Tire Rotation and Balancing

[RICO8458]

Hello All:

I went to the shop for a tire rotation. the mechanic took the two back wheels off, then performed a new tire balancing on them, then placed them up front. the 2 tires that were up front he just moved them to the back with doing a new balancing job. now, when i am driving the car, it feels different and trembles, shakes at 80 to 85 mph, whereas, before that my car would cruise real smooth at those speeds. my noob question is this: when doing a tire rotation, do you balance all four wheels again, or just the 2 that are going up front?

Thanks Mates for your experienced input and feedback.

[ToyotaToday]

Originally Posted by RICO8458

Hello All:

I went to the shop for a tire rotation. the mechanic took the two back wheels off, then performed a new tire balancing on them, then placed them up front. the 2 tires that were up front he just moved them to the back with doing a new balancing job. now, when i am driving the car, it feels different and trembles, shakes at 80 to 85 mph, whereas, before that my car would cruise real smooth at those speeds. my noob question is this: when doing a tire rotation, do you balance all four wheels again, or just the 2 that are going up front?

Thanks Mates for your experienced input and feedback.

Yes, you would balance all four tires. Why would you balance only 2?

The only thing I can think of is your car is out of alignment, thus causing some of the tires to wear unevenly. Once they were all worn unevenly, they made better contact. Now you swapped them around, the uneven wearing does not match your "off" wheel alignment. That's what I think it is. Does that make sense.

Or, they did a poor job balancing your wheels. They actually made it unbalanced.

[V(Sportivo)6]

Inside the Camry Handbook theres a tyre rotation that includes the interchange with the spare tyre to prolong tyre life. Tho for memory this has to be done every 10k kms. Most likely beyond these k's the tyre placement becomes more set in its ways. Personally I would expect that all tyres to be re-balanced and aligned.

[darksparkz]

Tell them about your problem, they should re-balance it for free.

Vibrations at high speeds are mainly caused by unbalanced rims, so they should probably re-balance it and maybe need to align it as well.

[RICO8458]

yeah, that sort of hits the nail right on the head. i will go get a wheel alignment, as i was a bit off. car was pulling to the left prior to the rotation anyway. and also balance all 4 wheels again. that should do it.

[Old Dood]

I have noticed allot of places only do a 2 tire balance on a rotation. Where I take my cars they know not even to question me. At first they were trying to do a 2 tire balance untill I requested 4. They have no problem with this request. The thinking is the rears do not need a balance since they are following. This is what I have been told anyways....I never agreed with it myself.

[Novice_cardude]

Whenever I have a ticket with a rotate and balance, I ask if there is any vibration in the steering wheel. If there is not, that is an indication that the front wheels are already balanced, so I do not balance them on the way to the back. I always balance the ones going on the front to ensure no vibration. Unless you have steel wheels only have your wheels balanced when you have to. The chunks that clip weights take out of alloys will casue the metal to start deteriorating, resulting in a wheel leak... It takes a while but the more chunks of coating that are missing, the better chance of that metal breaking down.

As for the wheels with sticky weights, they never balance out very well... The sticky bits of the weights are hard ... not impossible, but hard to get off the wheel, and most of the techs I work with will just put the new weights on top of the old sticky stuff. This causes the weights to fly off and cuase vibration. So again only have your wheels balanced if you have a vibration. Or if you're doing a rotation i'd have them at least balance the tires that are going on the front so you don't feel vibration that you hadn't felt in the back.

Wow that was a long write up.

[Old Dood]

Good explination tho cardude...

Still having steel wheels I can understand that reason...having alloy wheels can fall out of balance allot easier. Since they only can balance one side effectively.

[RICO8458]

Just did a new balancing again on all fours. big difference. ride is great again. the key is to balance all wheels when rotating tires with high miles on them. thanks guys.