sportyreptile
Active Member
I've had four new tyres fitted recently at my local tyre shop, he gave me an extremely good rate for Continental Sport Contact2's however it would appear that their "standard" wheel balancing machine is just not good enough for a W140 S class.
I drove away and immediately noticed the steering wheel wobbling away between 50 and 55mph, this died down above 55 but when I hit 70-75mph I got a low frequency drumming type vibration right throughout the car. I spotted this straight away as out of balance rear wheels as when I bought the car the rear tyres where completely shot and the car displayed this characteristic. The steering wheel wobble was obviously a front wheel balance problem.
Took the car straight back to the local guy, asking him to rebalance both front and rear wheels. This he did and said they were "spot on". Again on first drive they obviously were not "spot on".
So taking a deep breath I ventured to the local Kwik Fit ( I know, don't all shoot me at once ) place...."can you balance my wheels better than the other garage can?" I asked. Sure they can, their balance machine can go down to 1 gram weight whereas a standard one only has a tolerance of 5grams.
I now have a lovely smooth ride back again between 50 and 75. So, credit where credit is due....and I was the first to jump on the "monkey with a spanner" bandwagon..... but Kwik Fit really did sort me out, and they torqued the wheel bolts back up correctly!
Anyone else experienced problems getting their wheels balanced to their satisfaction?
I drove away and immediately noticed the steering wheel wobbling away between 50 and 55mph, this died down above 55 but when I hit 70-75mph I got a low frequency drumming type vibration right throughout the car. I spotted this straight away as out of balance rear wheels as when I bought the car the rear tyres where completely shot and the car displayed this characteristic. The steering wheel wobble was obviously a front wheel balance problem.
Took the car straight back to the local guy, asking him to rebalance both front and rear wheels. This he did and said they were "spot on". Again on first drive they obviously were not "spot on".
So taking a deep breath I ventured to the local Kwik Fit ( I know, don't all shoot me at once ) place...."can you balance my wheels better than the other garage can?" I asked. Sure they can, their balance machine can go down to 1 gram weight whereas a standard one only has a tolerance of 5grams.
I now have a lovely smooth ride back again between 50 and 75. So, credit where credit is due....and I was the first to jump on the "monkey with a spanner" bandwagon..... but Kwik Fit really did sort me out, and they torqued the wheel bolts back up correctly!
Anyone else experienced problems getting their wheels balanced to their satisfaction?