say, BBSs RS-GT? Would it be totally unresonable (or useless) to ask the seller (either eBay or TireRack) to send you "naturally balanced" rims?

Got me curious about it and I went down and checked the wheel weights on my BBS RGR's. Here's what I have

-0
-1
-4
-8

 

[Shipkiller]

When I put my new wheels and tire on, I had them road forced balance on a Hunter 9750 machine. Each wheel/tire combination only required 1/4 oz of weight and they were glued to the inner surface of the wheel in the exact spot that the machine indicated. Three of the weights (three wheels) were towards the outside of the wheel, behind the spoke, and one was on the inside (car side). I was amazed at how precise the machine is.

You have to really look to find the weights....

When I went back and read your original post, you talked about Tire Rack. If you buy a wheel/tire combination, from them, they do a 'road force balance' on your set before they ship them so they are perfect when you get them...

 

[ZetaTre]

When I put my new wheels and tire on, I had them road forced balance on a Hunter 9750 machine. Each wheel/tire combination only required 1/4 oz of weight and they were glued to the inner surface of the wheel in the exact spot that the machine indicated. Three of the weights (three wheels) were towards the outside of the wheel, behind the spoke, and one was on the inside (car side). I was amazed at how precise the machine is.

You have to really look to find the weights....

When I went back and read your original post, you talked about Tire Rack. If you buy a wheel/tire combination, from them, they do a 'road force balance' on your set before they ship them so they are perfect when you get them...

Yea, I heard a lot of good things about the Hunter RoadForce machine. I think what it does it applies a force to the tire to actually simulate the effect of the tire rolling on the road (as opposed to spinning in the air as regular wheel balancing is.
When I get the tire for the Z3 balanced at Costco, they don't use the RoadForce but a "traditional" Hunter balancing machine. The car feels perfect, so I'm not sure how using the RoadForce will improve it.

Based on what I know, it is very important that:
1) Installer removed the old weights before balancing the wheel
2) Weight are placed in only 1 location on each side (if not it means one weight is balancing the imbalance created by the other weight)
3) After the weights are placed the installer checked that the wheels are, indeed, balanced

 

[Dew's Z4]

Thanks for the input everyone. I guess I'll just live with the ugliness of the weights. I did buy some touchup paint today that I think will at least mask the weights a bit and help them blend into the color of the wheel.

I purchased this set from Modbargains. They in turn ordered the tires from Tire Rack and the wheels from a local performance shop in Brea. The tires were shipped to Brea and this shop mounted the tires and did this roadforce balance on them.

I still don't understand why the tires weren't installed in accordance with the white dot guidance, and THEN balanced using the roadfroce machine, but I guess I'm just going to have to live with this lack of knowledge because no one can explain it to me in a manner I understand.

I now know a whole lot more about tires, wheels and balancing so thank you everyone. Now, I'm trying to get a 4 wheel alignment (I need this, right?)....anything I should know?

 

[ZetaTre]

Now, I'm trying to get a 4 wheel alignment (I need this, right?)....anything I should know?

Not again... Now watch what you started, It's gonna get ugly in here...