Tire balance

carroll952 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2005 7:44 pm

This may seem a stupid quesiton, but do the tires need to be removed in order to have tire balance inspected?

Thanks,

Justin

WV(0)IIIIIII(0) · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2005 7:48 pm

The only stupid question is the one that is never asked. Yes the tires do need to be removed and put on the machine to check the balance unless you have nailed the rim and you can see a sway by spinning the tire

carroll952 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2005 7:53 pm

That's what I thought. The dealer told me they inspected tire balance, but I realised that unless they searched my jeep, they probably didn't find my lugnut lock. What a bunch of liars lol

Justin

Edvalencia · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:20 pm

carroll952 wrote:

That's what I thought. The dealer told me they inspected tire balance, but I realised that unless they searched my jeep, they probably didn't find my lugnut lock. What a bunch of liars lol

Justin

Don't be so sure. I had new tires installed and forgot to give them the lugnut key (Goodyear dealer).
When I realized it and went back to the shop, they already had all 4 tires off.

Of course, knowing the dealers, you can never tell.

Ed

carroll952 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2005 8:31 pm

Edvalencia wrote:

carroll952 wrote:

That's what I thought. The dealer told me they inspected tire balance, but I realised that unless they searched my jeep, they probably didn't find my lugnut lock. What a bunch of liars lol

Justin

Don't be so sure. I had new tires installed and forgot to give them the lugnut key (Goodyear dealer).
When I realized it and went back to the shop, they already had all 4 tires off.

Of course, knowing the dealers, you can never tell.

Ed

Interesting. I wonder how they got it off. I'm pretty sure the dealer did a sunshine inspection though. Or at least test drove my liberty some, noticed I had less gas than when I gave it to them. I'm going to take it to a tire place to get them to balance and rotate them in front of me. Rule that out as a possibility, and if it fixes it, totally awesome and time for wheeling!!! That's what pisses me off the most, I can't take it out til I'm sure.

Also my lugnuts don't look like they've ever been touched. Certainly not like the ones that I took off to put the locks on in place of. But that's hard to tell and hardly substancial.

Thanks for the info

Justin

USPLibby · **Joined:** Thu Jul 28, 2005 12:29 am **Posts:** 377

I don't want to give people tips on stealing rims, but there are only a limited number of keys and patterns for lock nuts. The dealer probably has all of the stock Jeep keys in stock, or has a few that are "close" enough.

carroll952 · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2005 9:13 pm

That's true, just none of my normal lug nuts look like they have been touched. The 5 that I took off and replaced with the locking ones have grooves where I turned it to remove them. Granted their tools may do nothing to em and my be a better fit than mine. Still gonna have someone else actually do it in front of me.

Justin

Tokyojoe · **Posted:** Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:41 pm

For future reference.

Take a grease pencil and mark your lugs to the wheel with it so you know where they were tightened to before taking them into the dealer. If all of the lugs are still in the exact same place, then you know they didn't take them off.

A small piece of tape might be too obvious for the maintenance guy and he would remove it.

Also, you should have your maintenance sheet when they took your KJ in for the checks. They always write the mileage on it before they assume the keys. Check that each time before you leave the lot.

**Always inspect your vehicle before you leave the lot...especially on oil changes.

WV(0)IIIIIII(0) · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:10 am

I used to be a service writer and I have seen first hand how a mechanic will rush through a job because he is only going to make a couple of dollars on it. And if the customer askes they will swear with their right hand raised to the good lord that they did the job 100%. So it is best to take some measures until you find a shop that you can trust.

Cjeremy635 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:53 am

Yeah, the worst thing is when they put on your tires and don't even balance them! I had a set of tires I brought up to NTB yesterday to put on the Libby and asked them how much to switch them over. They said $4.00 a tire and I thought that was too good to be true. I watched the guy off and on switching out the tires and when he was through I asked him about balancing. He said it wasn't on the ticket to do...which makes no since at all. I had to explain how retarded it is to change out tires and not balance them. This cost me an extra $13.00 a tire...but the fact of the matter is these people know better than to send you on your merry way with out a balance. Either way..it was worth it..I am now running 265/75R16!

Slapshot · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:02 am

Actually, there used to be a way to balance wheels without taking them off your car. They stopped using this machine a long time ago. Back in the day they did it this way because it was thought the balance would be more true if the wheel was balanced with the hub. Evidently it did not make a difference seeing as all current balancing practices involve removing the wheel...
Some old shops, with old owners, still have these machines lying around, and some are still functional...

If you talk to a retired mechanic, he will probably be able to tell you much more about them.

longarm · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2005 9:19 am

Tokyojoe wrote:

For future reference.
**Always inspect your vehicle before you leave the lot...especially on oil changes.

LOL!!! Ya, especially on oil changes. I took my Focus into the dealership for an oil change (Lifetime free oil changes) and now a week later I see that I have an oil spot on my garage floor. WOW! I got under it and found that the technician who changed my oil only tightened my oil plug hand tight. I had to tighted it with a wrench myself.

carroll952 · **Posted:** Tue Aug 16, 2005 10:03 am

longarm wrote:

Tokyojoe wrote:

For future reference.
**Always inspect your vehicle before you leave the lot...especially on oil changes.

LOL!!! Ya, especially on oil changes. I took my Focus into the dealership for an oil change (Lifetime free oil changes) and now a week later I see that I have an oil spot on my garage floor. WOW! I got under it and found that the technician who changed my oil only tightened my oil plug hand tight. I had to tighted it with a wrench myself.

Wow. Kind of off topic, but what kind of focus do you have? I had a 2001 LX that went towards my libby :-)

Thanks for all the helpful advice.

About the old method of balancing tires, a buddy of mine told me about it, seems like it would cost more for the same effect. Guess that's why they don't do it anymore, unless it's a place with old equipment.

Justin

carroll952 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 17, 2005 5:15 am

Took my KJ to a tire place today (that would be tuesday), they rotated and balanced my driverside front tire. I had about 1750mi on the tires at that time and haven't taken it off road yet. The dealer told me last Thursday that they checked the balance on the tires and there was no problem. Somehow I doubt it would go out of balance in 5 days.

Justin

KJKev · **Posted:** Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:56 am

At every dealership I've worked in, we've had a kit that will remove any type of locking lug nut that was ever made.
So don't be too hasty in guessing how it was done.
If you're not sure, go ask them exactly how they got the tires off.
If they can produce this kit, then you'll have your answer.
KJKev

carroll952 · **Posted:** Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:57 pm

Yeah after much thought I figure that they could've gotten them off. What I looked at though was the other lug nuts, the didn't have any scratches or grooves that a wrench would leave on them. (they were new at the time, virgin lugs? lol) Also the fact that when I had the balance done 5 days later and one of the tires balance was off. 5 days seems a little short for the balance to go wrong for normal driving. Most of that the jeep sat cause I worked for 4 of those. Also after the other shop removed the wheels there were noticable marks on the lugnuts from their wrench.

Justin

Sean · **Posted:** Wed Aug 17, 2005 3:25 pm

I rotated my tires in my garage at about 9K... do I need to have them taken somewhere to get balanced? I figured because they were new it was ok, althought i has been offroad before, if that matters.

Tire balance

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