Changing Alloys & Wheel Balancing

[codexdj]

I'm thinking of shifting to alloy wheels (165/70R14) and not thinking of changing OEM size. Do you think I should balance (and add weight if needed) each wheel after shifting to alloys? Different shops says different things. Some say that I have to realign them, but I do know that I don't have to realign, but not sure about balancing. Some shops say that I should balance & some say that I don't have to. Please enlighten me.

Do we have to balance wheels once in a while anyway? (per 20000 km, etc)

Thanks!!

[jayanathkarunarathna]

I have the same doubt, When I changed my stock rims to alloys, seller said no need to do wheel balance as wheel balance should be done when we change tyres. But not sure he said that because alloys I bought have any defect.

[Rumesh88]

Well if you buy perfectly balanced tires and rims (ie their physical centre of rotation and the centre of gravity perfectly coincide) and if the tires wear out evenly, you need not balance them at all. But in practice these things never happen. You need to balance wheels every time you fix a new tire or if you swap tires from one rim to another. If the tire remain on the same wheel for its entire service life it is better to balance it at least once halfway through its service period. In case if you dismount the tire from the rim for some reason you must make sure to maintain the same orientation when the tire is put back. It is for this purpose that you have a color (yellow/red) dot on the tire.

[jerryda]

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=20

[jayanathkarunarathna]

Thanks