Wheel balancing?

[McBain]

Hi all,

Recently sent my car in for tracking, and wheel balancing as it was pulling to one side, and vibrating at speeds of 70MPH +

They balanced the front wheels, and tracked the car, which certainly improved the vibrations ( but didn't eliminate them ) but the car is still pulling. I'm also noticing some vibrations through the driver side seat.

So I took it back to the garage, and asked them to balance the rear wheels as well. When I went to pick the car up the guy said that he hadn't balanced the wheels because the tyre walls are slightly cracked, and that at speed the tyre is becoming "disfigured due to differing strength around the tyre" - of course, he's advising me I need two new tyres to solve the problem.

This isn't something i've ever heard of, and immediately sounded like a blag. My question is, does this sound like BS, or could this legitimately be the problem ? I'm thinking about going to get a second opinion, as I don't fancy shelling out £100 a piece, if it isn't going to help.

Any advice appreciated.

Cheers

 

[Matt82]

theyve just not done it properly. i had to get mine balanced at 3 places. the first didnt do it properly and also melted a cv boot doing the tracking.

another place couldnt do it, i heard all the excuses

i then went to a garage which belonged to a guy off the GTI board because i wanted the geometry sorted out properly, he also balanced the 'unbalanceable/supposedly buckled' wheels. they are now perfect and wobble free upto 135mph so far.

 

[merlin]

The cracks are only in the rubber, due to the rubber drying out.

The rubber "coating" doesn't contribute towards the sidewall strength.

Rubber is just rubber, it can't prop a car up.