What are the signs for a unbalanced wheel?



Whenever you get new tyres placed onto your vehicle, you need to ensure that all the tyres are balanced and wheel alignment is done before you touch the open road. A regular vehicle maintenance task is to have your tyres balanced. Unbalanced wheels should not be ignored, it could be a driving hazard. With the normal day to day road usage it is already a stressful environment to be in and to put it in plain text, your tyres are the only component that connects you to the road when you drive. The trips you take exposes you to more frequent wear and tear not to even mention the road hazards, like potholes. If your tyres are not balanced, you might end up with a more serious issues to attend to and you will have to-not only replace your tyres but whatever other affected components as well.

This will be a very costly experience for you, unfortunately you have to pay the price to be made aware that by keeping all you component in optimal running conditions will save you on unexpected and unnecessary costs. To avoid heavy tyre replacement costs, it is important to be on the lookout for signs of tyre imbalances with a view to having them balanced as soon as possible. Wheel balancing is the distribution of the weight of the vehicle across all tyres. If the vehicle is not properly distributed across all the tyres, it will causes an unbalanced vehicle.

If the wheels are unbalanced, then it could cause a vibration when you drive which makes it a very unpleasant experience. The first sign that indicates unbalanced wheels is when your steering wheel starts to wobble when you reach a certain speed. Vibration in vehicles may occur for many reasons, such as wheel unbalance, imperfect tyre or wheel shape, brake pulsation, and worn or loose driveline, suspension, or steering components. Foreign material, such as road tar and stones that is stuck in a tyre's tread or otherwise adhered to the tyre or wheel may also cause a temporary unbalance and subsequent vibration. It can also cause the premature wear of the tyres, the suspension, and the steering components. So it is quite important to have it checked when you notice the imperfections. 

Wheels that are correctly balanced will eliminate the vibration and avoid the premature wear of the rotating wheel and tyre assembly. If you are vigilant to any sounds or vibrations on your vehicle, you’ll have a good driving experience all the time. Wheel balancing is a preventive action to not only help you be save on the road but to prolong the tyre life. If the damaged already occurred to unbalanced wheels then wheel balancing will not help correct the issues it already caused. We have compiled a list to help you see the most common issues relating to unbalanced wheels.

The easiest signs you will notice when you have unbalanced tyres is;

1)      Pressure Imbalances

2)      Steering Problems/strain
3)      Vibrations/slight shaking
4)      Shocks and Bearings worn out

5)      New Tyres

6)      Uneven/worn out Tyres

7)      Tyre Noise

8)      Abnormal Fuel usage

9)      Hitting Potholes


We have broken the categories down for a crash induction;


1)      Pressure Imbalances

One of the signs that your vehicle’s tyres are out of balance is vibration at high speeds. Note that if your tyres are losing pressure over a prolonged period and only afterwards corrected the pressure issue your tyres will need to be re-balanced. Unevenly worn out tyres are another cause of tyre imbalance and can make it difficult for the vehicle to stay evenly balanced on the road. This is because the weight is not distributed evenly when your vehicles tyres are worn out. Always make sure that all the tyres have the right pressure at all times on a regularly basis. DO NOT fill your tyres with air after you have taken a long trip and your tyres are still warm, wait about 1-2 hours before filling them up, after they have cooled down. This could cause a huge imbalance and ultimately blow your tyres out while driving.

 2)      Steering Problems/strain

Unbalanced tyres will create an uncomfortable driving experience. To make matters worse, it will make steering more difficult too. A shaky steering wheel can be incredibly frustrating when you’re trying to get from point A to point B.  Easy way to tell is if you cannot let go of the steering wheel even for a brief moment without the vehicle veering off. While it may seem like a simple annoyance, a shaking steering wheel can indicate a variety of serious issues that need to be handled promptly. The ability to make turns and steer the vehicle on the road will now be a challenge. The reaction time of your steering will be sluggish and delayed. Most importantly, you will not be able to steer smoothly in one given direction. This could cause accidents on the road that are unavoidable due to inability of accurate steering.

 3)      Vibrations/slight shaking

One of the earliest warning signs of unbalanced tyres is feeling vibrations coming from the steering wheel. If the vibrations from your steering wheel are starting to bother you, then you definitely have a wheel balancing problem. The slightest imbalance of your tyres on the road will cause vibrations to occur as you drive. The vibrations will start at your steering wheel first and then gradually move over to the entire cabin of your vehicle. There will be a slightly shaking/vibration sensation, including all the seating in the front and back. The vibrations will not be felt when you drive at a slow pace but it will increase the more you speed up. The vibrations are usually vertical and lateral vibrations, which causes the steering wheel to oscillate.

 4)      Shocks and Bearings worn out

If tyres are not balanced a lot of pressure is put onto the shocks and bearings. The longer the issue is not resolved the more the components will suffer. Your tyres will experience more wear and tear than normal. Not only will you have to replace your tyres but you will have to replace multiple components of your wheel assembly on a regular basis.

 

5)      New Tyres

Tyres should be balanced when new ones are brought, it is the buyer’s responsibility to ask for balancing but WHY, there new?? Well they may look perfect and properly balanced, however, there are minor weight variations around their circumference that needs to be corrected through wheel balancing. The rim should also be checked for variations that may cause a tyre to be unbalanced. When tyres and rims are fitted onto each other they are not perfectly nor correctly lined up, this could be caused by human error.


 6)      Uneven/worn out Tyres

A visual inspection of your tyre treads is always a good thing. Your tyre treads can tell you a lot about how well your tyres are balanced. If you have some tyre treads which are more worn out than others, you clearly have a tyre balancing issue going on, this is actually not always the case. A worn out tyre is evidence that your tyres are likely to be unbalanced. A temporary fix might be to rotate your tyres until you have the money to replace the ones that are too worn out. Balanced tyres starts to wear out from the tread. When a tyre is unbalanced, it wears off along the edges, making driving your vehicle a slightly shaking experience. Once you do put on new tyres, make sure you balance them all out.

 7)      Tyre Noise

If you start hearing a buzzing or humming noise that is accompanied by vibration (it usually sounds to me like an aeroplane taking flight in a faraway distance), it’s a low deep sound, and this could be a sign of an unbalanced tyre. If the unbalanced tyre noise gets more pronounced as you accelerate, you definitely have a tyre balancing problem. Nothing makes a driver more unsettled than an irritating tyre noise when you ride with your windows open.

 8)      Abnormal Fuel usage

Unbalanced tyres put more stress on the engine of your vehicle. This imbalance creates more resistance as you drive, so the engine is forced to work harder just to keep the vehicle in motion. As a result, the engine requires more fuel to sustain its heavy operation under these conditions. You will notice this problem as your fuel tank starts to lose fuel faster than usual. This will not be noted immediately but if you know what to look out for you’ll notice that over a period your fuel usage would have increased.

 9)      Hitting Potholes

With the road conditions our country faces on a daily basis whether it be the highway, industrial areas or residential areas there are always potholes and whenever you hit a pothole and driving into and out of rough roads, you need to have your wheel checked regularly for signs of imbalances. Unfortunately a once of wheel balancing service is not a lifelong guaranteed service.

NOTE: Check it before you wreck it!

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Location: Gauteng, South Africa

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