Ford Focus (1998 - 2004) - 02 1.6 Wheel Balancing

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Sat 22 Nov 2008 13:37
02 1.6 Wheel Balancing - ripjean
Hiya all

I was carrying 3 other passengers, last week, and when reaching about 75mph on the motorway my steering wheel started to vibrate.

Looking on the web, a common cause was wheel imbalance. So I booked it into a national chain that deals with tyres and exhausts but before i took it in I decided to take it on a spin to check. There seemed to be no vibration on this spin at 75mph.

Could the vibrations have been caused because of the load from the passengers?

Anyway I took it in and they done their (free) check and said I was 20g out on one tyre and 10g out on the other tyre. So I had these done at a cost of £12 (which is about average I think).

Not had a chance to take it out on a fast road yet but would such small weight differences cause such vibration?

Thanks for any help with this
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Sat 22 Nov 2008 13:57
02 1.6 Wheel Balancing - mfarrow
Not had a chance to take it out on a fast road yet but would
such small weight differences cause such vibration?


Absolutely, wheel and tyre balancing should be done once a year to get rid of out-of-roundness caused by general wear and tear.

20g is fine.
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Sat 22 Nov 2008 14:09
02 1.6 Wheel Balancing - Chris S
A small difference can also cause the wheels to be out of balance if the weights are loose.
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Mon 24 Nov 2008 19:32
02 1.6 Wheel Balancing - ripjean
Well, I drove the car to work today and the steering feels a lot more fidgety at low speeds after the balancing and there is a small vibration after 30mph which was not there before.

Could the wheels now be "overbalanced"? I much prefered the way it was before, so could I remove the additional weights that the garage fitted, or should I take it back for them to retry or am I just being paranoid!

Thanks
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