On my last 4 cars (Hyundai Coupe, BMW320, Mondeo, Vectra) I have had terrible trouble getting wheel balancing issues sorted out, especially on the front where you feel vibration through the steering wheel. I end up going to several different tyre places spending lots of money on balancing, and swapping wheels around at home until I get a smooth ride at 65mph plus.
I just bought a Vectra SRI with 17" alloys and the vibration at motorway speeds is not terrible, but it is enough to annoy you. I took it to get a 4 wheel balance and watched the technician achive 0 - 0 on the machine on all four wheels (not that I know what that means). The two wheels on the front balanced on the first attempt and needed 25 and 35 grams. The rear took two spins and two lots of weights to get 0 - 0 and needed 60 and 70 grams. My locking wheel nuts are 22g heavier than the other nuts and I have replaced them with normal nuts on the front wheels to see if it makes any difference - it doesn't! Wheel bearings should be OK on an 07 plate car with 14K miles. The tyres must have been fitted just before I bought it as thy are new with 8mm tread. They are the Goodyear NCT5 215/50 17 that Vauxhall fit when new.
This is driving me daft - any information anyone can give me would be much appreciated. What does the 0 - 0 on the machine mean? Do these machines need calibrated and if so how often? Anything else anyone can tell me that might help me sort it out? As I said I had this problem with my last 4 cars and if its just that the machine needs calibrating then not many garages have accurate machines because I took the Mondeo to 4 or 5 places before it was sorted.
Or is this normal and I am just too fussy? The vibration is similar in severity to perhaps an electric toothbrush where the batteries are running out. From past exerience an weight free wheel with this kind of vibration needs 15 to 25 grams to sort it out. Thats about how far out of balance I think it is, but as I said I saw the guy get 0 - 0 on the machine.
Thanks for any advice.....
Ralph
Edited by -ralph- on 25/07/2008 at 22:25
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0 - 0 means that the machine deems there to be no correctible imbalance remaining. Each number represnts the mass which the machine is asking the operator to add onto the inner and outer rim (either respectively, or counter-respectively, depending upon how the machine is laid out)
One potential problem arises with the accuracy with which the wheel is centred on the balancing machine spindle compared with how the wheel is centred on the hub on the car.
Find somewhere that uses either a vehicle specific adaptor plate, or an exapanding mandrel rather than a pair of cones for wheel centreing.
There are many misconceptions about wheel balancing being speed specific - it isn't. The imbalance is just that the wheel's mass is off-centre or off axis. You feel it at different speeds because the imbalance force increases with speed squared, and the car responds, or resonates at certain speeds.
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the only thing that i could suggest is an on car wheel balance but don't kjnow if you can still get this nowadays it balances the wheel to the suspension, the 0 0 is the amount (or not) that the wheel requires to be in balance, these machines are only as good as the tech that is using it and even then they are usually kids with no interest in quality of workmanship and as to when the machine was last calibrated who knows ! they are not subject to any testing so no need to calibrate find yourself a good independant trye retailer tell them your issue's then ask for them to sort it, after they have done the balance and you have tested and they are not good enough then take the owner/manager out for a test drive to prove the fact and stick with them, they would appreciate the repeat buisness A good customer is worth more than a unhappy customer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Ralph, check out a company called Vibration Free at www.vibrationfree.co.uk they are balancing specialists who do on vehicle wheel balancing - this is meant to be much more thorough as it can also compensate for any out of balance problems with the final drive.
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To put my point about centreing into context, assuming a 20kg wheel and tyre assembly is balanced only 0.1mm off centre on the balancing machine, that equivalent to a 10 gram error at the rim of a 14" wheel. It's a significant effect.
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There are factors other than wheel balance which can cause steering vibration. Consult a Vauxhall dealer.
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