Road force balancing machine in GTA

[darkteg]

Other than obviously the Audi dealers does anyone know of any other shops in the GTA that can perform a roadforce balance test??

[lowbee]

try clicking on this link http://www.gsp9700.com/pub/search/findgsp9700.cfm

[darkteg]

worked like a charm AISIN MOTOR WORKS in Markham has one and they are half the price of the Woodbridge Audi, thx lowbee

[headshok2002]

Haha, funny you posted this... I spent a fair bit of time trying to track one down. I knew Bramalea tire had one, but last I checked, they charged extra to use it.

I just went to Taunton Tire in Oshawa and they ONLY have a Hunter 9700 Road Force balancer... so every wheel they balance gets balanced using that machine.
Just got my 17" tires installed and balanced there, and the 19's are going on today.
Paid 70 for the 17's... installed and balanced.

[karmad]

Other than obviously the Audi dealers does anyone know of any other shops in the GTA that can perform a roadforce balance test??

Wats it do?

[headshok2002]

Wats it do?

http://www.tirerack.com/wheels/tech/...sp?techid=109&

[darkteg]

ya def not easy to find one i called a whole bunch of different shops looking for one people either didnt have one or directed me to the dealer,

pfaff woodbridge wanted 119 an hour and said it would take approx 2-2.5 hrs...the service desk started off saying 5 hrs ..lol...basically full out price gouge...

so i posted this thread got that link and i got that time and price down to 90 bucks and 1 hr

now i just hope this solves my vibration problem

[headshok2002]

My 19's are now shod with the Goodyear F1's and balanced with the crazy machine.

From what I understand, it's not worth paying any extra for unless you suspect you have a bent wheel. They made no road force adjustments on any of the 8 wheels I had done in the last couple days... the balancing monitor is divided into two halves... the right size shows road force, the left side is regular balancing stuff. So yeah... my road force readings were all in normal range. Glad I didn't pay much extra for this... 150 for both sets (one set being 19's so a bit more $$).

[darkteg]

[QUOTE]My 19's are now shod with the Goodyear F1's and balanced with the crazy machine.

From what I understand, it's not worth paying any extra for unless you suspect you have a bent wheel. [QUOTE]

I was worried id go buy new rubber only to find out my rims are bent that would suck...so basically before i spend the money on new tires, ill spend and additional 90 to make sure i dont have any bent rims, and potentially fix this issue

[headshok2002]

I was worried id go buy new rubber only to find out my rims are bent that would suck...so basically before i spend the money on new tires, ill spend and additional 90 to make sure i dont have any bent rims, and potentially fix this issue

That's actually why I did my 19's on the Hunter... I watched them do my 17's, and I paid 70 bucks to have them mounted and balanced. I realized that NO road force adjustments were made, so I had just paid a bit extra (70 vs 60 for normal balancing machine) for nothing... well, for peace of mind, I guess.

I took the 19's in yesterday for the same reason... I wanted to know if they were bent at all, since I bought them used last year and the car had some vibration. Luckily, they were all straight. I ended up paying 80 for the 19's... so 150 for both sets of tires installed and balanced. Had they needed road force adjustment, I imagine I'd have paid more.

[darkteg]

so got my tires balanced on the hunter yesterday, and the problem is now gone they road forced tested 2 of the tires but found that it wasnt necessary all of my tires just werent balanced properly, and since the hunter machine just does a better job of balancing (much more precise) it solved my problem.

[headshok2002]

Yeah, the hunter is a very good balancer... 512 weight locations or something. Not sure what a regular balancer has. Hrm.

But yeah, my car on these new 17's is smoother than it has ever been since I bought it a year ago (and it's had 4 or 5 sets of wheels on it in that time period).

I hope my LM's are as smooth as the 17's... because last year they weren't--I had some vibration at 120+

[white fish]

has anyone experienced the stick on weights falling off?

[BryanR]

imho, Roadforce balancing is only really required when you are still trying to track down that mystery vibration...

Regular balancer + someone who knows how to actually use it = more than enough to balance 99.9% of the wheels out there.

Bent wheels can be made to read 0-0 on the balancer, but it'll never be 100% balanced.

You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to use their machines, or calibrate them. There's even a huge tire reseller I know of who has yet to get a wheel balanced in the 20 years I've been dealing with them!

[white fish]

so bryan the guys who work for you "know how"
and your machines are calibrated

I just put my 19s on and I forgot how much they vibrate compaired to my 17s

but that could be the spacers :(

[darkteg]

lol i think my main problem was a mix of the original balancing machine that was used not being calibrated and the guy doing the balancing not really giving a shit

[headshok2002]

imho, Roadforce balancing is only really required when you are still trying to track down that mystery vibration...

Regular balancer + someone who knows how to actually use it = more than enough to balance 99.9% of the wheels out there.

Bent wheels can be made to read 0-0 on the balancer, but it'll never be 100% balanced.

You'd be surprised how many people don't know how to use their machines, or calibrate them. There's even a huge tire reseller I know of who has yet to get a wheel balanced in the 20 years I've been dealing with them!

How do you not know how to use a tire balancer? They are simple machines... unless you are just lazy with where you place the weight, I don't understand. Not calibrating them is a different story.

A couple reasons I'd pay extra to road force again:
-you know that the regular 'balancer' part of the balancing machine is top-notch
-you might discover you have a bent wheel... like Bryan said, bent wheels can be made to read 0's on a regular balancer... so you might never know. Same goes for a tire that has significant high/low spots. The road force balancer will tip you off, and might even be able to correct it.

My 19's went on today... other than a bit noisy and rough (Goodyear F1's), the car is smooth as silk. I hope these tires quiet down after a few miles... yeesh. Not terrible, but I'm hoping for a bit quieter...

[BryanR]

so bryan the guys who work for you "know how"
and your machines are calibrated

I just put my 19s on and I forgot how much they vibrate compaired to my 17s

but that could be the spacers :(

They should know by now! And I just recalibrated the machine last week after someone came back complaining of vibration (turns out it was a mix of spacers and excessive tire hop... ...balancer was fine)

Could be the same issue you're experiencing - only one way to find out

[BryanR]

How do you not know how to use a tire balancer? They are simple machines...

simple machines, and there's a really simple way to screw it up

[headshok2002]

simple machines, and there's a really simple way to screw it up

How's that? Haha, I am concerned that people could screw this up... the machine requires about a 4 minute tutorial to use it properly.

[BryanR]

Come by and I'll show you

How's that? Haha, I am concerned that people could screw this up... the machine requires about a 4 minute tutorial to use it properly.