6 replies to this topic

[PaulColeman]

I've just had the 5 wheels of my daughter's 1976 Mini 1000 balanced. I bought a set of new Falken 145R80/10 tyres off the internet and had them fitted at the local tyre place. They used a balancing machine but a couple of the wheels have very large weights on them so I'm now wondering if the wheels are buckled. Has anybody else had similar issues?

Cheers, Paul.

[jaydee]

I had one minilite 35g out while another one was already balanced requiring no weight or just a 5g one

[Dan]

It's quite common to get a lot of balancing weights on a Mini wheel. I wouldn't worry about it unless you find other issues later on.

[CityCharlie]

Even a number of moderns come with the world's supply of weights on unless IME you go for a premium tyre (Put it this way, on the same car of mine Cheapo tyres needed almost a rim's worth of weights, Kumhos around 60% of that amount, Contis were slightly less, but nothing great. Only Michelins required a minimal amount of weight on the rim (read 10g (or was it 15?) in one spot. This has been the case for these tyres time and time again).

to be honest, a buckled wheel on the front of a car will soon make itself known, even if you attempt to balance it out with plenty of weights (or at least this was the case with 3 cars I have had with iffy rims (and the fitter attempting to 'conceal' the buckle with the world's supply of weights).

Edited by CityCharlie, 14 January 2013 - 10:58 PM.

[KernowCooper]

They would have picked up a buckled wheel when you had them balanced, and as already pointed out some of the cheaper brands of tyres do require more balance weights, I was the sales manager for ATS in Cornwall and if we saw a budget range of tyre that required a lot of weights we would move the tyre on the rim and try again.

[PaulColeman]

Thanks all for the replies. I should have mentioned that the wheels are the original pressed steel ones which I had blasted and powder coated. I was wondering if it was the powder coating process that had done it but it sounds as though they could be totally different when the tyres need replacing. The Falkens were £31/each including the VAT and as we're doing a full restoration I'm trying to keep the costs down as much as I can. Maybe in the future we'll buy some better tyres and see what that does to the weights. Or, as it's my daughter's car she may decide to upgrade the wheels in the future to Minilites.

Cheers, Paul.

[CityCharlie]

To be honest (some may disagree here) a Middle of the road tyre is what I tend to go for on a classic or two of mine. The miles the car does will have the decent tyre ageing long before they wear out (Michelins being a great example; I do use them on my modern for this very reason though (they seem to be the only tyres that do a half decent mileage!).

As long as it is not an unknown budget tyre you should be OK. Falken in the past for me have not seemed like that shoddy a brand on previous cars.

Edited by CityCharlie, 18 January 2013 - 11:55 PM.