Road Force Balancing
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A road force balance does exactly what it sounds like. A force is applied to the tire during balancing with a rotating wheel. It's awesome, but very expensive!
Read more about it here:
Hunter 9700
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6,686 Posts
the dealership i work for has a road force balancer and it works .As anyone around the ford circle knows,the new f-150 with goodyear wrangler 18" has an inherent vibration problem,they have to be road forced to get a replacement from the factory under warranty.When i bought my new tires and wheels i had mine done and it took the tech 4 hours to get them all indexed and balanced.they shouldn't charge more than $125 for it as a standard fee,but you won't have to get them balanced again.
Hey Gang:
Thanks for the replies. My car has 126K miles on it, not a Mazda but the same principle would apply. I was getting a nasty shake and shimmy of the steering wheel around 45+mph. I replaced ball joints and tie-rod ends, got new wheel and tires. A lot of the shake and shimmy is gone, however; I can still feel a small portion of it around 55mph.
It's driving nuts to have new tires, wheels and new front end parts with the shimmy alive and well. Thanks for your input.
How many auto service centers don't know what Road Force Balancing is? I have already called on shop in Phoenix and they don't appear to ever heard of this procedure for balancing tires.
Thanks for the replies. My car has 126K miles on it, not a Mazda but the same principle would apply. I was getting a nasty shake and shimmy of the steering wheel around 45+mph. I replaced ball joints and tie-rod ends, got new wheel and tires. A lot of the shake and shimmy is gone, however; I can still feel a small portion of it around 55mph.
It's driving nuts to have new tires, wheels and new front end parts with the shimmy alive and well. Thanks for your input.
How many auto service centers don't know what Road Force Balancing is? I have already called on shop in Phoenix and they don't appear to ever heard of this procedure for balancing tires.
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2,276 Posts
I had a 1994 Ford Probe GT and last year I had new tires put on it, but the car would vibrate above 60mph. I had the Goodyear Tire place check the balance 3 times with no luck. Then I went to a place that had a road force tire balancer and they told me the 3 out of the 4 tires were bad. So i went back to the Goodyear place and told them about my findings from the other shop. Well, the did the road force test too, but only replaced 1 tire. It helped, but it never did drive perfect. The point of this story.......wait, what were we talking about? lol. Best of luck dude. :drive:
Hi Monsoon,
I have a Saturn that has had balance problems, almost from the time I got it. I have snow tires on separate rims that run fine. But my original rims and regular tires have given me trouble. The good news is that a properly done Road force Balance with the Hunter balancer may solve your problem.
But be sure it is done right. I have had a road force balance at least 5 times and 3 of those times it did not help. I suspect it requires a good tire tech that KNOWS how to use the machine. (At least once, I am sure that the Road force was not done at all because the counter guy did not comunicate to the tech what I wanted. ) Read the website information and be sure you know what to ask for!
Since you have new rims, you should not have this issue, but I have had bent rims in the past. A good tech should be able to spot this and let you know.
Good luck.
I have a Saturn that has had balance problems, almost from the time I got it. I have snow tires on separate rims that run fine. But my original rims and regular tires have given me trouble. The good news is that a properly done Road force Balance with the Hunter balancer may solve your problem.
But be sure it is done right. I have had a road force balance at least 5 times and 3 of those times it did not help. I suspect it requires a good tire tech that KNOWS how to use the machine. (At least once, I am sure that the Road force was not done at all because the counter guy did not comunicate to the tech what I wanted. ) Read the website information and be sure you know what to ask for!
Since you have new rims, you should not have this issue, but I have had bent rims in the past. A good tech should be able to spot this and let you know.
Good luck.
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